Free speech proposals slammed

Government proposals claiming to provide greater protections for freedom of speech on university campuses in England have received heavy criticism from across the political spectrum.

The plans include the appointment of a “free speech and academic freedom champion”. Under the proposals, universities would be legally required to actively promote free speech. And the Office for Students, the regulator for higher education in England, would have the power to impose fines on institutions if they breach this condition.

But former Tory education secretary Justine Greening said universities were already championing free speech, while former Labour education secretary David Blunkett accused the government of playing identity politics with the issue.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the UCU lecturers’ union, said it was extraordinary that in the midst of a global pandemic the government appears more interested in fighting phantom threats to free speech than taking action to contain the real and present danger the virus poses to staff and students.

And she said the biggest threats to academic freedom and free speech come not from so-called “cancel culture”, but from “ministers’ own attempts to police what can and cannot be said on campus”, and a failure to get to grips with endemic job insecurity and managerialist approaches “which mean academics are less able to speak truth to power”.