According to a former Tory adviser and senior civil servant, the new Conservative government would legislate to create a "global academic freedom champion," while limits on low-quality courses in universities could restore funding to further education in a move tailored to the new electorate of the Tories.
Having brought a Conservative government with a large Parliamentary majority to power in the United Kingdom's general election, business attention will concentrate on the manifesto commitments of the party, which include promises to strengthen academic freedom and freedom of expression in universities and address the issue of low-quality Education courses.
A paper published by Policy Exchange, entitled "The First Hundred Days: How the Government can Implement the Pledges in its 2019 Election Manifesto," says ministers will move swiftly to incorporate academic freedom and freedom of expression on the campus bill and thus follow a proposal advocated by the think tank in a recent report on the issue.
Universities are a potential target when the Conservatives try to consolidate their increased support from the working class, predominantly non-graduate voters in cities across the Midlands and North by fighting "racial wars" against institutions that they consider to be hostile to Tory ideals.
Iain Mansfield, Head of Education, Skills and Science at Policy Exchange, Jo Johnson's former special advisor in his brief return as university minister, said key suggestions in the free speech report of the think tank included "the expansion of the legislative obligation on freedom of speech to include universities and student unions as well as HEIs."
Mansfield, a former senior civil servant in the Education Department, said a recent report from the Policy Institute at King's College London found that "at least one-third of Conservative or Leave-supporting students do not feel comfortable sharing their opinions" at university.
The Policy Institute report also found that a few UK students have heard of cases where freedom of expression in their own university has been restricted. Universities are already subject to provisions under current legislation to protect freedom of expression.
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and former Tory Special Adviser, said that because the Tories did better than anyone predicted in the election, then using that campus free speech as a means to spark a new culture war, he is not sure who will benefit from it. It is not obvious to him that it favors either politicians or universities assuming there's a larger free speech problem in our universities than there is.
On the reference to low-quality courses from the manifesto, Mansfield said that this should be interpreted "in accordance with where the Conservatives have gained seats. Mansfield believes that it leads them to a genuine wholesale rebalancing between HE and FE in terms of funding, numbers, appreciation, and so on. He claims that in looking at low-quality courses, it will have to be part of the solution.
There have been a number of frameworks to assess which courses are not being delivered, such as the system for teaching excellence, dropout rates, and job progress results, he said. Mansfield added that, for at least certain institutions or courses, he would support the reintroduction of number limits.
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