Students must speak up to protect their rights: OHEC
Female university students who have been victims of sexual abuse and believe they are being treated unfairly by their lecturers or advisers need to protect their rights and not shy away from lodging complaints with the police, the Office of the Higher Edu
OHEC has offered to help look into such allegations and take disciplinary action against lecturers if their universities fail to penalise them, but the victims have to come forward first, deputy OHEC secretary-general Kamjorn Tatiyakawee said.
Kamjorn was responding to complaints made during a recent meeting of U-Rights, a network of university students, in which many lecturers were accused of giving grades to female students depending on their looks. The highest number of complaints brought up in the meeting were directed at certain lecturers at an unspecified Rajabhat Institute campus.
In their complaint, students said that lecturers appeared to inadvertently touch their breasts or thighs while telling them that their shirts were too tight or skirts too short. This usually happened when they were alone with the lecturers. Also, many said that students with average looks usually earned lower grades than good-looking ones.
The Rajabhat Institute in question later issued a statement saying it had never received such complaints from victims of sexual abuse or those who believed they had been unfairly given lower grades due to their average looks. The institute’s rector also called on students to come forward so their cases could be dealt with privately.
The unnamed rector condemned the accused lecturers, saying they did not deserve to hold their jobs and vowed to initiate an investigation as soon as the complaints are launched.
“Their conduct is not acceptable and would only damage the institute’s image and discourage students from taking up the teaching profession, especially if this misconduct was by lecturers from the Education Faculty,” the rector was quoted as saying.
A victim told the meeting she would lodge a complaint within a week, while U-Rights said it would follow up by issuing an open letter publicising the names of the institutes and lecturers.
Assoc Prof Prueng Kijratphorn, chair of Council of Rajabhat University Presidents of Thailand, said any campuses facing such complaints should launch an investigation and penalise lecturers accordingly.