British universities will be forced to defend freedom of speech on campus under new plans devised by the Government.
Institutions – many under fire for allowing censorship, bans and language policing to flourish in recent years – will now be compelled to stand up for free speech.
Rules will also extend to students’ unions, which are more likely to be the source of censorious rules than administrations themselves.
The plans will effectively outlaw “no-platforming” movements which seek to shut down events by speakers with whom student activists disagree.
The new policy was announced in a letter to university leaders, seen by The Times of London.
Universities minister Jo Johnson reminded bosses that it is their “legal duty” to ensure free speech for “members, students, employees and visiting speakers”.
A specific measure which would shut down no-platforming said that access to premises must never be “denied to any individual or body on any grounds connected with their beliefs or views, policy or objective”.
It further added that all universities must have a code laying out how free speech will be observed in meetings, which should be vigorously enforced rather than left to “gather dust”.
Heat Street has extensively documented the clampdown on free speech on British campuses.
Student societies such as the anti-abortion Stratclyde Life Action were shut down for contravening “safe space” policies, while feminist Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos were banned from debating each other by Manchester University Students’ Union.
An Iranian dissident was prevented from speaking by Warwick University Students’ Union because of her opposition to Shariah law, while the union at Queen Mary University of London sparked protests by banning tabloid newspapers.
The anti-censorship website spiked compiled a free speech rankings, the most recent edition of which found that 94% of campuses censor free speech in some way, with 64% given a “red” ranking, the lowest possible rating.
