Staff and Student Personal Relationship Policy

The University has a policy for staff and students that engage in a personal relationship. The University recognises the needs and rights of all of its members to have a private life that is free from governance by the University. The University also recognises that that a staff and student personal relationship can introduce a power dynamic that can result in unfair disadvantage or advantage in the professional relationship.
The University has a Personal Relationship Policy that is implemented to identify how the different power dynamics may arise and how these can be managed.

In summary relationships between staff and students should be disclosed to the University. The member of staff is required to disclose this to the HR department and the student is required to disclose this to the Standing Together team.
Details of the relationship are not expected to be disclosed, the purpose of making the University aware is to ensure any potential conflicts of interests, favouritism or bias can be eliminated. A risk assessment is completed when a disclosure is made, to ensure any risk can be mitigated where necessary.

Should a member of staff fail to disclose their relationship to the University, this would be a breach of the Personal Relationship policy and could result in disciplinary action.

More information about the Policy can found on the Dignity and Respect webpages.

A copy of the policy can be found below: