Forensics students told…you may be upset by dead bodies
True scale of university ‘trigger warnings’ exposed
A STRING of top universities are warning students they may be offended by subject matter ranging from extreme far right groups to eating disorders, the Mail can reveal.
Documents show the full extent of socalled trigger warnings among Britain’s elite Russell Group of universities.
Among them, Queen’s University in Belfast told history and politics undergraduates they may be offended by modules on the far right in Western Europe and North America.
Bosses refused to reveal which groups are referred to, but any such course is likely to cover fascism in Italy and Germany in the last century. At the same university medical students are told they might find modules about euthanasia ‘upsetting’.
Trainee doctors are alerted about talking to patients with lifethreatening illnesses, while those studying forensic pathology are told that ‘slides relating to autopsies may be upsetting’. Even law students are warned about content to do with sexual offences.
The revelations come after it emerged last week that Cambridge students are being told they could find some scenes in Shakespeare plays upsetting.
Supporters say such policies protect students’ mental health but critics say it prevents them being preparing for the real world.
Trigger warnings were requested by the Mail from all 24 of the elite Russell Group of universities using Freedom of Information laws. It revealed that Oxford medical students were warned about handling ‘living animal tissue’. At Exeter, academics can forewarn students about content with the potential to be ‘offensive or upsetting’. And at the London School of Economics, anthropology students are invited to skip readings and lectures on issues such as eating disorders and the rehabilitation of paedophiles if they think their ‘health and wellbeing’ might be harmed.
One course leader states that students should ‘ make an informed choice as to when they read the material’ – perhaps avoiding night time or ‘when they are suffering from suicidal thoughts’ – and ‘even whether they want to engage with the material at all’. A history course on colonial Africa warns of ‘upsetting’ photographs and another about European history warns of ‘references to sexual activities’. The trend, which is sweeping across British universities, has been cited by critics as further evidence of a ‘snowflake generation’ of youngsters.
Many student unions now demand campuses be preserved as ‘safe spaces’ where youngsters can carry out their studies without feeling harassed.
Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said of the Mail’s findings: ‘Issuing trigger warnings infantilises young adults. It has a destructive effect. It is sending out the signal that they are not expected to handle these topics on their own.’ He said the practice is so widespread it is now viewed as ‘normal’. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, blamed ‘political correctness’, adding: ‘This is educational fascism.
‘Spineless university authorities should not allow the construction of barricades against knowledge.’
In January, the Mail revealed how theology students at Glasgow were being given trigger warnings about images of the crucifixion of Jesus. Oxford yesterday said its message to students was part of a ‘ broad background’ about the medical course to applicants rather than a trigger warning.