Committee for Academic Freedom

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Committee for Academic Freedom

Committee for Academic Freedom

@ComAcFreedom

The law has changed. The culture hasn’t. Exposing threats to academic freedom in UK universities — and pushing institutions to meet their free-speech duties.

London 가입일 Ekim 2023
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Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
🚨 BREAKING: Another win for #academicfreedom! After intervention from the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), Plymouth Marjon University has restored the emeritus title of Dr David Harris, which was withdrawn last year after he published a critique of critical race theory. Internal emails secured via a Subject Access Request (SAR) show senior administrators describing Professor Harris’s research as “controversial” and suggesting the university should “sever ties”. CAF challenged the decision as procedurally improper and inconsistent with the terms under which his emeritus title had originally been awarded. The university has now reversed course and reinstated the title. As our Research Manager Freddie Attenborough told The Telegraph: “The episode raises serious questions about how easily lawful academic research can end up being labelled ‘controversial’ inside university administration, with damaging consequences for the individuals involved.” Professor Harris isn’t the first emeritus scholar we’ve had to defend — and we doubt he’ll be the last. 🙏 Much of CAF’s work, from supporting members in difficult cases to holding universities to account for breaches of #freespeech law, is only possible because of donations from supporters. If you’d like to help us continue and expand this work in defence of academic freedom, you can donate here: donorbox.org/support-the-co… 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter to see how CAF is pushing back against free speech breaches across UK universities: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… 📰 Read the full story in The Telegraph here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…
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Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
More than one hundred academics — including CAF Director Edward Skidelsky, signing on behalf of our organisation — have written to the Prime Minister calling for universal anti-SLAPP protections in the forthcoming King’s Speech, warning that aggressive legal threats by wealthy and powerful individuals are beginning to deter, and in some cases distort, academic research in Britain. Time to #StopSLAPPs. thecritic.co.uk/its-time-to-sc…
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Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
Dr Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher of science whose work addresses highly contested questions around race, heredity and intelligence, is once again facing an organised campaign over an academic appointment. In 2024, Cofnas became the subject of a fierce backlash at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, after publishing a blog post on these issues. The controversy culminated in Emmanuel rescinding his College Research Associate status, despite the University later concluding that his published views did not breach either the law or its own #freespeech rules. Now, following Cofnas’s appointment at Ghent University, members of the institution have launched a petition calling on the university to reverse course, again citing his published work. Describing his views as “blatant racism”, the statement concludes with an explicit demand that his hiring “is to be stopped”. In response, CAF Advisory Board member Professor Abhishek Saha has helped to organise a counter-petition in support of Cofnas’s right to #academicfreedom of expression. CAF Director Dr Edward Skidelsky is among the signatories, alongside CAF Research Manager Dr Freddie Attenborough and a number of senior academics and free speech campaigners. This is not about endorsing Cofnas’s views, but defending the principle that disagreements of this kind should be addressed through open inquiry, criticism and civil debate. Academics must, of course, be free to contest ideas they regard as deeply objectionable. But that does not extend to a veto over appointments. Universities cannot function if lawful but controversial or provocative lines of research are treated as grounds for exclusion rather than argument. You can read the statement and sign the counter-petition here: docs.google.com/document/d/1T0…
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Harry Pettit 🇱🇧🇵🇸
Harry Pettit 🇱🇧🇵🇸@HarrygPettit·
@ComAcFreedom @nathancofnas 'Universities cannot function if controversial or provocative lines of research are treated as grounds for exclusion rather than argument.' You forgot the footnote: '*except when it comes to negative views about 'israel', then we condone exclusion.'
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Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
Dr @nathancofnas’s appointment at Ghent University has prompted a campaign by members of the institution calling on the university to reverse course, citing his published work on race, heredity and intelligence. In response, CAF Advisory Board member Professor Abhishek Saha helped organised a counter-petition in support of Cofnas’s right to #academicfreedom of expression. CAF Director Dr Edward Skidelsky is among the signatories, alongside a number of senior academics from leading universities. This is not about endorsing Cofnas’s views, but about defending the principle that disagreements of this kind should be addressed through open inquiry, criticism, and civil debate. Of course, academics must be free to strongly contest ideas they regard as deeply objectionable. But that does not extend to a veto over appointments. Universities cannot function if controversial or provocative lines of research are treated as grounds for exclusion rather than argument. You can read the statement and sign the counter-petition here: drive.google.com/file/d/1RRsGma… @ObhishekSaha @ProfDHayes @epkaufm @Furedibyte @HJoyceGender @drianpace @aytchellesse @JoPhoenix1 @sapinker
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Abhishek Saha
Abhishek Saha@ObhishekSaha·
@ComAcFreedom @nathancofnas If you are an academic or public figure, and you wish to sign the statement, you may do so by leaving your signature as a suggestion/comment to the below google doc. I will try to update the signature list at least once a day. docs.google.com/document/d/1T0…
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Lasantha Wijesinghe
Lasantha Wijesinghe@ldwijesinghe·
Well done @ComAcFreedom on holding universities to account for breaches of free speach law. Lawful academic research, should not have such consequences for the researchers.
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom

🚨 BREAKING: Another win for #academicfreedom! After intervention from the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), Plymouth Marjon University has restored the emeritus title of Dr David Harris, which was withdrawn last year after he published a critique of critical race theory. Internal emails secured via a Subject Access Request (SAR) show senior administrators describing Professor Harris’s research as “controversial” and suggesting the university should “sever ties”. CAF challenged the decision as procedurally improper and inconsistent with the terms under which his emeritus title had originally been awarded. The university has now reversed course and reinstated the title. As our Research Manager Freddie Attenborough told The Telegraph: “The episode raises serious questions about how easily lawful academic research can end up being labelled ‘controversial’ inside university administration, with damaging consequences for the individuals involved.” Professor Harris isn’t the first emeritus scholar we’ve had to defend — and we doubt he’ll be the last. 🙏 Much of CAF’s work, from supporting members in difficult cases to holding universities to account for breaches of #freespeech law, is only possible because of donations from supporters. If you’d like to help us continue and expand this work in defence of academic freedom, you can donate here: donorbox.org/support-the-co… 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter to see how CAF is pushing back against free speech breaches across UK universities: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… 📰 Read the full story in The Telegraph here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…

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Committee for Academic Freedom 리트윗함
Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
🚨 BREAKING: Another win for #academicfreedom! After intervention from the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), Plymouth Marjon University has restored the emeritus title of Dr David Harris, which was withdrawn last year after he published a critique of critical race theory. Internal emails secured via a Subject Access Request (SAR) show senior administrators describing Professor Harris’s research as “controversial” and suggesting the university should “sever ties”. CAF challenged the decision as procedurally improper and inconsistent with the terms under which his emeritus title had originally been awarded. The university has now reversed course and reinstated the title. As our Research Manager Freddie Attenborough told The Telegraph: “The episode raises serious questions about how easily lawful academic research can end up being labelled ‘controversial’ inside university administration, with damaging consequences for the individuals involved.” Professor Harris isn’t the first emeritus scholar we’ve had to defend — and we doubt he’ll be the last. 🙏 Much of CAF’s work, from supporting members in difficult cases to holding universities to account for breaches of #freespeech law, is only possible because of donations from supporters. If you’d like to help us continue and expand this work in defence of academic freedom, you can donate here: donorbox.org/support-the-co… 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter to see how CAF is pushing back against free speech breaches across UK universities: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… 📰 Read the full story in The Telegraph here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…
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Will Knocker
Will Knocker@WillKnocker·
"This episode raises serious questions about how easily lawful academic research can end up being labelled ‘controversial’ inside university administration, with damaging consequences for the individuals involved.”
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom

🚨 BREAKING: Another win for #academicfreedom! After intervention from the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF), Plymouth Marjon University has restored the emeritus title of Dr David Harris, which was withdrawn last year after he published a critique of critical race theory. Internal emails secured via a Subject Access Request (SAR) show senior administrators describing Professor Harris’s research as “controversial” and suggesting the university should “sever ties”. CAF challenged the decision as procedurally improper and inconsistent with the terms under which his emeritus title had originally been awarded. The university has now reversed course and reinstated the title. As our Research Manager Freddie Attenborough told The Telegraph: “The episode raises serious questions about how easily lawful academic research can end up being labelled ‘controversial’ inside university administration, with damaging consequences for the individuals involved.” Professor Harris isn’t the first emeritus scholar we’ve had to defend — and we doubt he’ll be the last. 🙏 Much of CAF’s work, from supporting members in difficult cases to holding universities to account for breaches of #freespeech law, is only possible because of donations from supporters. If you’d like to help us continue and expand this work in defence of academic freedom, you can donate here: donorbox.org/support-the-co… 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter to see how CAF is pushing back against free speech breaches across UK universities: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… 📰 Read the full story in The Telegraph here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…

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Committee for Academic Freedom
Committee for Academic Freedom@ComAcFreedom·
With Donald Trump back in the White House, the language of “institutional neutrality” is increasingly treated as though it were self-evidently a right-wing project: a way of preventing universities from taking institutional positions on “progressive causes” close to the hearts of many left-leaning academics who feel the point is not simply to interpret the world, but to change it. But is that actually true? Or are critics conflating two very different things: on the one hand, a self-binding restraint on the university’s corporate voice, intended to protect scholarly dissent within the institution; and on the other, a coercive compliance regime, driven by funding leverage and executive pressure, which merely borrows the language of “neutrality” while hollowing out #academicfreedom? Writing for @CAmericain_mag, CAF Research Manager Freddie Attenborough argues that this distinction matters. Properly understood, the kind of institutional neutrality advocated by CAF and other #freespeech campaigners is not a form of political capture but a safeguard against it — particularly at a moment when governments and campaign groups across the political spectrum are increasingly eager to press universities into ideological service. cafeamericainmag.com/is-institution…
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@HarrygPettit @nathancofnas @ObhishekSaha @ProfDHayes @epkaufm @Furedibyte @HJoyceGender @drianpace