Cambridge philosophy professor Arif Ahmed has been appointed by the Westminster government as England’s first Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom.
With the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill completing its tortuous two year passage through parliament, The Times confirms that Ahmed, the favoured candidate of Spiked!, the Free Speech Union and the Commons “Common Sense” group, will join the board of the Office for Students (OfS), enforce new duties on universities and SUs, and operate the new ombuds scheme that is gifted to the regulator in the legislation.
In the absence of a formal announcement from the Department for Education (DfE), Ahmed takes to The Times’ paywall to argue that there are “urgent threats” to free speech and academic freedom in universities and colleges, and that “all means necessary” must be used to address them:
A university is not a club. It is not a political lobby. It is not a seminary. It is not a “brand”. It exists to seek and speak truth, whatever it costs and whoever it upsets. Therefore, without freedom to explore controversial or “offensive” ideas, a university is nothing.
