Don’t flirt, Cambridge warns its students, as sexual relations with professors are forbidden

Students at Cambridge University have been told to stop flirting with staff as part of a new policy banning sexual relationships with professors.

The university has published a new set of rules that will come into force on July 1 and, among other things, warns against behavior toward employees “that could be interpreted as flirting.”

Under the new code, university staff must report such behavior or any actions that might indicate that a student is making “advances toward a personal, particularly intimate, relationship” with them to the department head or human resources department.

Records of students’ flirtatious behavior would be kept “where appropriate,” Cambridge said in a warning following discussions with the university’s Office of Student Conduct, Complaints and Appeals (OSCCA).

In addition, measures may be taken to “separate and protect” students and staff in such cases and to “minimize the possibility of conflicts of interest, concerns or complaints regarding academic integrity or professional conduct.”

One-month amnesty for employees

The new rules are part of Cambridge’s updated relationships policy, which bans all sexual relationships between staff and students from next month.

Staff are also “strongly discouraged” from forming close personal friendships with students for whom they have academic or professional responsibilities.

University employees will be granted a one-month amnesty until August 1, during which they must admit to current or past relationships with students or close friendships with pupils, after which they face dismissal.

It will replace the university’s existing relationships policy, which states that relationships between students and staff should be “avoided” but does not prohibit them outright.

The policy will prohibit Cambridge staff from “entering into an intimate relationship with a student to whom they have direct or indirect academic or other direct professional obligations”.

The guidelines apply to all university staff, including professors, tutors, visiting researchers and doctoral students who teach as part of their studies.

Students “may feel under pressure”

Cambridge said the policy is designed to protect staff and students from allegations of conflicts of interest and to ensure safeguards are in place to prevent sexual misconduct.

This could even apply to “apparently consensual relationships between students and relevant teachers,” it said.

The university stated that this could, for example, result in a student feeling pressured to enter into a relationship “further than they would otherwise wish” or feeling unable to end such a relationship because it could harm their academic performance.

With this change, Cambridge joins the University of Oxford and other leading institutions such as University College London (UCL), Nottingham and Exeter, which have already banned sexual relationships between staff and students.

Universities UK (UUK), the sector’s lobby group, called on universities in 2022 to update their relationships policies to “change the culture of higher education”.

UUK, which represents 140 universities across the UK, expressed concern about reports of sexual misconduct by staff and took such cases “extremely seriously”.

The Office for Students, the regulator of universities, has also called for a tougher crackdown on staff-student relationships, fearing that power imbalances can often be exploited. The office is considering a range of proposals, from a “relationship register” to record relationships between students and staff to an outright ban.

Universities are not required to publish data on sexual assault or misconduct, meaning the extent of potential abuse of power by staff is unclear. A 2018 survey by the National Union of Students found that around 80 percent of students felt uncomfortable with staff engaging in romantic or sexual relationships with students.

Danger of a “power imbalance”

Cambridge’s updated policy goes beyond Oxford’s policy introduced last year, asking staff to report flirtatious “messages or other behavior” from students but not saying such actions should be recorded.

Senior staff at Cambridge who have “close personal relationships” with students have also been warned that they are at increased risk of being accused of a power imbalance.

The updated policy states that the risk of such allegations is “likely to be increased where there is a significant age difference between the employee and the student” or where the student is vulnerable.

Failure to comply with the new policy will be treated as a disciplinary measure, which in the most serious cases may lead to dismissal of employees.

A university spokesman said: “The new staff-student relations policy is the result of extensive consultation across the university, involving staff and student representatives, as well as departments and colleges.”

“The views of the regulator, the Office for Students and Universities UK will also be taken into account.”