University students are too scared to speak their minds in seminars because they fear ostracism by their peers, Oxford dons have claimed.
Prof Lawrence Goldman, of St Peter’s College, said today’s undergraduates are “frightened” of how others will react if they are offended by their views on topics such as slavery and the British Empire.
Speaking to Times Radio, Prof Goldman said students were now “somewhat reticent to speak openly because they feel that there are ideologies that they mustn’t transgress”.
“It’s become the case that there are certain areas of historical study that are very sensitive for obvious reasons, like slavery and colonialism,” he said.
“And it’s very difficult, as it were, for students to speak openly, and you can sense that they may not be agreeing with each other but it’s not done anymore for them to disagree, as was the case, say, 10 or 15 years ago in seminars.
Prof Goldman added: “What saddens me is that it’s been imposed in such a way, and I think imposed is the word.
“It’s been imposed on young people so that they don’t have the confidence to think for themselves based upon the sources that they’re reading.”
The Chair of the Free Speech Union (FSU), Prof Nigel Biggar, regius professor emeritus of moral theology at Oxford, told The Telegraph that “self-censoring fear is now a fact of academic life”.
“In Oxford a few years ago, I was approached by a young post-doctoral fellow in history,” Prof Biggar said. “He expressed firm sympathy with my moderate, nuanced views of colonialism and asked to meet.
“When I agreed, he then urged that we find a venue where none of his colleagues would see us, since he feared association with views like mine would damage his career prospects.
“If a junior academic was scared of publicly owning his dissent from ‘decolonising’ orthodoxy’, we can be sure that even more vulnerable undergraduates are also biting their tongues.
“Self-censoring fear is now a fact of academic life, and university leaders who pretend there’s no problem with free speech simply aren’t looking.”
The intervention by senior Oxford dons comes after the Labour Government moved to quash the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act.
This was a carefully crafted piece of legislation, properly debated in both Houses of Parliament, and designed to address the free speech crisis in English universities.
Having received cross-party support during the last Parliament, its key clauses were due to be commenced on 1st August — but following the election of the Labour Party, the new Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, seized her chance to derail it.
The FSU has sent a pre-action protocol letter to Ms Phillipson, threatening a judicial review if she doesn’t reverse her decision to smother the Act — in our letter, we set out why we think her decision not to commence the Act was ultra vires.
We intend to fight this wanton act of vandalism with everything we’ve got. If the Labour government’s decision is allowed to stand, it will become virtually impossible for students of the kind Prof Goldman and Prof Biggar allude to, to question radical progressive ideology on campus.
Of the 2,700 cases the FSU has handled since it was set up almost five years ago, about 20 per cent have involved students or academics who’ve got into trouble for challenging the prevailing woke orthodoxy on campus, particularly when it comes to the history of slavery and colonialism.
So if you can, please donate to our legal crowdfunder and help meet some of the costs of our impending legal battle — such challenges are always expensive, so any help would be hugely appreciated.
