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UK lecturers 'strongly support colleagues' academic freedom'

<span>Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters</span>
Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

British university staff oppose efforts to sack colleagues who produce controversial research, according to a report on political diversity in higher education that claims to reveal “an important reservoir of support for academic freedom”.

The report by the right-leaning thinktank Policy Exchange urges the government to impose a new free speech regulator on British universities and students to guard against no-platforming and what the authors call “political discrimination”.

Many of the findings are based on a poll of 820 working or retired academics, which found little evidence of overt political discrimination. Just 8% of the respondents described themselves as “fairly rightwing” and 1% “very rightwing”. In contrast, 10% said they were “very leftwing” and 42% “fairly leftwing”, while 35% said they were centrist.

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The survey posed a series of provocative questions to reveal attitudes, with those surveyed asked if they agreed that “convicted paedophiles should be publicly whipped”, or if they “sometimes feel scared walking alone at night”.

In the hypothetical case of a colleague whose research claimed that the British empire “did more good than harm”, few of the academics said they would support a campaign to “let the staff member know that they should find work elsewhere”, while about half said they would oppose such efforts.

Similarly, only a few supported telling a colleague who favoured immigration restrictions to work elsewhere, while 74% opposed doing so.

“These results reveal an important reservoir of support for academic freedom among staff at British universities,” the report said. “Even on some ‘hot-button’ social issues, only 6-13% of academics are willing to back campaigns to fire academics who advocate unpopular views. Those who oppose such campaigns are likely to outnumber those who support them by eight to one.

“The headline is that, while it may be intimidating to look at the number of signatories on a letter, which contains strong words of moral accusation, such groups are highly unrepresentative of attitudes within the sector as a whole.”

The report concentrated on four high-profile cases of no-platforming or what it described as political discrimination, including the withdrawal of a speaking engagement to Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, by a group of Oxford students. The decision was later condemned by the university’s leaders.

The authors also highlighted the 2019 decision by Cambridge to rescind a two-month unpaid fellowship for the Canadian author and academic Prof Jordan Peterson.

The report argues that parliament should create a new position of director for academic freedom, attached to the higher education regulator for England, the Office for Students (OfS), and appointed by the education secretary. This person would be able to investigate allegations that academic freedom or freedom of speech have been violated. The thinktank also wants to extend statutory duties of freedom of speech to include student unions.

The report was endorsed by Ruth Kelly, the former Labour MP and education secretary, who said self-censorship among academics was a cause for concern.

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said the recommendations were not credible: “The idea that academic freedom is under threat is a myth. The main concern our members express is not with thinktank-inspired bogeymen, but with the current government’s wish to police what can and cannot be taught at university.”

More than 40% of the 820 academics surveyed by YouGov were retired, with an average age of 70, and may not have worked in British higher education.

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The report’s conclusions may be embraced by government and the OfS, which have both recently warned universities that they will face increased scrutiny on free speech.

Michelle Donelan, the universities minister, said: “It is deeply concerning the extent to which students and academics with mainstream views are being silenced and discriminated against in our universities.

“This report has emphasised the need for action. University leaders must do much more to champion freedom of speech, and this government is committed to bringing forward measures to strengthen free speech and academic freedom, potentially including legislation.”

The report included individual responses from academics who felt they had suffered political discrimination. One, described as a “centrist Remainer”, said: “A previous line manager had a large photo of Jeremy Corbyn on his desk. When I failed to approve (I said nothing) he had me removed from the programme despite very positive feedback.”