Academic freedom in the UK will wither and die thanks to a generation of lecturers too scared to challenge the status quo, a major new book claims today.
Universities are trapped “worshipping at the altar of progressive opinion”, and individual scholars self-censor to avoid the wrath of their peers, according to the publication by Civitas, an independent think tank.
How the rise of 'safe spaces' means universities risk becoming places where no one thinks at all https://t.co/NZoJwNV2Mr
— Civitas think tank (@Civitas_UK) September 12, 2016
The book, called Why Academic Freedom Matters, features essays from 14 writers and experts laying bare a the timid, safe-space-obsessed intellectual culture from academics and students alike in British higher education.
It turns its attention to the increasing censoriousness of student protesters, seen most prominently in the Rhodes Must Fall movements and the spread of no-platform policies.
Heat Street readers will recognise the trend in the aftermath of our exposé last week on Oxford University’s deeply questionable Race Matters Facebook collective.
The book, edited by commentator and academic Joanna Williams, says that a culture of self-censorship in the academic community is so far advanced that there is no need for formal curbs on freed speech, since they exist in practice anyway.
Book I co-edited out today – get your copy here! https://t.co/HUqT1Zv5pJ
— Joanna Williams (@jowilliams293) September 12, 2016
Williams said: “The tendency for academics to police themselves and each other means that formal restrictions on academic freedom, although problematic, are actually rarely needed. One danger is that self-censorship becomes a routine part of academic life.
“New lecturers quickly learn how to avoid upsetting the student-customers who pay their wages and how to please the peer-reviewers who will green-light their work for publication and them for promotion. They learn how to comply with all manner of speech codes, safe-space and anti-harassment policies.
“Routine self-censorship not only does away with the need for too many overt restrictions on academic freedom it also reinforces an intolerance of dissent.”
Self-censorship by academics is undermining open and robust debate. Great new book by @jowilliams293. Download here: https://t.co/67y07XQxOX
— Daniel Bentley (@danielbentley) September 12, 2016
Some scholars explicitly criticise the concept of academic freedom, she says, for “doing nothing to challenge the structural inequalities that make it more difficult for less powerful groups to have their voices heard”.
“Knowledge advances through the freedom to provoke, cause offence and upset the status quo. There is simply no point in higher education without academic freedom.
Very pleased to have a chapter in this Why Academic Freedom Matters https://t.co/GPiRvAFOWS via @Civitas_UK
— Tara McCormack (@McCormack_Tara) September 12, 2016
“Universities risk returning to being medieval institutions, only instead of paying homage to the church they now worship at the altar of ‘progressive’ opinion.”
“It ignores the fact that many scholars choose to conform to a dominant disciplinary consensus rather than push the boundaries of what can and cannot be said.
She continued: “For academic freedom to be more than just rhetoric it must be exercised. This requires scholars to have something interesting, perhaps even controversial, to say as well as the tenacity to say it.”
More information on the book – and a pdf version of it – can be found here.
Featured image, Royal Holloway university – via Flickr/Fotorus
