Universities who don't take action to end hazing and sexual assault in their colleges could face fines under a Labor government.
The Red Zone report, released this week, detailed hazing and long-running sexual humiliation in Australian universities, particularly at residential colleges.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said the same excuses from universities and colleges had been heard for too long.
"I want to be very clear, if we need to force colleges to do the right thing by their students and staff, we will," Ms Plibersek will say in a speech on Thursday morning.
"University residential colleges have a legal duty of care to their students and staff.
"If university residential colleges fail to fulfil that duty of care, Labor will compel them."
Labor is considering financial penalties for residential colleges and universities.
The report, released on Monday, describes rituals including male students masturbating into female students' shampoo and body wash bottles.
Others include students being encouraged to post graphic and embarrassing photos about their sexual activity online.
It also details games where students are egged on to consume more than a dozen drinks without a bathroom stop, causing them to wet their pants, and practices such as locking new students in bathrooms and tipping vats of dead fish on them.
Ms Plibersek said out of almost 600 sexual assault complaints over five years - including more than 100 rapes - just six students were expelled.
"I was at uni about 30 years ago. And 30 years ago we saw the same kind of complaints, and heard the same kind of responses from residential colleges and universities," she says.
"If universities can't ensure colleges are safe, they should sever links with them.
"If some residential colleges and universities refuse to treat this seriously, governments must make them."
She told ABC radio that Labor would work with state governments on ways to crack down on residential colleges and universities who refuse to clean up their acts.
Universities last year vowed to overhaul how they responded to sexual assaults and harassment after a 2016 report by the Human Rights Commission found 1.6 per cent of students from Australia's 39 universities were sexually assaulted in the previous two years.
