Reclaiming the University from the Culture Wars

This in-person event in central London, in association with Student Academics for Academic Freedom (SAFAF), is free but please register using the form below.

Universities have always been in the vanguard of the so-called ‘woke’ revolution. After the election of Donald Trump, there has been an apparent cultural ‘vibe shift’, with criticism of DEI in the UK increasing – but universities seem to be doubling down. For example, newly proposed funding guidelines aim to cut research funding from institutions that fail to meet diversity guidelines. Meanwhile, paternalism dominates student life. Some worry that the very notion of the risk-taking, intellectually autonomous student is drowning under wellbeing guidelines and a mental-health apparatus seemingly resistant to reform.

On the other hand, some students are beginning to take up the fight against the censorious campus climate. And some things appear to be changing. In some instances, debates on topics such as sex and gender are no longer drowned out by banging pots and pans from student activists and can now take place with only minor disturbances. The Freedom of Speech in Higher Education Act, previously put on pause, will be implemented by the Labour government in revised form and Lord Hague, the new chancellor of the University of Oxford, says that universities must not be ‘comfort blankets of cancellation’. Are these signs of hope, or more false promises?

How do students who wish to change campus culture navigate questions about intellectual independence and academic freedom? Has managerialism destroyed the university for good, or can it be reformed? What are the biggest problems facing the modern university? How can we in the 21st-century best harness the spirit of true intellectual endeavour, inside and outside the universities?

SPEAKERS
Lara Brown
policy researcher specialising in culture and identity; former president, Cambridge Union

Jaiden Long
convenor, Student Academics for Academic Freedom

Sam Rubinstein
writer and historian

CHAIR
Felice Basbøll project assistant, Living Freedom

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