Otago University has moved to strongly discourage staff from forming intimate relationships with students in the wake of Sophie Elliott's killing at the hands of her tutor ex-boyfriend Clayton Weatherston.
Economics tutor Weatherston and honours student Ms Elliott were in an intimate relationship for about five months, ending shortly before Ms Elliott was stabbed her to death in her family home in January 2008.
Under a revised University of Otago ethical behaviour policy released yesterday, such relationships will now be "strongly discouraged".
The policy said staff should avoid entering into an intimate personal relationship with a student, particularly with a student they have responsibility for.
"Such a relationship risks taking advantage of the intrinsic trust, power and status differential implicit in the staff-to-student relationship," the policy said.
Staff would now have to disclose intimate relationships to their senior, such as a department head or supervisor, both verbally and in writing.
Their senior would then have to ensure processes were put in place to manage or remove potential conflicts of interest as transparently as possible.
Other universities would be watching the policy, which could change the way tertiary institutions treated staff-student relationships, the Tertiary Education Union said ahead of the policy's release.
The Elliott family was among those who made submissions on the policy review, which was endorsed by the university council last week.