The Universities UK (UUK) Taskforce (2016) report, ‘Changing the Culture’, has been seen as a turning point in UK universities’ responses to gender based violence (GBV) (Richardson and Beer, 2017). Institutional changes have occurred as a response to grassroots feminist activism and resistance to GBV, focusing on sexual violence, harassment and ‘lad culture’ in universities (Cobb and Godden-Rasul, 2017; Lewis, Marine and Kenney, 2016). This article will argue that the neoliberal marketization of higher education, concurrent with the persistence of misogyny and patriarchy, creates an environment where GBV is normalised, and feminist voices are marginalised and silenced. Interviews with academics show support for victim/survivors on campus often falls to particular academic staff. When initiatives for change, led by institutional management, are limited to protecting the ‘reputation’ of the university, it furthermore falls on academics to challenge not only GBV, but also the reactive and uncritical responses offered by institutions. We contend that national, institutional and individual responses to GBV must consider the meaning of ‘cultural change’ beyond policy reform, zero tolerance campaigns and condemnation of GBV. Attempts to enact true cultural change must analyse the broader issue of sexism, its intersections with further structural issues, and the ways in which this plays out within the neoliberal institution to the detriment of students and staff
