Thread by @docrussjackson

#Thread

Taken from @Wonkhe, "the home of HE policy, bringing the sector together through expert analysis, debate and insight. A community of diverse voices, providing platforms to drive the policy conversation forward."

wonkhe.com/about-us/

"Has higher education become the ultimate wedge issue? Casual observers of the news would be forgiven for thinking that universities have become chilly places where debate is stifled and the original purposes of higher education have been corrupted by sinister woke forces."

"Such is the nature of the Westminster government’s culture war that while its own political fortunes wane, it’s able to prosecute that war with ever-increasing ferocity and effect."

"And it’s all a terrible worry for exactly the sort of voter that the government wants to target with it, because that’s the idea of a wedge issue – it drives a wedge in order to unite your supporters and divide your opponents."

My take on wedge issues:

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1538823847411056640?s=20&t=qdBMMuFMqZj5SUkNtBPLOw

"For those of us working inside HE, it’s all highly alarming."

As UK Government ministers go after the Race Equality Charter, Jonathan Simons explains why it serves the government to push identity issues in fighting the culture war:

wonkhe.com/blogs/how-high…

"Universities minister Michelle Donelan last week wrote to universities asking them to consider whether signing up to the Race Equality Charter was consistent with freedom of speech or good value for money & implied that funding was at risk for universities that signed up to it."

"Quite aside from the broad consensus in the sector that race equality in HE is a real issue that needs serious, sustained, and long-term work to tackle, the meagre few thousands of pounds that it actually costs strains the credibility of the financial case against it."

"For most in the sector, the letter read both as an attack on universities’ autonomy in deciding how to tackle issues like race equality and as a signal that doing so was wrong – and we should leave the issue alone."

A “line has been crossed” both in what ministers should have any right to dictate universities do on principle & on the issue itself - race equality, which the sector has mostly agreed to tackle in part by continuing to sign up to the Race Equality Charter". - Universities UK

'Taking aim at charters is a signal to others who treat this area with scepticism – a view more predominantly held among Conservative voters – that the government takes a clear position, & those on the other side – universities, in this instance – are of a different identity.'

"It’s a highly cynical, and often effective, import from the US & the tactics of the Republican Party."

Paul Greatrix reads Michelle Donelan's letter to vice chancellors on free speech and "external benchmarking programmes":

wonkhe.com/blogs/the-mini…

Michelle Donelan fires a big new shot at the sector in the culture wars.

"If you were hoping for a ceasefire in the culture wars following last week’s by-election results, you will be disappointed to be working in higher education in England."

wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/mi…

"The context for the letter was also the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill that continues its passage through Parliament as we write. But how universities choosing to sign up to the Race Equality Charter counters freedom of speech is anyone’s guess."

"Indeed, the implication that the Race Equality Charter should be cancelled feels like the biggest attack on free speech that's happened in higher education in a long time."

This is an extremely concerning development from the UK Government.

"Last week saw the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords, and peers and former university ministers used the opportunity to pour cold water on the proposals, the inconsistencies behind it all, and the bill’s questionable practical effects."

"@Wonkhe’s own research on the tiny number of cancelled events that have taken place was raised on the floor and dismissed by (Brextremist Spiked crank) Baroness Fox, who, in the debate, said it “ignored the corrosive rise of self-censorship”."

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1363985490077229058?s=20&t=qdBMMuFMqZj5SUkNtBPLOw

"If the legislation is NOT there to tackle event cancellation on free speech grounds, then the idea it has some sort of reach into what people think is a surreal & Orwellian new direction for the bill. One peer described it as being markedly “un-Conservative” for this reason."

"If none of this sounds like it makes any sense, remember why all this is happening in the first place: a big political effort to make HE an issue of identity, & to appeal to those who do not understand, or have had the opportunity to engage with it...

...and put them, & those of us inside HE or have benefited from it, on two opposite sides of political identity in the hope strengthening support for the government among Conservative-inclined voters."

And of course, it's all amplified by the right-wing media.

#DivideAndRule

What did the Lords have to say about free speech on campus? David Kernohan and Jim Dickinson watch the second reading of the free speech bill so you don't have to.

wonkhe.com/blogs/can-you-…

"You cannot cancel cancel culture, any more than you can realistically no-platform ideas you detest in the age of the internet. However, you can demonise the courts, the arts, the academy & even the young in a culture war of divide & rule.” - Baroness Shami Chakrabarti.

This effort will almost certainly fail: data points in the opposite direction. Research by Bobby Duffy of King’s College London shows, “there’s not a great deal of awareness or particular focus among the UK public about universities being in the front line of this [culture war]”.

And as Public First research we’ve previously published shows, people in focus groups may often say that they think too many people are going to university, and will say there ought to be more apprenticeships for young people.

There’s no real rancour in the debate; people generally recognise the good that graduates/universities do & even as there remains strong & justifiable interest in alternative routes, the actual demand for HE continues to grow, much to the chagrin of the UK universities minister.