British academia is overrun by a single political perspective: that of the left-winger, according to a new study.
The report into the state of ideological diversity on UK campuses found that the political leanings of academics are radically out of sync with the populace as a whole, and attempted to assess the size of the rift.
Lackademia: Why Do Academics Lean Left?, produced by the libertarian Adam Smith Institute think-tank, noted that barely one in ten academics support right-of-centre parties. This compares with around 50% nationally (poll from yesterday here).
By comparing the figures with previous surveys of the academic world, the paper shows that the proportions have changed dramatically over the decades and has drifted from the population at large:
The paper also warns of the consequences of the narrow spectrum on offer in the academic world, linking the current crisis in campus free speech to the political monoculture.
Author Noah Carl further observed that ideological uniformity can harm the quality of research, with politically incorrect subject areas starved of attention, and other subtle biases creeping in to supposedly objective pursuits.
The report also pointed out that the phenomenon risks academia’s own survival, by increasing the risk that right-leaning governments will start to defund institutions which are radically opposed to popular politics.
Though it may be considered by many merely to state the obvious, it does add extra evidence to what is otherwise a gut feeling.
The report also dismisses the argument that academia is more left-wing because left-wing people are just more intelligent than everybody else.
By comparing the opinions of academics to another dataset, drawn from those with IQ in the top 5%, the study shows that more intelligent people have similar political leanings to the population at large. It is academia which is out of sync:
Most parties have comparable levels of support across all three groups. These are the outliers:
- Academics who support the Conservatives (11%, vs 36% nationally)
- Academics who support UKIP (less than 1%, vs 7% nationally)
- Academics who support the Greens (22%, vs 7% nationally)
The study concluded by contrasting universities’ strenuous efforts to promote every kind of diversity except diversity of thought – and suggested a culture shift was needed to arrest the decline.
It said: “Universities often take great pains to point out their commitment to diversity with respect to gender, class and race; going forward, they would be wise not to eschew political diversity.”
