‘Frightening’ Decolonisation Movement Taking Hold of British Universities: Report

A student on graduation day at Coventry University in Coventry, United Kingdom, in an undated file photo. Alamy/PA

Seventy percent of UK universities are undertaking some form of decolonisation, according to a new report.

The British think tank Civitas, which works on issues related to democracy and social policy, claims that while attacks on free speech seem to be worsening, universities are also seeing the spread of a phenomenon known as “decolonisation.”

The report (pdf) said that decolonisation has no concrete definition, but that it “seeks to rewrite academic curricula as well as reorder the university as an institution, in the name of making them more ‘inclusive.’”

“Is this a threat to academic freedom? The answer is ‘yes’, if it entails pressure on academics by radical activists to conform, overriding their independence in setting their reading lists and writing their lectures,” wrote report author Richard Norrie, director of statistics at Civitas.

Seven in 10 universities admitted to “decolonising” their curriculums in some form through official statements or academic advocates.

‘Frightening’

It noted that there is a “frightening” side of decolonisation, which is the radical idea that the institutions and cultural practices of a society lead to injustice, violence, and exploitation, and “can and must be replaced by new ones.”

In terms of policy, the report pointed to a Higher Education Policy Institute paper authored by Mia Liyanage, called “Miseducation: Decolonising curricula, culture and pedagogy in UK universities” (pdf).

Liyanage recommends that universities “institutionalise decolonisation” by implementing specific departmental roles.

This includes “interrogating staff and students’ positionality before even approaching curricula.”

This would mean offering “some critical reflexive activities to get them to think about whiteness, and privilege, and the damaging effects of colonialism within their subject area.”

“That students and staff are to be ‘interrogated’ on things they cannot help becomes a form of inquisition,” said Norrie. “This would entail their screening for bad thoughts,” he added.

The report added that free speech controversies occur more frequently in universities that have official policies on decolonisation, as well as academic advocates of decolonisation.

Civitas said there were 374 free speech controversies in UK universities between January 2017 and August 2020, with 123 related to transgenderism and 14 to Islam.

It added that “threats to free speech, controversies and the new radicalism of transgenderism and decolonisation” tend to be associated with top British universities.

However, Norrie said that the think tank’s analysis “would imply however that these things can happen at any university, despite whatever general patterns there might be.”

The Civitas work concludes by arguing there are a growing number of students who prefer “cossetting to free inquiry” and that top universities are both more “woke” and more libertarian.

This is despite a poll in June concluding that students in general are significantly less supportive of free expression than they were just a few years ago.

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is currently being discussed in Parliament. This legislation will require universities and colleges to defend free speech and help stamp out unlawful “silencing,” and will give a higher education regulator the power to impose fines on institutions if they breach this condition.