Many German Medical Students Say They Do Not Know How to Report Sexual Harassment

The researchers combined three sources of information to examine how medical schools in Germany handle reports of sexual harassment. They ran an anonymous online survey of 5,681 medical students from 44 faculties. Most respondents, 77.8%, were women.

They also asked medical-school deaneries about their reporting and support systems. Thirty-four of 42 faculties invited to this part of the research responded. Finally, the team reviewed publicly available documents and faculty websites for information about policies and support.

The study was cross-sectional, which means it captured experiences and institutional arrangements at one point in time. This design can identify links between factors, but it cannot prove that one factor caused another.

In the student survey, 44.2% of respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment during their medical training. Among students who reported such an experience, only 12.7% said they had formally reported an incident. Nearly half of affected students, 48.5%, said they did not know where or how to report.

The faculty responses painted a more encouraging picture of what institutions said was available. Most participating faculties, 88.2%, said they had a dedicated advisory service for medical students. Nearly all, 97.6%, reported having institutional guidelines. But fewer offered ways to report online: 29.4% had an online reporting form, and 8.8% had a chat-based option.

The central finding was not simply whether services existed. It was whether students knew about them and felt able to use them. The researchers found that awareness of support and the perceived ease of reaching reporting routes were particularly low among students who had experienced harassment.

Students who described a greater psychological burden from the experience were more likely to report it. The reported association was strong: the odds of reporting were 3.48 times higher, with a 95% confidence interval from 1.67 to 7.27. Prior non-medical vocational experience and being at a later stage of medical school were also linked with reporting, though less strongly.

Students' satisfaction with the reporting process was linked to whether they believed their report led to consequences and whether they received psychosocial support. The same factors were also linked with a greater willingness to report again in the future. These are associations, not proof that consequences or support alone would make someone report.

The authors propose four areas for faculties to strengthen: building awareness and skills, making reporting options more visible, treating psychosocial support as a core service, and providing transparent processes and feedback. In everyday terms, that could mean making it clearer where to go, offering easy-to-reach ways to ask for help, explaining what happens after a report, and communicating what action was taken when possible.

These proposals are not tested interventions in this study. The research did not show that adding online forms, chat options, or other strategies would improve reporting, trust, satisfaction, or rates of harassment. The authors say future research should evaluate whether these measures make a difference.

The findings also reflect medical education in Germany and may not apply in the same way to other countries, health professions, or educational settings. The supplied information does not say when the data were collected, how students were recruited, how harassment was defined, or the response rate for the student survey. Those missing details limit how fully the results can be interpreted.