More than one in every four US college women say they have encountered sexual assault at university campuses, according to a new survey.

The survey released Monday was conducted by the Association of American Universities which polled more than 150,000 students at 27 top universities last spring.

“The primary goal of the survey is to help [universities] better understand the experiences and attitudes of their students,” said AAU President Hunter Rawlings.

The survey showed that 26.1 percent of women said they had experienced “penetration or sexual touching” by graduation as a consequence of physical force or incapacitation.

Also 16.9 percent of freshmen reported such abuses and they were considered the most vulnerable as the rate steadily fell each year to 11.1 percent for seniors.

Of 780,000 students contacted, only 19 percent responded to the survey and researchers said the results could be skewed because those who did not answer may have been less willing to report assault.

Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust called the results “deeply disturbing,” noting, “I find it extremely distressing to read these survey results, as I know others will.”

“But we must confront the realities documented by the survey as we develop a comprehensive effort to combat sexual assault, one that engages our entire community in a sustained and effective manner,” she said.

American colleges and universities have gone through years of broad reforms in sexual-assault policy, encouraged by student activists and the Obama administration.

In a letter the Education Department sent to every US college in 2011, schools were warned that they risked federal investigation and financial penalties if they failed to protect students from sexual assault and violence under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which calls for gender equity.

In January 2014, President Barack Obama said one in five American women experienced sexual assault while studying in college, citing a study of two campuses.