UK Edition
Sussex University under fire over workshop on how to 'deal with right-wing attitudes in the classroom'
Sussex University has been accused of undermining free speech after one of its leading professors held a workshop for academic staff of how to “deal with right-wing attitudes in the classroom”.
The event stoked controversy among students and staff, who complained that the institution was revealing its political bias.
The workshop, titled “Dealing with right wing attitudes and politics in the classroom" took place last week and had been advertised on posters around the university.
Dan Hough, a politics professor at the university, published a picture of the poster on Twitter, with the caption: “Perhaps we should just talk about, analyse and then evaluate all positions in any given debate, no?”
Harry Howard, a third year History and Politics student, told The Telegraph that he was “shocked and angry” to see the poster on display in the Politics Faculty.
He said there is a “worrying aversion” to right wing opinions at the university adding that “universities should be intellectually diverse, rather than echo chambers of left wing opinion”.
Professor Claire Annesley, head of the law, politics and sociology faculty, wrote a blog on Tuesday in response to the debacle. She said she is concerned to learn that students are keeping their "economically liberal" views to themselves in seminars, and that undergraduates with conservative views had "kept schtum".
"Silencing student voices is never what we aspire to as a department," she wrote.
Earlier this month, a survey by the online magazine Spiked found that a fifth of universities are “hostile to free speech and free expression" and mandate explicit restrictions on speech, including, bans on specific ideologies, political affiliations, beliefs, books, speakers or words.
The survey found that university administrations are becoming increasingly “censorious”, with nearly a quarter of them having “actively censored speech and expression” in 2017.
Sussex University said that the workshop was about “challenging extreme attitudes, such as racist or homophobic comments” and that the “wording” of the poster had not reflected this.
Professor Alan Smithers, head of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University, said it is “alarming” that such workshops were taking place.
“The university is letting its prejudices show if it is conflating right-wing opinions with homophobia and racial prejudice,” he said.
“It is very sad the way universities are going. Within universities there has always been a spectrum of views and one of the pleasures of universities is having them rub against each other.
“That is what university is about – enabling its students to think widely and critically and come to their own views crucially backed by evidence.”
Jan Selby, Professor of International Relations and the director of the university’s Centre for Conflict and Security Research, organised the workshop but declined to respond for comment.
A university spokesman said that the staff involved in the discussion recognise that the poster "did not reflect the aims of the discussion”.
The spokesman added: "The University will never try to stifle diverging political views, which are an essential part of learning.
"The University will address any instances where it feels its freedom of speech policy is being curtailed in anyway."