More students back firing lecturers who teach offensive material

More than a third of UK undergraduates believe academics should be fired if they “teach material that heavily offends some students”, according to a survey that found that students appear to be a lot less supportive of free speech than they were six years ago.

Thirty-six per cent of the 1,000 students polled by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) felt that lecturers should be dismissed in these circumstances, compared with just 15 per cent who took part in a similar survey in 2016.

A significant majority (78 per cent) expressed support for mandatory training for all university staff to ensure that they “understand other cultures”, compared with 55 per cent six years ago, while only 34 per cent agreed that libraries should stock controversial resources for the purposes of academic study, down from 47 per cent.

The survey, published on 23 June, also found widespread backing for the use of “trigger warnings” in teaching. Thirty-four per cent of respondents said they should always be used to protect students from offence, and 52 per cent said they should be used if a topic was “especially controversial or shocking”. Only 7 per cent felt that such warnings were “over the top in a university environment”, down from 18 per cent in 2016.

Hepi director Nick Hillman, the report’s author, said he did not want the findings to be used to promote the view that students were “snowflakes”, but, he continued, “it does suggest there are some genuine issues here that these students think differently to those who went to university a few years ago, and universities need to engage with this”.

Mr Hillman said the steep increase in those who would support sacking lecturers who taught offensive material was “among the most worrying findings in the survey” because it suggested that a good proportion of students “don’t fully understand academic norms”.

The results emerged after University of Sussex professor Kathleen Stock faced a campaign from students at her institution who objected to her “gender-critical” views. Despite being backed by Sussex, she eventually resigned.

Mr Hillman said he got the sense that students were so concerned about protecting the rights of vulnerable groups on campus that they appeared willing to countenance some “pretty illiberal measures without thinking through always what the negative consequences of those measures could be”.

In the survey, 61 per cent of respondents said universities should “ensure that all students are protected from discrimination rather than allow unlimited free speech”, up significantly from 37 per cent in 2016. The proportion supporting unlimited free speech fell from 27 per cent to 17 per cent.

Thirty-nine per cent of respondents agreed that students’ unions should “ban all speakers that cause offence to some students”, up from 16 per cent in 2016. While one in four students backed bans on groups such as the far-right English Defence League, 11 per cent felt this should be extended to the ruling Conservative Party.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com