The Office for Students newly appointed free speech champion has warned that higher education is failing to protect the academic freedom of students on UK campuses. SPUC has called for pro-life students to be protected following several “disgusting threats” made against them at universities.
Professor Arif Ahmed, the first Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom set up by the Freedom of Speech Bill 2023, has warned that “there are now persistent and widespread concerns that many in higher education are being silenced, either by the activity of the university or by its inactivity.
“And that silencing may fall disproportionately on those who are most vulnerable.”
As part of his new role at the Office for Students (OfS), Professor Ahmed gave his inaugural speech at King’s College London on Monday, affirming that “freedom of speech and academic freedom are fundamental to higher education.
“The core mission of universities and colleges is the pursuit of knowledge, and the principles of free speech and academic freedom are fundamental to this purpose.”
In his speech, Professor Ahmed lamented that in the last ten years the UK has plummeted to 60th in the world for academic freedom. He also cited a poll reporting that 35% of UK academics were self-censoring, compared to 19% in the EU.
The 2023 National Student Survey similarly found that one in seven students in England feel unable to express their views freely at universities. Professor Ahmed warned that many students may “simply feel that they have to shut up”.
The Office for Students, under Professor Ahmed’s direction, will superintend a complaints scheme, starting in 2024, which will investigate universities accused of not ensuring the free speech of students in English universities.
Scotland currently has no such scheme.
Pro-life students on free speech frontline
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has reported on numerous incidents of attempted cancellation of pro-life students and societies on campuses around the UK.
In 2021, Exeter Students for Life, a pro-life student group, was subjected to abuse, including death threats, and a petition calling for it to be disbanded. In the same year, a pro-life stall at Oxford University’s Freshers’ Fair was trashed by students.
In Scotland, too, Stirling University’s Catholic Society was suspended by the Students’ Union after it shared a post promoting peaceful pro-life vigils. The Union was later forced to reinstate the Society after a public outcry, led in part by SPUC.
In 2022, pro-abortion students with megaphones disrupted a talk by a female SPUC staff member at the University of Edinburgh. “Stop this talk right now”, they shouted. “We are not allowing this to happen on our campus.” SPUC’s speaker had been invited by the students of the Edinburgh Life Society.
The University of Edinburgh was one of many Scottish universities found by the 2020 Free2Speak report not to be protecting the freedom of speech of pro-life students.
“Pro-life students must be protected”
Daniel Frampton, Editorial Officer at SPUC, said: “Pro-life students are on the frontline of the battle to defend free speech in the UK. Students are our future, and many will go on to influence future policy and public decency.
“We all have an interest, therefore, in ensuring that all views – however different they may be to our own – can be expressed and debated freely without fear of reprisal, what his now termed ‘cancellation’.
“The current situation at many UK universities is far from ideal. The disgusting threats and attempted suppression of pro-life opinion cannot be allowed to continue if the UK is to remain free and democratic. Already we are seeing pro-life men and women being arrested for praying silently outside abortion facilities.
“SPUC urges the Office of Students to stand up to the bullies who seek to intimidate students. Pro-life students must be protected. Free speech must mean free speech for all, especially those people whom we disagree with the most.
“We hope that Professor Arif Ahmed succeeds in his mission. Scotland, which has no such free speech champion for students, must also do more since many of its universities have the worst records for freedom of expression in the UK.”