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free speech

  • Cultivating controversy … with civility

    6 June 2023 by Nyika Suttie

    This HEPI blog was kindly authored by Nyika Suttie, Culture and Inclusion Training Officer at the University of Bath. Much has been made of the Free Speech Act gaining Royal Assent. Meanwhile, institutions such as King’s College London (KCL) and organisations such as HEPI and WonkHE have been asking the…

  • Paper Belt On Fire – a review

    5 June 2023 by Lucy Haire

    This book review of Paper Belt On Fire by Michael Gibson was authored by Lucy Haire, HEPI’s Director of Partnerships. If you work in or with universities and colleges, it’s easy to take for granted their raison d’etre. When books and articles are published that are critical of higher education institutions,…

  • Universities stepping up to promote free speech and academic freedom

    31 October 2022 by Steve West

    As the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill returns to Parliament today, HEPI is running two blogs on the issue. This blog was kindly contributed by Professor Steve West, President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE). Freedom of speech and academic…

  • Freedom of speech, lifts, and the importance of terminology

    31 October 2022 by Andrew. M. Boggs

    As the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill returns to Parliament today, HEPI is running two blogs on the issue. This blog was kindly contributed by Andrew. M. Boggs, University Clerk at Kingston University and Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (OxCHEPs). He writes here…

  • A Free Speech Champion or Censor?

    16 July 2022 by Dean Machin

    Dean Machin is Head of Public Policy at the University of Portsmouth. He is a former philosopher who has advised David Willetts. In 2015, he wrote a report on data-sharing for the Social Mobility Commission. Dean is writing here in a personal capacity. By the time the Free Speech Bill returns…

  • Russell Group responds to HEPI free speech report

    28 June 2022 by Adam Clarke

    On Thursday 7 July, HEPI is hosting a webinar to launch its new report on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller access to higher education. Book your free place here. This blog was written by Adam Clarke, Communications Manager at the Russell Group. Freedom of expression is not an optional extra for…

  • To protect academic freedom from external ‘threats’, we must reverse the decline of academic participation in governance

    29 March 2021 by John Heathershaw

    This blog is an edited transcript of a speech delivered by Professor John Heathershaw, University of Exeter to the University of Buckingham’s Conference on Academic Freedom in March. You can find John on Twitter @HeathershawJ and the working group @AcFreeWorldUK. How does the internationalisation of higher education affect academic freedom?…

  • Bahram Bekhradnia: The White Paper on free speech is intellectually flimsy

    17 March 2021 by Bahram Bekhradnia

    Bahram Bekhradnia founded HEPI in 2002 and was its Director until the end of 2013, since when he has been HEPI’s President. Before establishing HEPI, he was the Director of Policy for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Last month the Government produced a White Paper on free speech…