K Shanmugam told parliament today that there are no 'free passes' for university students for those who commit sexual misconduct.
Throughout academic years 2015/16 and 2017/18, there were a total 56 cases of sexual miscounduct reported to the autonomous universities, where 37 were eventually reported to the Police. Of these, 13 were given conditional warnings while two were given stern warnings.
Shanmugam reiterated the stance that Police take a case-by-case approach and excercise their discretion based on the unique facts of each case.
What is missing is further data to support the claims. Yes they have shown that there are cases where prosecution and jailing was meeted out to offenders from the universities.
As a point of comparison, the Ministry of Education should also provide statistics on such cases involving non-university tertiary institutions, and how many of the perpetrators were charged or released with conditional warnings.
Only then will the public be satisfied that the law does not favour one with better academic qualifications.
