USAG jabs university authorities over ‘Sex for Grades’ exposé

The University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) has waded into the controversial ‘Sex for Grades’ conversations.

The group is accusing university authorities across the country of looking on while sexual harassment fester on campuses.

According to them, this is as a result of the neglect of sexual harassment policies in institutions; a situation they claim has given lecturers the opportunity to take undue advantage of students.

This development comes in the wake of the ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary by the BBC Africa Eye.

The documentary focused on lecturers in universities in Ghana and Nigeria, with two lecturers at the University of Ghana being implicated in the video.

President of USAG, Paul Abrokwa said the practice has been on-going for long.

“The policies of the universities have not been followed. These things are there; anti-sexual harassment and all those things but no one minds them. How often do we orient the students on this? How do we encourage them to report? The students feel that I can have my way and the lecturers also feel I can have my way. This is something that has been going on for some time now.”

“We condemn that act; we are not in support of it at all. We are only asking the University of Ghana and other universities to make sure such acts or activities do not continue in our institutions because as USAG we have now opened women’s commissioners’ offices for the general public. If any individual student reports such an act, we will take actions that the  University might not be happy with. We will be with them as a Union that is supposed to care for Ghanaian students,” Mr Abrokwa said.