Now students call for LESS free speech

UNIVERSITY students have become less tolerant in the past six years with one in ten wanting to ban the Conservative Party from campuses, a study has shown.

A poll of 1,000 undergraduates by the Higher Education Policy Institute show that today’s ‘Covid generation’ of students want more restrictions on free speech than their predecessors who came of age around the time of the Brexit referendum.

More than a third – 36 per cent – now think academics should be fired if they ‘teach material that heavily offends some students’. This compares with just 15 per cent in 2016, the last time the think tank conducted the same survey.

In addition, 76 per cent think universities should ‘get rid of’ memorials of controversial figures, such as the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College Oxford, up from 51 per cent.

Meanwhile, 39 per cent believe students’ unions should ‘ban all speakers that cause offence’ – more than double the 16 per cent in 2016. And 86 per cent support ‘trigger warnings’ on course content which might upset students, up from 68 per cent.

Students are also more intolerant of mainstream politicians, with 11 per cent wanting to ban the Tory party from their campus – up from 6 per cent.

Universities minister Michelle Donelan said university leaders ‘must take active steps to combat these intolerant attitudes on campus, both promoting and protecting free speech’.