Sunday 4th February

Academic freedom – not an abstract issue

The Guardian has just confirmed it will be publishing the following letter from me tomorrow:

“Your report (Scientist offered cash to dispute climate study, February 2) of an ExxonMobil-funded think-tank's efforts to discredit scientific findings on climate change and recent attempts by the US government to remove phrases like "global warming" from scientific reports are only the latest examples of inexcusable pressures on US academic staff. But there are pressures in the UK too.
It is even worse when government agencies, supposedly publicly accountable, engage in the same behaviour. Only a few weeks ago the commons science and technology select committee raised "extreme concerns" about allegations that research findings were manipulated to suit the government's own policy agenda. Researchers undertaking work for the Home Office, the Department for Education and Skills, and the Department of Health have all suffered the suppression of results or attempts to undermine their professional authority. Climate change is too important to allow such bullying to distort research.”Roger Kline Head of equality and employment rights, University and College Union
(PS. It can be found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2005907,00.html)

“Academic freedom is an essential “space” within which to ensure that academic staff have freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing themselves in jeopardy of losing their jobs or privileges;!

Academic freedom faces a serious threat from rising workloads, increasing commercial influences in research, and the growing dependence of academic institutions on the private sector and Government contracts.

The culture of managerialism encourages the erosion of academic freedom both through its subservience to commercial pressures and through its tendency to bully staff and marginalise academics within governance.

UCU needs to make it clear that we as a union regard academic freedom as a sine quo non of university research and teaching. Intellectual Property Rules and any changes to model statutes should be primarily considered in that light.

Moreover job insecurity and the dependence on fixed term staff and variable hours staff is itself a threat to academic freedom as such staff are much more vulnerable to pressures to conform.

UCU must stand up robustly on behalf of whistleblowers and seek to link a statutory right to academic freedom to the right to whistleblow.