Uni professor sacked over late-night advances toward student

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A Melbourne University associate professor who made persistent advances towards his junior research assistant and former student despite her rejections has lost his unfair dismissal case after the industrial umpire rejected his claim he was just being friendly.

Former Melbourne University associate professor Aaron Harwood has lost his unfair dismissal case.Credit: Twitter

Aaron Harwood claimed his autism – which was undiagnosed when he sent his former student a series of text messages seeking a personal relationship – explained his failure to pick up on her cues she wasn’t interested.

Harwood’s 20-year academic career at the University of Melbourne was terminated in September, after it found he breached multiple workplace policies and sexually harassed the woman, an international student in the Melbourne School of Engineering and Technology.

Harwood had been promoted to associate professor in the school, on a base salary of more than $162,000, not long before his employment was terminated.

He wrote an apology letter to the research assistant as his dismissal loomed, stating he knew that pursuing a personal relationship would be in breach of university policies but that “at that time in my life I would have accepted risking my career for you”.

The letter, part of a last-ditch attempt to save his job, instead provided proof of his deliberate motives in breaching university policies, according to a Fair Work judgment on his unfair dismissal application.

Harwood’s unwanted advances occurred in 2016. The woman made a formal complaint about him in May last year, which prompted a university investigation.

The Fair Work Commission rejected his application for an unfair dismissal finding on Wednesday. Its judgment noted the university was rightly concerned by the significant power imbalance between academic staff and students and the risk that a student could be subject to unwelcome and inappropriate behaviour.

A series of WeChat messages between Harwood and the woman formed the unchallenged evidence of the associate professor’s personal advances. At the time, Harwood’s discretionary budget funded her employment.

In those messages, Harwood offered to show the student her exam results before they were released – in breach of university rules – but urged her, “just don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret.”

He also asked when he could meet her cat and texted, “Can I ask you a completely inappropriate question?”

When she later turned down an invitation for coffee, he replied: “Just tell your group members there’s a new man in your life and you need to spend some quality time with him.”

In a subsequent late-night exchange, he asked her out for a walk, to which she replied, “no no no no no”.

Harwood replied: “It’s just a couple of people spending some time together … It’s only serious if we choose to make it serious.”

Later he texted: “Do you [want to] see the new movie Arrival coming out Nov 10? I’d like to ask you to see it but you don’t think that is appropriate.”

The student replied: “Yeah you got it! Inappropriate!”

Harwood conceded under cross-examination that a staff member pursuing a personal relationship could put a student under pressure, and that the university had an obligation to protect them.

According to the university investigation, Harwood also “made a comment to the effect that the university bore some responsibility for his conduct and should have protected him from situations where he would be one-on-one with students”.

Harwood was diagnosed with autism in 2019 and claimed his disability led him to misinterpret the woman’s responses.

Fair Work deputy president Ian Masson rejected that defence. Masson wrote: “There is simply no medical evidence before me that would allow me to conclude that the applicant’s medical conditions stands in mitigation of the conduct.”

Harwood’s dismissal was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable, Masson ruled.

Four staff members left the University of Melbourne last year due to a finding of sexual misconduct, and two other cases are progressing through disciplinary processes, the university’s 2022 sexual misconduct annual report states.

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