Much of the supporting commentary around the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill and academic freedom goes like this.
Academics who wish to exert their academic freedom to research, produce knowledge, question beliefs, and pursue their interests are faced with “the uncompromising attitude of students.”
Students who seek similar autonomy in their learning through shaping their curriculum and reading lists, however, are undergoing “radicalisation”.
This mutually exclusive framing loses the importance of students as partners in pedagogy and erases the students’ academic freedom.
In all the discussion on academic freedom, the idea that students have a right to academic freedom has not been given much – or any – attention.
