Maastricht University can fire professor for sexual misconduct with students: court

Maastricht University can dismiss a professor for sexual misconduct, the court in Limburg ruled on Thursday. Five women filed complaints against the man who worked at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences. He had a sexual relationship with one of them, 1Limburg reports.

The man taught and lectured students and was involved in setting up a research master’s program in which he intensively supervised Ph.D. students and postdocs. The university suspended him in October last year after receiving several reports about him. After an investigation by an external agency, Maastricht University started the procedure to dismiss him in April.

The professor confessed to a sexual relationship with one student but insisted that it was mutually consensual and desired. The victim felt differently. The investigation concluded that it involved a hierarchical relationship because the man was her teacher, supervisor, department head, and manager. According to the victim, he repeatedly told her to keep their relationship secret, or he could lose his job and his wife.

The professor also acknowledged to investigators that he kissed another victim and touched her breasts, took another woman home with him when she was drunk, and kissed yet another victim in a bar when she hugged him. According to the investigators, all the women involved did not like the professor’s advances.

On Wednesday, the court in Limburg gave Maastricht University to green light to terminate the man’s employment contract. “UM rightly states that the university should be a safe haven for students, postdocs, and Ph.D. candidates. The behavior of the professor has seriously affected this,” the court said.