University of Melbourne Student Avoids Conviction

University of Melbourne biomedical student Bao Phuc Cao was sentenced to a 12-month adjourned undertaking without conviction on March 13. Cao avoided jail after pleading guilty to secretly filming a woman beneath the cubicle walls of a public restroom in Docklands, and was not convicted.

Authorities found similar content of more than 100 women in Cao’s possession. Prior to the March conviction, Cao had been prosecuted on two previous occasions for similar offences, and had been sentenced to a community corrections order in May last year.

The student’s enrolment status at the University of Melbourne has not been confirmed to the public. This lack of clarity regarding the offender’s enrolment raises concerns for the safety of students on campus.

The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) Women’s Committee member, Keiyona Shankar spoke to Farrago about the committee’s current actions regarding Cao and other student safety concerns.

“We’ve had a few people from the women's community on campus as well as the broader community in general reaching out to us saying they’d like more information on what’s going on and that it feels a little less safe on campus than it used to before,” Shankar said.

“We are actively in conversation with the university and the student union, trying to find the best avenues to make the community feel safer.”

When Farrago attempted to contact the University of Melbourne regarding Cao’s current enrolment status, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gregor Kennedy stated the University has “legally binding confidentiality and privacy obligations that prevent [them] from confirming any details regarding an individual student”.

This is the only piece of information Farrago could obtain regarding the current enrolment status of Cao at the University of Melbourne. Cao was evidently not expelled from the University of Melbourne after his two previous convictions.

Safety Resources Available on Campus

There are a plethora of resources available to students on campus to ensure they feel and are safe.

In a statement to Farrago, Professor Gregor Kennedy listed the several resources available to students.

“Students and staff safety and wellbeing at university are our priority. Students have access to a range of support services to seek assistance or raise a concern,” Professor Kennedy said.

Most notably, the ‘SafeZone’ app is free to download and can be used to contact campus security to report an incident or seek a security escort. The app also features a direct contact to first aid, wellbeing assistance, and emergency services.

“[The Women’s Committee] pushed for the reform that got us [SafeZone]... for whenever you feel unsafe on campus and need someone to accompany you, whether that be during the day, late at night, you’re able to call for help and you’re able to call for people to accompany you to get to a safe place,” Shankar said.

However, a student safety survey conducted by Farrago found only a third of students surveyed had downloaded the app, and only 16% of those surveyed felt safer on campus because of it. Yet, only a limited amount of students completed the survey.

Students can also directly call campus security on (03) 8344 6666 or 1800 246 066 to request or book a free security escort. These security escorts can be used if a student is feeling unsafe moving around or near the Parkville or Southbank campuses. Campus security is present on the Parkville campus 24 hours a day.

Campus security can also be contacted via blue emergency help phone booths located across Parkville, Southbank, Burnley, and Werribee campuses. These phones are activated by pressing their “emergency” button, and should be used if one feels threatened on campus, needs security, or requires security information.

Another notable safety resource for students is the Safer Community Program. Students can contact them from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm via phone on (03) 9035 9675, email safer-community@unimelb.edu.au, or meet with them in person at Stop 1.

The Safer Community Program provides support and advice regarding inappropriate, concerning or threatening behaviour, such as sexual assault, sexual harrassment, bullying, discrimination, domestic/initimate partner violence, and stalking. Students can contact the program if in need of assistance when reporting and dealing with such acts of harassment.

The advice and specialist support is provided under the provisions of the University’s Student Conduct Policy, the Appropriate Workplace Behaviour Policy, or the University’s Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Policy.

Students are advised to contact the Safer Community Program before submitting a complaint or grievance form. The University’s website defines a complaint as a student’s concern regarding ‘an action, decision or omission within the control or responsibility of the University’. A grievance is a matter to be investigated according to formal grievance processes, regarding ‘allegations of misconduct where disciplinary action against a student or staff member may be the outcome of an investigation’.

Another avenue to report harassment is the Speak Safely Portal, which allows students to report inappropriate behaviour and access support, whilst having the choice to remain anonymous when making said reports.

The Speak Safely Portal has many accessible features to aid the reporting process: an encrypted chat function that supports (optionally anonymously) discussing the issue with an expert, record confidential diary notes that can later be converted into a formal report, and provides an optional matching feature creating the ability to submit a report as a group one.

Southbank’s Struggle to Ensure Safety

On the Southbank campus, these resources aren’t as accessible to students, leaving them with few options to resolve harassment claims.

UMSU Southbank Campus Coordinator, Tirion Luff-White spoke to Farrago about her concerns for Southbank students who struggle to report the harassment they’ve experienced. She believes half of her UMSU efforts consist of supporting students by connecting them with the correct reporting services.

Luff-White stated she has seen Southbank students struggle to contact the correct resources when in need of reporting an incident, resulting in them contacting their studio teachers, who for a long time weren’t appropriately trained to deal with these processes. This led to students being sent the incorrect resources and contacts when wanting to make reports.

Luff-White was previously left to independently email several university staff members, the Safer Community Program, and UMSU Advocacy when needing to report harassment she had personally experienced on campus.

“I didn’t [receive] clarity from any of them,” Luff-White stated.

The majority of harassment reports by Southbank students tend to be dealt with in-house by the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. This creates delays in the reporting process, at times creating delays of up to six-months.

On top of this, Luff-White stated a lot of Southbank students don’t have the time to make harassment reports, given how compact their timetables are. She detailed how if students take time out of their day to report harassment, it may cause them to miss class, possibly upsetting their teachers who are usually in charge of performance ensemble placements, potentially impacting a student’s career.

“The power imbalance between teachers and students is diabolical at Southbank.

Luff-White supports the greater presence of University resources on the Southbank campus. Southbank students either aren’t aware of the support they can access, don’t want to have to visit Parkville for support, or don’t have the capacity to seek support.

The Safer Community Program is widely unknown to Southbank students and is only at the Southbank campus for a few hours every Wednesday. This conundrum leads to students contacting student representatives like Luff-White, their teachers - who don’t have the appropriate training or capacity -, or having their experiences of harassment go unreported entirely.

The University of Melbourne’s security now operates through a centralised call center, meaning Southbank students can’t directly call Southbank security, and instead have to contact Parkville security who will then contact Southbank security. This process often costs Southbank students an additional 15 to 20 minutes.

External Influences on Student Safety

The Australian Government introduced the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence in January 2026, which outlines seven legally enforceable standards for high education providers to effectively prevent gender-based violence, including in student accommodation.

The National Code consists of seven standards that aim to support universities in maintaining safe environments, having timely responses to gender-based violence, and ensuring widespread accountability across universities.

This initiative was in response to the 2023 Australian Universities Accord Interim Report by the Department of Education, which concluded there was an urgent need for the Australian Government to improve student and staff safety in university communities.

In response to this code, The University of Melbourne has created the Whole of Organisation Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response Plan, which at the time of publishing this article, has been submitted to the Higher Education Gender-Based Violence Regulator for approval.

This plan aims to reinforce the University's procedures stated within its pre-existing Respect Action Plans, whilst also aiming to introduce new initiatives such as ‘improving the visibility of, and information about, University support and complaint options across residential settings’.

This issue is not unique to universities. Women’s safety has been of concern, and there isn’t enough being done about it. According to the federal government, approximately one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence.

Sherele Moody, founder of The RED HEART Movement and Australian Femicide Watch, and journalist of 28 years spoke to Farrago about the current concerns for female safety.

“There’s no way that a woman, any woman, can feel safe or should be expected to feel safe when we have perpetrators of violence or violence-aligned crimes in our midst,” Moody said.

Moody described how the Cao case isn’t a detached incident, specifically in relation to how Australia’s systems have responded to it.

“I think it’s about how the legal system holds up the rights of perpetrators before it holds up the rights of victims or potential victims.”

“Most of these acts are perpetrated by men. The highest rates of perpetration are against women. This is not a woman’s problem to solve. It’s really up to men to do it. We as women can only keep women safe, and I think that we need to be turning this conversation around and putting it back on men,” Moody stated. 

Image source: The University of Melbourne