University of Sydney bans staff from having sex with students

One Sydney university has taken an extraordinary approach to sex, issuing a ban at the institution. The move is in stark contrast to other NSW-based universities.

Horny educators at the University of Sydney have been banned from sleeping with their students, while other ­universities have maintained the rights of professors to have sex with the young adults they teach – just so long as they jump through the necessary bureaucratic hoops.

The “no sex with students” edict was triggered by staff concerns there was a “policy gap”.

Under the rules introduced last year at University of ­Sydney that a student’s lecturer, tutor or research supervisor are warned “sexual or romantic relationships are never appropriate”.

The University of Sydney has banned teachers from sleeping with their students. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

In contrast, numerous other NSW universities allow staff to have sexual ­relationships with students if they are declared to management and are appropriately managed in line with “conflict of interest protocols”.

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said the decision was triggered by the expectation that staff must be aware of the inherent power dynamics between a student and a tutor or lecturer.

“This was not in response to any specific cases, but instead to address policy gaps that had been identified, including around staff relationships with students,” she said.

“That’s why we consider sexual or romantic relationships are never appropriate if a staff member or affiliate is a student’s current educator, research supervisor or has any responsibility for or influence over their academic outcomes or other interests.”

University of Sydney sociologist Dr Salvatore Babones said the University of Sydney’s sex ban was in keeping with societal expectations.

“We are dealing with not-quite children, but young adults,” he said.

“Socially speaking, a 40 year-old adult having a relationship with a 19-year-old student — even if legally it was consensual, in practice we would consider that questionable.”

In other cases it could become more grey like if a young tutor developed a relationship with a student of the same age but he said nevertheless things could get messy later on when they broke up.

“Many people think it is fine for a PhD supervisor to fall in love with his or her student, that all sounds very rosy when it is happy, but what happens when it doesn’t work out.”

While the new policy allows students to befriend teaching staff, the University of Notre Dame’s official policy says staff must not “engage in personal relationships of any kind with students.“

Meanwhile at UTS, a spokesman said “consensual relationships between staff and students at UTS are not banned per se” and the policy states they are “strongly discouraged”.

University of Newcastle Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Mark Hoffman.

The University of Newcastle Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Mark Hoffman told The Daily Telegraph banning sex was unnecessary.

“The University of Newcastle does not believe it is appropriate to ban consenting relationships between adults,” he said.

“The university has procedures in place to manage such situations, particularly the potential power imbalance between teaching staff and students.

“This would typically involve alternative supervision or teaching arrangements that would enable the student to complete their studies without disadvantage.”

The University of NSW does not ban so long as it is declared, as does the University of Wollongong, which strongly discourages personal relationships and puts in place a number of measures when they do occur.

A spokesman said that included a “reorganisation of duties to minimise contact, for example, ensuring the staff member is not tutoring, supervising, assessing, providing pastoral care, employing, or professionally responsible for administering activities in which the student is involved”.