University students receive training to counter ‘cancel culture’

STUDENTS at the University of Cambridge are to get free-speech training, as part of a project aimed at countering “cancel culture” on campus.

The sessions – aimed at educating undergraduates about the importance of tolerating views they disagree with – will be rolled out at universities across the country if successful.

It comes amid warnings from the university watchdog that free speech is at risk of being stifled on campuses after a record number of speakers and events were rejected last year.

There have been a string of incidents where university chiefs have censured speakers after pressure from students who deemed their views “offensive”.

Arif Ahmed, a Cambridge philosophy professor, is hosting the two-part series of free-speech training sessions at his college next month. “Whatever subject you are studying, it is an essential part of university education that you understand the need for tolerance of a wide range of views, even ones that you find shocking or offensive,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “That’s why an education in the basic principles of free speech could be useful for all students.”

He said the training sessions are aimed at students, but they could be expanded for academics as well, adding: “As we have seen recently there are also many academics who don’t understand the importance of tolerating views that they find offensive. It may be that similar training is necessary for academics – as much as it horrifies me to say that.”

Prof Ahmed has been at the centre of multiple free-speech controversies at Cambridge. In December 2020, dons forced a vote on a policy that would require them to “respect” other viewpoints. His amendment, which replaced the word “respect” with “tolerate”, was voted through in what the rebels described as “a landslide”.

Earlier this month, he was rebuked by his college’s master for inviting the author Helen Joyce to come and speak to students about cancel culture.

Ms Joyce has been vocal about her view that laws and policies are being “reshaped to privilege self-identified gender identity over biological sex”.

Students launched protests and the college’s master, Prof Pippa Rogerson, emailed all students saying she was boycotting the “insulting and hateful” speaker.

Prof Ahmed said the entire saga only confirmed his views about the importance of free speech.

The first class will feature talks about the 17th-century thinkers John Locke and John Milton, followed by a discussion about toleration and the “rise of a new puritanism” where “being offended can be deemed an offence”.

The second will include speakers on totalitarianism and universalism, then a debate about freedom in society today.

The talks are being organised by Alastair Donald, co-convenor of the Battle of Ideas, a charity that promotes public debate.

He described how “over the past few years there has not been any cultural support for the idea that free speech is a good thing”.