Pity the poor university student. Thanks to ‘safe spaces’ and ‘trigger warnings’, ‘no platforming’ and PC hogwash, they’re being turned from rigorous intellectual thinkers into delicate hothouse flowers - and, in doing so, they’ve been barred from a grand tradition of academia that stretches back for centuries: free speech.

Yes, the very same freedom women have only been enjoying for little over a century.

According to newly published research from the Higher Education Policy Institute, more women then men think universities should safeguard people of a particular gender, race or sexuality against offensive views.

Or, depending on where you get your news, ‘female students are pro-censorship.’

There’s an ugly subtext to this argument – that all the people complaining about the right to a safe space just don’t understand what university is about. After all, it wasn’t designed for them.

But what critics of this 'censorship' are failing to bear in mind is that freedom of expression has historically been limited for women, LGBTQ people and people of colour.