No sex for you! The bonk ban which hit parliament after the Barnaby Joyce affair strikes another Aussie institution
- Universities Australia is banning academics from having sex with their students
- It will affect higher education teachers supervising research or thesis projects
- Their new principles recognise that uni supervisors are in a position of power
The bonk ban that shook up parliament is now sweeping across universities with staff and students warned to keep their hands off each other.
Universities Australia, the peak body for the nation's 39 universities, has today released a code of conduct barring academics from getting romantic or sexual with thesis or research students they are supervising.
The guidelines come six months after a similar edict was issued to politicians in federal parliament.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull banned ministers from getting intimate with their staff after his former deputy Barnaby Joyce was caught in an affair with his media adviser Vikki Campion which eventually ended his 24-year marriage.
One of Australia's major employers is introducing a Barnaby Joyce-style sex ban in the workplace to prevent sexual harassment (the former deputy PM pictured with Vikki Campion)
They are following the lead of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who banned his ministers from having sex with their staff following the Barnaby Joyce affair with Vikki Campion
The principles on 'respectful supervisory relationships' were designed before the Joyce affair but they have not been released until today.
Universities Australia's chief executive Catriona Jackson said relationships between academic supervisors and their research students were clearly inappropriate.
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'These principles make it clear — if a university academic is supervising a student, then they should not be in a romantic or sexual relationship with that student,' she told Daily Mail Australia today.
'It's a clear conflict of interest.'
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said relationships between academic supervisors and their research students were clearly inappropriate
As part of the code of conduct - agreed to by the Australian Council of Graduate Research, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and the National Tertiary Education Union - academics and their supervising students would be required to disclose their romance so a new supervisor could be assigned.
'These principles relate to relationships between academics and the research students directly under their supervision,' Ms Jackson said.
'They have been designed to protect the safety and well being of both students and staff.'
In February 2016, Universities Australia launched the 'Respect. Now. Always' program.
Its 39 members worked together on how to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment on university campuses and developed a 10-point plan to prevent sex crime.
They also developed eight key guidelines about appropriate workplace behaviour, including the notion that supervisors are in a position of power when they are guiding students completing a thesis, research work or a doctorate.
'Supervisors have a significant influence on the student's successful completion of their research and, in turn, future career directions,' it said.
'This unequal power dynamic means that the relationship can potentially be vulnerable to exploitation and can affect the capacity of a student to consent freely to sex or relationships initiated by their supervisor.'
Australia's universities developed eight key guidelines about appropriate workplace behaviour, including the notion that supervisors are in a position of power
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