Why academics want staff banned from having sex with uni students

A bonk ban between lecturers and students in NSW has prompted calls for Victorian universities to adopt a similar policy.

Academics are calling for a blanket ban on Victorian university lecturers having sex with their students.

The push for campuses to overhaul “vague” policies that allow sexual staff-student relationships comes after a NSW university issued an outright ban on educators sleeping with students.

The University of Sydney introduced the new rule following similar concerns that a policy gap left young people exposed to sexual harassment or coercion.

RMIT Sociology and Gender Studies Professor Denise Cuthbert said Victorian campuses should follow suit to stop power imbalances in sexual relationships from unfairly influencing a student’s grades or performance.

“These relationships should be presumed to be non-consensual and disallowed,” she said.

Prof Cuthbert said she “completely agreed” with the University of Sydney’s approach because it brought the institution up to speed with modern expectations.

“Many of the policies currently in place data from a time when there was less understanding of the way in which power, especially gendered power, works between individuals in large, hierarchical organisations such as universities,” she said.

Guidelines at Monash University, the University of Melbourne and RMIT do not condone sexual encounters between academics and students, but states ant romantic or sexual relationships that develop must not breach teachers’ responsibility to prioritise student welfare.

At Victoria University, professors must not “use (their) position to pursue personal, sexual or financial relationships with other staff”.

Melbourne University Campus in Carlton. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

Prof Cuthbert said the personal and professional conduct policies outlined by Victorian tertiary institutions were “ambiguous”.

National Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Alison Barnes said: “Sexual relationships between undergraduate students and staff are never appropriate.”

Dr Barnes said the union had also established policies that promoted supervisors’ professional responsibilities to their postgraduate students.

Monash University Frankston campus. Picture: AAP/Chris Eastman

Monash University’s Associate dean of education Professor Richard Pringle said the trend of universities banning sexual relationships was also gaining traction internationally in the United Kingdom and Scotland.

But Prof Pringle said university conduct policies also needed to reflect legitimate relationships without staff-student power imbalances such as spouses working at the same institution or older students returning to study where their significant other worked.

“The university has a large cohort of students and staff, so (relationships) are a relatively infrequent occurrence, but everyone is against any type of predatory relationships where a younger student is involved with a lecturer acting inappropriately.”

A University of Melbourne spokeswoman said relationships at the institution presented a conflict of interest when a staff member was a student’s teacher or if they were in any position that directly affected a student’s marks or job opportunities.

“Staff have a positive obligation not to cultivate sexual relationships with students without regard to these requirements,” she said.