Freedom of speech has long been as an essential ingredient of Britishness. When the British were asked fifteen years ago what defined their national character the most popular answer by a long way was not the Empire, the country’s defeat of fascism or red letter boxes but “people’s right to say what they think” and Britain’s “sense of fairness and fair play”.
Fast forward to today, however, and you do not need to look hard to find a growing sense of public alarm about how these ancient and much-cherished freedoms are under serious threat. This concern over the surveillance of speech, the dismissal of controversial or problematic speakers and anxieties over a new “cancel culture” perhaps explain why, only last week, one of Britain’s leading pollsters found that nearly one in every two of us believe that “people these days are less free to say what they think”.
But most worrying of all is how these freedoms seem to be under attack in the one place where people are supposed to feel completely free to say what they think: higher education. Universities, in theory at least, are meant to be the purest example of the marketplace of ideas — institutions where we debate and discuss the pursuit of truth from different perspectives and where, along the way, we develop well-rounded, critical thinkers who go on to become the leaders of tomorrow.
But something, somewhere has gone fundamentally wrong. At least that’s the conclusion one draws after reading an important new Policy Exchange report, Academic Freedom in the UK: Protecting Viewpoint Diversity, co-authored by Remi Adekoya, Eric Kaufmann and Thomas Simpson. It paints a depressing picture of what is unfolding in our universities. Based on the largest survey of academics that has been carried out in years, it suggests that many of our higher education institutions are failing to protect and promote the “viewpoint diversity” that has long been one of their core strengths.
In recent years British universities have drifted way to the Left. Three-quarters of academics who were surveyed support Left-wing parties; fewer than one in five support parties of the Right. Just 9% of academics in the social sciences and humanities voted to Leave the European Union and just 7% identify as “right of centre”. It also points to how those who do deviate from the orthodoxy experience a tough time. Only 54%of academics would feel comfortable sitting next to a Leave supporter over lunch, and just 37% would feel comfortable sitting next to somebody who holds gender-critical views.
Some readers will find this striking, but, to be honest, I’m not surprised. I’ve worked in universities for nearly 20 years and I now divide that time into two distinct eras — the Before Brexit (B.B.) era and the After Brexit (A.B.) era. Life Before Brexit was easier. Life after Brexit has been, well, interesting.
I never campaigned for Brexit. I would not even consider myself to be a passionate Brexiteer. But when a majority of voters decided to leave the European Union I did make my view known that the vote should be respected and delivered. I joined with a small group of academics who held different perspectives but nonetheless shared a belief that it was important to respect the outcome and explore the opportunities that Brexit presented to fix a settlement that was, clearly, not working out well for more than a few groups in British society.
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