Universities need to get a grip of students trying to stifle free speech - Andrew Vine

Exactly when and how did our universities become incubators of a student militancy against free speech that wouldn’t be out of place in a totalitarian state?

Institutions that were historically bastions of vigorous debate and the exchange of ideas have instead become hostages to the juvenile posturing of students who have the effrontery to believe they can tell others what to think.

Speakers are silenced or shouted down, and even characterised as extremists when they are nothing of the sort. It isn’t only individuals who are being demonised in this way. Legitimate organisations find themselves the subject of protests or excluded from campuses.

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Last week, it emerged that student activists had forced the RAF to withdraw from several university recruitment fairs. Defence companies have also been targeted.

Students march to deliver their demands to Cambridge University as they protest against the war in Gaza. PIC: Joe Giddens/PA WireStudents march to deliver their demands to Cambridge University as they protest against the war in Gaza. PIC: Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Students march to deliver their demands to Cambridge University as they protest against the war in Gaza. PIC: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

In Sheffield, students waved Gaza flags in protest. In York, they were crowing on social media about preventing the insurance company Aviva and the heavy machinery manufacturer JCB from recruiting, accusing both of being complicit in “genocide”.

To level such a charge at two long-established and entirely reputable British companies would be laughably absurd if it wasn’t so serious.

And this is a deadly serious issue that’s getting worse. Hardly a month passes without headlines about speakers being told they are not welcome at universities or academics being hounded out of their jobs for daring to say something that did not agree with a prevailing hard-left orthodoxy espoused by students.

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This goes far beyond young people expressing views which can be characterised – and even chuckled at by grown-ups – as ‘woke’.

It is the sort of crushing of dissenting voices that might be found in countries such as Russia or China, and the tactics deployed to silence them are chillingly similar.

There is the same determination to eradicate debate and destroy the credibility – even careers – of those who deviate from a strict set of beliefs by denouncing them and doing the utmost to ensure they disappear from public view, never to be heard from again.

Students themselves are not immune from the thought-police among their peers. In recent weeks, there have been stories of young people being ostracised and given the silent treatment by those they thought of as friends.

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Their crime? To express a different point of view, or even simply failing to join a chorus of condemnation.

This is peer pressure of the most sinister variety. Add to it the social media pile-ons that are weaponised to reinforce the exclusion of somebody and it is no surprise there is an upsurge in mental health problems among students.

Unless universities find the courage to stand up to this militancy, we’re going to reap a bitter crop of consequences in the years ahead.

The students stifling debate and refusing to countenance any view that disagrees with their own are the teachers and company managers of the future, with responsibility for nurturing and guiding children and young people.

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Instead, they’ll be preaching intolerance and practising indoctrination.

How great a danger to our society’s tradition of free and frank debate this bullying and enforced censorship has become is shown by the government reviving the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act.

Originally introduced by the Conservatives, Labour initially said it would shelve the legislation, but last week changed its mind, which can only be taken as an indication it recognises the dangers of intolerance.

It really has come to something when a government facing so many problems, especially a shaky economy and an NHS gripped by its worst winter crisis, has to devote time and energy to a law ensuring people can speak as they please.

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The government is right to press ahead with placing a duty on universities and student unions to protect and promote free speech.

It is one of the fundamentals of our democracy, and universities should be leading the way in promoting open debate, not surrendering to noisy mob rule that dictates a single viewpoint on any given subject is the only one permitted to be heard.

Higher education too often goes in fear of its students, worried they will take their fees elsewhere.

Universities need to put this aside and make clear to all potential students there are certain ground rules that must be observed.

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If they want to wave a placard at a public protest in their own time, that’s their business, but within the university there is an absolute right for all to express legitimate views which can then be debated in a civilised manner.

Nor should students disrupting recruitment fairs, or attempting to intimidate organisations, be tolerated. The likes of the RAF, Aviva and JCB are there to help young people by offering rewarding careers, and they too should be treated with respect.

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