The fear of litigation appears to dominate the minds of university bureaucrats. Telephone directories of regulations covering all aspects of educational life are the result. What is rarely understood is that the real and the hypothetical legal challenges to the authority of universities and lecturers are a symptom, a direct consequence, of the bureaucratisation of higher education, not its cause.
The more higher education has become obsessed with the regulation of every aspect of university life in the belief that this will ensure equity, the more educational relations become formalised with destructive consequences for the trust that should exist between lecturers and students. Formalisation of higher education consists not only in the familiar setting of 'learning objectives' and 'marking criteria' for students' work but through rules for the 'ethical' regulation of research and every professional interaction. Tutorials have to record agreed objectives signed off by the student and lecturer. It is not uncommon for doctoral students to come to tutorials with a written 'agenda' and they cannot even see why this is unacceptable. Imagine what state a marriage would be in if every interaction had to be covered by a formal contract!
University bureaucracies are not content with regulating educational relations but now feel they have to regulate personal relations between members of staff and staff and students further undermining trust and even the possibility of people having normal relationships. This interference gets expressed in 'Codes of Conduct'. Here is one from a well-known university:
University of Poppleton
Code of Conduct for Staff-Student Relationships
All staff-student relations must be consensual and agreed. Therefore, the Committee of for Academic Affairs at the University of Poppleton has produced these useful guidelines which will be available on the web and on tape/CD. Hard copies will also available in large print, Braille and all known languages.
Ethical Guidelines
The member of staff or student will have the right to withdraw from a relationship at any time without suffering any emotional or other harm by declaring, in writing on the appropriate form, at any point:
'I am now withdrawing from this relationship'
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by.....Date......
Forms for this purpose are available in the Student Wellbeing Office and the Union Bar.
Formal Contract (Stage 1)
The initial stages of any relationship are the most delicate. Therefore, the Committee for Academic Affairs has produced the following contact which must be filled in and witnessed at each stage. Copies are available in the Student Wellbeing Office, the Union Bar at and in local supermarkets, cinemas, pubs and discos.
Completed Stage 1 and any later forms must be deposited in the 'AA' section of the locked filing cabinet in the Personnel Department. They will of course be subject to the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts (although Mrs Dilworth has the only known key).
1. Can I ask you a personal question without causing offence?
Staff agreement.....Student agreement.....Witnessed by.....Date.....
2. Can I hold your hand?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by....Date.....
3. Can I kiss you?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement..... Witnessed by.....Date.....
4. Do you want to go for a drink after the tutorial?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by....Date.....
5. Do you want to have dinner?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by.....Date.....
Formal Contract (Stage 2)
1. Do you want to come back to my flat with me?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by.....Date.....
2. Would you like to go to bed with me?
Staff Agreement.....Student Agreement.....Date.....
This section of the Formal Contract Stage 2 is subject to further discussion as the probable absence of witnesses has led the Committee for Academic Affairs to pilot the use of audio visual recording and is seeking costings for the rental of 17,000 mini cam recorders to be issued to all students at Induction.
3. Morning-after Agreement: Shall we do this again tomorrow, assuming that I'm well on the way to marking your essay/dissertation/thesis, by then?
Staff agreement..... Student agreement.....Witnessed by.....Date.....
I am please to inform all staff that the Poppleton branch of the University and College Union (UCU) is fully behind these procedures and is working with the University to produce similar guidelines for any relationships between members of staff. The UCU Branch Secretary Dr Plato said that 'UCU believes that any physical or emotional contact whatsoever between members of staff, whatever their gender, is sexual harassment'.
The Vice Chancellor
Signed in his absence by Mrs Dilworth
(N.B. The VC is at a conference of VCs in the Bahamas with Susan Loose his
research student - Mrs Dilworth)
My thanks to my Times Higher Education editorial board colleague and creator of the University of Poppleton, Professor Laurie Taylor, for borrowing rights and my apologies for any misrepresentation of the University and its excellent staff and outstanding students! But apologies may also be due to many others, because when I circulated an earlier version of this 'Code', the response of several academics was: 'Oh no! Human Resources Departments will read it and adopt it!'