Bridget Phillipson accused of failing to protect free speech

More than 300 academics, including Nobel Prize winners, have written to Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson accusing her of failing to tackle ‘cancel culture’ on university campuses.

The letter to Phillipson was signed by 370 academics, including three Nobel Laureates and says that the current culture is “damaging the integrity of research and scholarship”.

Their concerns centre around plans unveiled last year to set up a legal complaints system to protect university academics from attempts to cancel or censor them for expressing controversial or challenging views. This system would build on the measures introduced in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act passed in 2023.

Phillipson, however, has failed to set any timetable for the establishment of the complaints system, and it looks unlikely that the measures will be included in the next parliamentary session.

The academics’ letter accuses Phillipson of kicking the scheme “into the long grass” with “real consequences for academics at the sharp end”.

“There is no justice without access to justice,” they write to the Education Secretary. “Until the complaints scheme is in force, universities can disregard their duties with impunity.” They urge Phillipson to make time in the next parliamentary session to enable the system to be put in place.

One of the organisers of the letter was Professor of Mathematics at Queen Mary University, Abhishek Saha. He commented: “The government has done nothing to implement what it promised and in the meantime academics continue to be silenced with no recourse”. “At the moment we have a system that does not do what is needed to protect free speech and we have no idea when we are going to get one,” he said, adding, “Bridget Phillipson needs to make this an urgent priority to stop academics being hung out to dry.”

A Department of Education spokesperson responded, “We will legislate to amend and repeal elements of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, including a comprehensive complaints scheme, when parliamentary time allows.”