BBC's "Sex for grades" expose' affects UG operations - VC

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana (UG), Prof. Ebenezer Oduro-Owusu says the ‘sex for grades’ documentary by the BBC is adversely affecting the operations of the university.

The BBC sent female undercover reporters to the campuses of the two universities where it reported that they were sexually harassed, propositioned and put under pressure by senior lecturers – all the while wearing secret cameras.

Two lecturers at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Kwame Butakor, shown in the documentary and accused of engaging in sexual harassment on campus have since been interdicted by the university.

The BBC has said it picked reports from students who have been victimised in similar scenarios in relation to the subject matter in the hands of the same lecturers [Gyampo and Butakor] mentioned in the documentary.

Speaking on Accra based Starr FM on Thursday, Prof. Oduro-Owusu said a scheduled enrollment exercise by the school in Nigeria has been put on hold as a result of the documentary.

He further stated that a team that was supposed to go to the United Kingdom (UK) on research grounds has also been put on hold, adding that the BBC investigative job was in “bad taste”.

“It is in bad taste, to be honest with you. It is in bad taste and it is have affected us. And not only the university of Ghana. For example, our international recruitment team was to embark on international recruitment in Nigeria. They’ve been stopped. We have a team that was supposed to go to the UK on research grounds and others, it’s been put on hold for them to try and see and evaluate the media platform to what…..”