'Sex for grades' not exclusive to lecturers doctoring grades for sex – BBC

The BBC Africa Eye team has debunked claims by Prof Ransford Gyampo that their secret filming of him has nothing to do with the ‘Sex for Grades’ documentary.

According to them, even though the theme for the documentary was ‘Sex for Grades’, the focus wasn’t only on lecturers doctoring students’ grades in exchange for sex, as such, Prof Gyampo has no case.

‘Sex for Grades’ “encompasses sexual harassment in many forms – covering everything from incessant and inappropriate sexualised remarks, to groping and unwanted touching, to accounts of serious sexual abuse and blackmail. The film includes multiple references to this but is by no means exclusively about student grades being doctored by lecturers in exchange for sex,” the team said.

The Africa Eye team, responding to some questions posed by GhanaWeb, noted that Prof Gyampo made numerous sexually inappropriate comments towards the undercover reporter he met during the secret filming.

Some of these comments they noted are;

- Repeatedly asking her whether she had “ever been kissed violently before.”

- Repeatedly telling her to stop pushing herself away from him and insinuating she would become his “wedded wife.”

- Telling her she should grow a bit fat for him so that if he were to hold her it wouldn’t appear as if he had hurt her.

- Telling her he would “grab” her and kiss her to remove all her “shyness.”

The team said Prof Gyampo breached the University of Ghana’s policy which prohibits any form of sexual relationships between individuals where there is an imbalance of power because he met Abigail in the context of providing academic support.

“The university considers “amorous” or flirtatious behaviour towards students by lecturers as sexual misconduct… Prof Gyampo met Abigail in the context of providing her with academic support at the University of Ghana and advice on pursuing a career in research post-graduation," it added.

Prof Ransford Gyampo, a Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), threatened to initiate legal action against the BBC over the "Sex for grades" documentary which mentions him [Gyampo] as one of the lecturers who offer grades to students in exchange for sex.

In a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM, Professor Gyampo denied abusing his power to make sexual advances towards students.

He was allegedly implicated in the “sex for grades” investigations carried out by BBC Africa Eye.

"You've also seen the video, have you seen anything called sex for grades [in the video]. How can you engage in so-called sex for grade relationship with somebody who is not a student in the first place..., I didn’t see anything like that [in the video] and I have not done anything like that,” he said in the radio interview with Citi FM.

Professor Gyampo, who is also the Head of European Studies at the university, according to the BBC report requested to marry one of the BBC reporters who posed as a student seeking academic favours.