Professor "shocked" by crackdown on student-lecturer relationships
22 February 2020, 13:27 | Updated: 22 February 2020, 13:49
David in Aberdeen believes the policing of relationships in university campuses is unnecessary.
After the news coming from UCL that there will be new policy to ban student-lecturer relationships with the punishment of disciplinary action, Iain was joined by lecturer David who believes it is wrong for a university to dictate to staff and students how to carry themselves out on and off campus.
He felt the likelihood of a lecturer developing a relationship with an undergraduate is very unlikely and that it is more likely for a relationship to bloom between a PhD supervisor and researcher. When pushed by Iain Dale he stressed that this was down to the maturity of students and the simple fact that there is more one to one time between a researcher and supervisor.
Although defending the personal preference of the individual, David stressed that his own personal point of view is that he would never start a relationship with a student. He recalled a moment from his own time as a university lecturer whereby a student asked him on a date and he could see his "career fall apart".
He pointed out that the average lecturer in a university has their own personal ethic where they wouldn't cross the line to begin with.
Through his own ethic and standard as a university lecturer, David was of the opinion that it isn't "reasonable for a university to dictate who can and who can't have a relationship" mainly down to the fact that all parties on campus are adults and again, the maturity of lecturers is paramount in how they carry out their dynamic with students.
David went further to say that such policy is basically the "infantilisation of what are technically young adults" and that universities shouldn't seek to clamp down on the personal lives of those who work and study on the campus.
