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campusreview.com.au
Sketchy
relationships
Lines drawn around relationships
between supervisors and students.
By Dallas Bastian
A
cademic supervisors should
not have sexual or romantic
relationships with students.
That’s the message to universities
confirmed by new sector principles.
Developed by Universities Australia,
the National Tertiary Education Union
(NTEU), the Council of Australian
Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) and
the Australian Council of Graduate
Research, the Principles for Respectful
Supervisory Relationships underpin any
direct supervisory relationship between
an academic supervisor and their
research student.
Universities Australia chief executive
Catriona Jackson said any sexual or
romantic relationship that develops between
a university academic and a student
they’re supervising raises questions about
capacity for consent and academic integrity.
“Communicating these principles to
staff and students helps us to build further
awareness about expectations of conduct,
so it is clear to everyone in university
communities,” Jackson said.
The national president of the NTEU,
Jeannie Rea, said the principles will
influence changes in the attitudes and
behaviours of those engaged in the
supervisory relationship. She added they
also reinforce universities’ responsibilities
for maintaining a safe and respectful
working and study environment.
The principles follow the recent release of
guidelines for university responses to sexual
assault and harassment.
One year on from the Australian Human
Rights Commission’s report on sexual
violence in universities, Universities Australia
also noted the efforts the nation’s 39
universities have made towards enhancing
relevant student support services, policies
and prevention programs.
Jackson said: “With 1.3 million students
and more than 100,000 staff in our sector,
we know our collective efforts to prevent
violence can have a ripple effect across
entire societies.”
But CAPA said progress has been limited.
The student group argued that although
there is widespread recognition in the
sector that sexual violence on campus is
a problem, actions against it have been
slow, limited and not always the best use of
resources.
“We recognise the significant work
undertaken by the sector in the wake of the
survey. However, we are concerned that
universities continue to drag their feet on
this issue,” CAPA said in a communiqué.
“Some universities are more concerned
about the optics of implementing response
measures than they are about the number
of students being assaulted each day.
“Others have made strong public
statements but have failed to implement
evidence-based and properly resourced
measures.”
CAPA has put together a list of requests
of universities it believes would address the
biggest gaps in their responses.
The group said it wants to see adequately
resourced on-campus counselling,
access to counselling for recent former
students who drop out due to mental
health issues, monitoring of university
residential colleges, the development of
policies banning inappropriate relationships
between research supervisors and students,
mandatory training for supervisors, and
genuine consultation with postgraduate
student representatives.
Natasha Abrahams, CAPA national
president, called on universities to invest in
staffing for counselling services to reduce
wait times over “flashy but ineffective
resources such as off-the-shelf consent
modules and mobile apps with links [to]
under-funded services”.
Abrahams said: “Universities have
collectively admitted that there is a problem
with sexual violence on campus – now it is
time to address the problem with concrete
actions.”
Jackson said work towards greater
student safety doesn’t stop.
“It’s an ongoing process to be renewed
and repeated at the start of each year
when 300,000 new students join our
community.” ■
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