Chinese academics could lose their jobs over sexual harassment under new rules
- Education ministry issues ‘professional ethics’ regulations covering teaching and management for schools across the country
- It comes after two university professors were sacked last week, in separate cases, over allegations of sexual assault and inappropriate relationships
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The document released by the Ministry of Education on Monday covers teaching staff at schools across China, but the part on sexual harassment applies only to higher education institutes.
It says schools should focus on “strengthening the professional ethics” of staff, which includes teaching ethics, such as lesson planning, and management ethics, such as strict evaluation, and handling of misconduct cases.
They should also “cultivate an environment where teachers are respected by society”, it says.
Under the section on misconduct, the document says staff will be disciplined, or sacked in serious cases, over sexual harassment, academic misconduct or if they are found to be taking bribes, but it does not specify what punishment they could face.
A public platform would also be set up for reporting misconduct online.
While the document has been seen by some as a response to such cases from the authorities, women’s rights advocates have questioned whether it goes far enough to address the problem of sexual harassment.
Feng Yuan, a gender studies scholar and co-founder of Beijing-based NGO Equality, said more needed to be done.
“This is only a document for building professional ethics among teachers, not a mechanism to prevent and end sexual harassment,” Feng said. “A mechanism would need to include details of the punishment, plans to train teachers and educate students, channels for complaint, support and services for victims, as well as procedures to handle such incidents.”
She also questioned why the part on sexual harassment only concerned staff at higher education institutes, when such incidents also occurred at primary and secondary schools.
Xiao Meili, a feminist activist in Guangzhou, also noted that sexual harassment was a social issue rather than just about the behaviour of an individual.
“[This] is not an ethics issue – the teachers’ morals aren’t the root issue. It’s about the power disparity between teachers and students, and when that power isn’t checked. So the key question should be how to control and supervise the side that is more powerful,” she said.
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The response from the two universities to the cases last week also reflected that mindset of dealing only with individuals, and only after a public outcry, she said.
“But the calls from many victims aren’t just about punishing those doing the harassment – there are also calls to set up a system [for prevention], but that’s had less attention,” she said.
