Is it true that British universities are in hock to the Chinese Communist Party? Some have suggested as much after Labour’s decision to dump the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. Lord Alton certainly thinks so, posting on X: ‘Surrendering the principle of free speech to buy favor with the CCP is a terrible indictment of some of our universities & Government.’
The answer is, simultaneously, yes and no. UK vice chancellors are clearly guilty of doing anything to get their hands on Chinese money, whether from students or investors. They are quite happy to build campuses overseas and are nervous about anything that might jeopardize that financial lifeline. But we shouldn’t blame China and the CCP’s influence for this free speech U-turn. Really, it’s a homegrown problem.
When Associate Professor at University College London Michelle Shipworth was effectively banned for teaching a module that scrutinized uncomfortable data about China, she exemplified the problem that university lecturers sometimes face: how to teach awkward facts, in context, without fear or favor. But in many universities, the administration and leadership’s role is different. They need to pussyfoot around students, pander to their satisfaction ratings, and increase pass percentages in order to attract more consumers.
But the official indulgence of all students — not just Chinese ones — has led to a strange culture of suspicion in universities. In the past, lecturers sought among their new cohort the keen students who might excel. Now they can’t help looking for the ones who might complain. Sadly, it is often fellow academics and administrators who are the complainants, reporting colleagues for ‘unacceptable’ words and content, worried that difficult lecturers will jeopardize the university’s ranking.
In this fraught environment, the Higher Education bill was seen as a positive intervention, even though protecting free speech by legal statute — with the possibility that a judge might be the final arbiter of what’s acceptable — is clearly not the same thing as a truly democratic culture of free expression. It was not a silver bullet, but it was a shot across the boughs of those who attempted to police language and cancel academic inquiry with which they disagreed.
But were UK universities and Government agencies nervous about aggravating the Beijing authorities, not known to be fans of free speech, because it might imperil China-based British campuses and their recruitment of lucrative Chinese students?
The loss of monetary returns — at a time of domestic financial crisis in the university sector — was certainly a factor. Today’s universities are big business machines, in which education is merely a means to an end: that is, to recruit yet more paying students.
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