Makerere University Urges Lecturers to Openly Declare their Love Affairs with Students

Makerere University has urged lecturers to publicly declare their love relationships with students to enable the institution extend appropriate aid in case of any conflict and also to check cases of prevalent sexual harassment at the campus.

The Deputy Director of Research and Graduate Studies, Prof David Owiny while addressing lecturers at the graduate students supervisors seminar for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Kampala advised that much as it is normal for a love relationship to develop between a lecturer and student, declaring it openly can guard against negativity from the public.

Vice Chancellor, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, in an interview with Daily Monitor on Monday said the university comprises of mature people who may develop mutual passionate feelings towards each other, but when this happens, the supervisor must declare conflict of interest and hand over that student to another colleague.

“We have always emphasized that a lecturer has enormous power over the student, but they should exercise professional behaviour.

Nawangwe added that in instances of supervisors, a conflict of interest should always be declared thereby handing over the responsibility to another person.

Prof Buyinza Mukadasi, the head of Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies also stressed that the administration has no authority over lecturer-student relationships.

“All we want is for you to declare to us the relationship so that we can help you to make it formal and we also advise that you formalise it immediately to avoid problems for both of you,” Prof Mukadasi said.