One of the issues that have been rising in numerous colleges in the United Kingdom is that of romantic and sexual relationships taking place between lecturers and their students. This is not something new and has been happening for quite some time now. However, to maintain the reputation of the academic institution, many institutions do not let out this particular information and work towards killing the news completely. Some work towards making certain that this issue is completely stopped and does not occur at all. One such institution is the University College London.
The University College London is the first Russel Group university that has gone ahead with implementing a ban on romantic and sexual relationships between lecturers and their students. The management of the UCL is of the view that their relationships policy would ensure that there is protection for the students as well as the lecturers against any potential abuses of power and conflicts of interest. It should be further noted here that the policy prohibits any kind of close personal and intimate relationships between staff and students in which the staff member has a direct responsibility or involvement in, which could have an impact on the student’s academic students and/or personal welfare.
The university is clear on its stance that any staff member that is involved in such an acct, should declare the personal or intimate relationship with any student, whom they directly do not supervise, within a month or they would have to face strict disciplinary actions as such explained at Coursework Help experts. The policy is clear in its stance that staffs should at all costs maintain an appropriate physical and emotional distance from students and make certain that their interaction is strictly related to the studies.
The staffs are further encouraged that they should avoid creating any kind of special friendships with students because this would be seen as grooming them. It can have a bad impact on other students and it might come across as one student get additional favours due to his personal or intimate link with the said lecturer. The contact that takes place between lecturer and students should be done only through the official university channels, with the staff making certain that they avoid any kind of interaction through their mobile phone number or meeting the students outside the university. All these measures are mainly implemented to protect both the lecturers and the students. However, not everyone is positively seeing these measures. There have been some negative positions being taken from the staffs and the students. A lecturer on the condition of anonymity stated that he does not believe that such strict measures should be put in place. This would only make situations worse. The university should come up with an alternative solution to these issues.