Tough New Measures Proposed To Protect Academic Freedom And Free Speech On Campus

• Published date: 19 February 2021
• Subject Matter: Government, Public Sector, Constitutional & Administrative Law, Human Rights
• Law Firm: Taylor Vinters
• Author: Mr James Murray

The Government has today produced a policy paper setting out its proposals to protect academic freedom and free speech in UK universities. In this post, I set out some of the background to why these measures were needed, a brief summary of what they contain, and some initial reflections.

Understanding the problem

"[Academics] describe an atmosphere of fear and intimidation", submitted Professor Kathleen Stock OBE to the current inquiry of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights concerning Freedom of Expression. She was responding to the Committee's question on whether the situation on campus regarding academic freedom of speech had worsened since its last report in March 2018). Her answer - emphatically - was that it has.

Professor Stock, more recently, has drawn attention to the website of the GC Academia Network, which hosts anonymous anecdotes concerning the 'no debate' culture in academia and its harmful effect on academia. This collection reflects research on the state of academic freedom in the UK.

Consider a report prepared for the University and College Union in 2017, which concluded that the constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom in the UK was "negligible". Their survey data from across Europe also concluded that de facto protection for academic freedom in the UK was also poor, and they noted higher instances of bullying and fear of detriments in the UK than elsewhere.

In light of this, the UCU submitted an allegation to the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts regarding the UK Government's "non-compliance with the 1997 UNESCO recommendation on the status of higher education teaching personnel." Notably, on 14 February, their general secretary tweeted that, "there was no evidence of a free speech crisis on campus". It does seem somewhat hard to reconcile these two positions, and it is not clear on what basis that more recent comment was made.

The detailed and careful research which underscored the UCU's allegation in 2019 has been echoed in a 2020 report by the Policy Exchange, following research by Professor Eric Kaufmann, Dr Tom Simpson and Dr Remi Adekoya. Around the same time, the Policy Institute at King's College London also produced a report which concluded: "there are signs of a "chilling effect", where some students (25 per cent) are reluctant to express their views for fear of repercussions."

The KCL report was cited by the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, when announcing new legislation to...