Students using identity politics to shut down free speech, university minister warns Ministers have warned of the threat posed to free speech on university campuses by students who use “identity politics” to […]

Ministers have warned of the threat posed to free speech on university campuses by students who use “identity politics” to shut down the “free exchange of ideas” in the lecture hall.

Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, spoke of his fears that a “monoculture” was developing within student bodies, which he said was leading to a “lack of diversity of thought” in the sector.

“This is a really, really big problem and there is a danger of a culture of denial,” Mr Gyimah said. “What surprised me was the correspondence I got from members of the public – parents etc – saying thanks for raising this. So this is not some right-wing conspiracy that someone has cooked up. This is a real problem and we’ve got to deal with it.”

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Free speech

He gave an example of a student at King’s College, London who complained about their lecturer for siding with the British army when explaining a key flashpoint at the onset of the Cold War.

“In explaining the British blockade of Berlin, he appeared to take the side of the British and one of his students took offence and used the complaints procedure to bring a complaint against him for hate speech,” Mr Gyimah told delegates at the University of Buckingham’s Higher Education Festival.

King’s College strenuously denied such an incident took place, however.

The politician has become increasingly concerned of late by the number of student societies attempting to shut down debates in a bid to provide “safe spaces” on campus.

Student bodies were using existing university laws to “obstruct” other people’s views they disagreed with that they find “unfashionable”, he said.

Last month, he demanded university leaders stamp out the “institutional hostility” towards free speech that has taken root on their campuses, as he called for official guidance on freedom of speech to be torn up and re-written for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Racist abuse

Mr Gyimah also raised concerns at the rise of racist incidents taking place at universities, such as the case of racist chanting at Nottingham Trent University, which saw law student Joe Tivnan convicted of racially aggravated harassment.

The minister described such incidents as “unacceptable” and spoke of his own experience of suffering racism when he was at Oxford University running for president of the union.

“On the walls of the Oxford Union they have all these photos of past presidents. And one student coming up me and pointing to a photo from 1923 or something, saying to me in those days when this was a decent society, you would never have been elected. And looked at it to see people who did not look like me.

“I just shook my head and told him where to go,” he said.

A King’s College, London spokeswoman said: “We have looked into this matter and have found absolutely no evidence of any complaint or allegation of hate speech made against any of our lecturers by students or anyone else in relation to this topic.”