More than one out of 10 students at the nation's top-ranked Seoul National University has been sexually harassed by their peers or professors, a survey showed Tuesday.
The student magazine SNU Journal said 16.5 percent of the 200 students surveyed said they have been molested or been in other sexually offensive situations. A little over 25 percent said they have witnessed or heard of others experiencing the same.
The most common type of harassment involved unwanted physical contact at 57.6 percent, followed by verbal harassment at 45.5 percent.
More than half, or 54.5 percent, of the victims said the offenders were other students who were their senior. Some 27.3 percent said they were harassed by professors.
Most of the victims did not confront the offenders directly, with 66.7 percent letting the incident slide and 30.3 percent suggesting they should stop. A little over 24 percent said they thought it was their fault.
Some 58 percent of those who did not confront the offenders said they thought doing so would not solve the problem, while 48.4 percent said they had not expected to be harassed. Some 45 percent said they were afraid of rumors spreading.
Nearly 60 percent of those who witnessed or heard of others being harassed said they didn't intervene. The most common reason was because the incident didn't directly concern them at 41.8 percent.
SNU has been at the center of mounting concerns over sexual harassment at universities. In December, a math professor at SNU was criminally charged with groping nearly a dozen of his or other universities' female students between 2008 and 2013.
In February, sources at SNU said several male students allegedly touched their female peers' private parts inappropriately at a retreat in 2012. (Yonhap)
