Staff-student relationships still permitted, despite guidance

Several universities across England still permit staff-student relationships, a year since a change in regulations pushed institutions towards introducing bans as part of efforts to address sexual harassment.

Analysis by Times Higher Education has found that although most institutions have policies explicitly preventing staff forming relationships with people they teach or supervise, Aston University and the universities of Essex, Leeds, Liverpool and Southampton were among those that have not moved to an outright ban.

A new Office for Students (OfS) condition of registration introduced in August 2025 strongly encouraged universities to ban relationships but stopped short of instructing them to do so.

Campaigners say that bans remain the simplest way of tackling the “abuse of power” that could result from such relationships, but institutions holding out argue that it could drive bad behaviour underground and put students in a more vulnerable position.

All policies seen by Times Higher Education found that relationships are “highly discouraged” by the universities and require staff to report all relationships.

But there are questions over whether this meets OfS requirements that say statements discouraging relationships “may contribute to compliance but will not individually be treated as a step which could make a significant and credible difference in protecting students”.

The OfS confirmed to THE that any policy that simply discourages such relationships was “unlikely, on its own, to meet our requirements and we would be concerned where this was the sole approach adopted by an institution”.

Bridget Steele, a lecturer in evidence-based intervention and policy evaluation at the University of Oxford, said: “It’s hard to understand why universities aren’t implementing these bans.”

She said it was rare to see a university explain its rationale, “so we don’t really know why”.

“That leaves us in a place where we have to speculate. It could be because universities don’t think that the relationships are happening, and if they don’t think that they’re happening, maybe then they don’t think it’s worth the effort.

“They might think that they’re happening but they’re not harmful enough to warrant a ban. Then it could also be the case that perhaps they feel that they don’t have the resources or capability to enforce the bans or don’t have agreement on how to determine appropriate sanctions if a staff member was to violate the policy.”

Anna Bull, senior lecturer in education and social justice at the University of York and a founding member of The 1752 Group, said that if universities still permit such relationships, the question becomes: “What are they doing instead?”

Bull said that she would expect universities without bans to be providing other measures to ensure abuses of power are not occurring, such as running anonymous surveys to try to capture the prevalence of staff-student relationships, or running professional boundary workshops to remain compliant in preventing sexual harassment. 

But such measures should be considered by all universities, she said, because bans alone are not enough to protect students.

“I do have concerns that universities are putting in place a ban, and they’re thinking, ‘that’s it, we’re done’, but nothing’s going to change if you just put a policy in place. There’s got to be a programme of cultural change across the institution.”

The OfS will be running its second sexual harassment survey in 2027, which Bull said should give some indication as to how last year’s reforms have impacted the sector. The first survey in 2025 found that a quarter of students had suffered sexual harassment and a key test will be whether this has been reduced.

When THE asked the University of Liverpool about its stance on relationships, a spokesperson said protecting students “is our absolute priority”.

They said “it is our view that a ban on staff-student relationships is both unlikely to stop all such relationships from forming”, adding that a ban was “likely to deter their reporting, thereby impeding our ability to protect the student concerned”.

“Staff who do form a relationship with a student are required to report this and a range of measures are put in place to seek to protect the student from any abuse of power. We regularly remind our staff and student community that such relationships are strongly discouraged and we have a whole institution approach to encouraging students to report any concerns.”

A University of Southampton spokesperson insisted that it has “robust policies, support and reporting procedures in place, and [we] continue to strengthen awareness through mandatory training and accessible guidance”.

“We want all colleagues and students to know how to seek support and report concerns confidentially.” 

Essex, Aston and Leeds were approached for comment.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com