A Capabilities -based Approach to Exploring the Intersection Between Gender Based Violence and Higher Education in the United Kingdom

We draw from Amartya Sen’s work on capabilities to explore how the intersections between gender based violence (GBV), universities and women’s positioning may act as enabling or disabling factors to women achieving their potential. Universities are significant sites for GBV yet there is a paucity of evidence highlighting the voices of victim-survivors in university settings, particularly within the UK. This paper examines interview data with nine victim/survivors of GBV, who were studying at a UK university during, or after experiencing GBV. The data reveal that universities can enable women to have a sense of agency and control over their own lives while at the same time neoliberal educational systems, unequal immigration laws and policies, and a lack of society and peer empathy can act as disabling factors. Social arrangements within and outside of universities need to be transformed to enable female students to reach their potential, especially for those experiencing gender-based violence and abuse.

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