We always enjoy pieces by Joanna Williams, education editor at spiked. This was published earlier this week:
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/teaching_students_not_to_think/14479#.UtA4Pl5FCM8
A couple of excerpts:
When calls to censor academics come not from heavy-handed managers but from feminist colleagues seeking to curtail debate, academic freedom is not as clear-cut an issue as it may have been in the past…
More problematic, particularly in the social sciences, is a growing sense that there are some views that just cannot be expressed. On the one hand, the pseudo-radical, broadly left-wing consensus that pervades universities means that castigating neoliberalism, the influence of the popular media, and the desire to consume, will automatically garner the support of the peers who will review your work for publication and you for promotion. On the other hand, not paying lip-service to the importance of feminism, the welfare state, and protecting the environment, is more likely to see your work rejected. New academics are often recruited because their research fits into the existing departmental culture. Students are taught the values of their lecturers…
A survey of British social sciences professors some years ago found that 90% of them described their politics as left-wing, and only 3% were Conservative voters.
