Worst Universities for Free Speech Identified by Academic Freedom Group

A student on graduation day at Coventry University in Coventry, United Kingdom, in an undated file photo. (Alamy/PA)

A group that has been documenting speakers’ protests and academic cancelations across campuses for nearly two decades has identified which universities have had the most “chilling effect” on free speech.

Since 2006, the group Academics For Academic Freedom (AFAF) has recorded examples of protests, no-platforming, sackings, and resignations that have resulted in the restriction of freedom of speech on campuses across Britain and Ireland.

AFAF also maintains The Banned List, a list of academics and others who have faced attempts to censor them or ban them from campuses, which it has now analysed to identify universities that have been the “worst offenders” for free speech.

A total of ninety-seven incidents have been recorded on forty-three campuses across the UK and Ireland since 2006, sixty-nine involving University decisions and twenty-eight involving student unions.

The “top five” worst offending universities experienced a total of forty-eight incidents or 49.48 percent of the total since its records.

“These may seem to be relatively small numbers but the effect each case has on the sector overall is chilling,” wrote AFAF.

‘Worst Offender’

AFAF found that the “worst offender” was the University of Cambridge, with a total of eight incidents, two of these incidents involved the Cambridge Students’ Union.

One example at Cambridge included that of Helen Joyce, the author of “Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality,” who was invited to speak at Gonville and Caius College in October 2022 on the subject of ‘Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced.”

At the time, the College LGBTQI+ officers called for her to be de-platformed, calling her work “offensive, insulting, and hateful.”

In January 2020, Selina Todd, a University of Oxford historian was given two male guards to protect her on the way to, and in lectures because of threats by potentially violent trans activists who accused her of being “transphobic.”

False ‘Islamophobia’ Accusations

In second place was the University of Bristol, with a total of seven incidents, four of which involved the Bristol Students’ Union.

A University of Bristol example included that of Steven Greer, a professor and a leading authority on human rights and counter-terrorism legislation, who was forced into hiding in fear for his life after students made false “Islamophobia” accusations.

At one point, he was forced to wear a disguise and carry a weapon for his own protection after Bristol University’s Islamic Society (BriSoc) at the University of Bristol Law School complained that elements of his course were “racist” and “discriminatory.”

In October 2021 the university said its investigation into a module taught by Greer “found no evidence of Islamophobic speech.” Bristol Law School still decided to remove his “Islam, China, and the Far East” module from the syllabus to avoid upsetting Muslims.

A graduation ceremony at the University of Suffolk's campus in Ipswich, England, in October 2015. (PA)

In joint third place came the University of Essex and the University of Oxford, both of which saw a total of six incidents, with each of their student unions involved in one incident.

AFAF said that while many student unions have taken “hard-line” approaches towards protecting their students from freedom of thought on campus and establishing “safe spaces,” there have been many examples of universities defending the rights to academic freedom and freedom of debate on campus.

Keenan Clough, who did the analysis, told The Epoch Times that there is often “a balance in action” between universities and their own student unions.

“You have these two different ideas, strong liberalism, where people should be allowed to speak more freely at university, and you have the more ‘woke’ student union, trying to overstep and protect students even if it’s a common sense debate,” he said.

“They may be inviting controversial speakers, but it’s the student’s right to listen and challenge,” added Clough.

‘Woke’ Policies Through Censorship

Prof. Dennis Hayes, president of Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF), told The Epoch Times by email that “over the years we have seen the development of a new elite in society, starting with the top universities.”

“An elite that promotes what are now called ‘woke’ policies through censorship,” he said.

“The young people at top institutions, and elsewhere, know that they can show that they are part of that elite by restricting what they consider offensive views,” he added.

Hayes said they are “sensitive to views those in power in universities and their future employers find unacceptable.”

“It is a rite of passage to powerful jobs. Once they would have had liberal credentials and supported free speech as part of a rite of passage but doing that today would make their loyalty to the new elite questionable,” he said.

“The new elite is made up of university lecturers, HR, and public sector managers, the heads of big charities rather than the old political elites,” he said.

Hayes added that the “values and attitudes required to be part of the new elite are not clear and are developing over time.”

“This comes out when people deny that there is any such thing as ‘woke.’ This is clear in the Banned List where bans are no longer merely political but are often based on perceived cultural and personal viewpoints,” he added.

Hayes added that “top universities always attract attention and it may be that at other universities attacks on free speech are easily passed over or hushed up.”

The Epoch Times contacted universities and their subsequent students’ unions.

A University of Bristol spokesperson told The Epoch Times by email: “The University supports the right to hold conferences and talks on controversial topics. We are committed to ensuring that free speech and academic freedom are reflected in both our policies and practices and that free speech and debate are promoted, except where there are serious concerns about public disorder or the direct incitement of violence or hatred.”