Committee for Academic Freedom

🚨 BREAKING: The Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) is supporting a working-class student who left school at 13 and spent years saving and studying after work to get into university, but who may now be forced to abandon his PhD after being frozen out on an art programme. His “crime”? Introducing the conservative philosopher Roger Scruton into a seminar on aesthetics. Matthew Keehan, who studies at Solent University, says disagreements over the dominance of critical race theory and other “progressive” philosophies on his course escalated into ostracism by his peers, disciplinary threats and a politically charged viva. Trouble began when, ahead of an in-person seminar on art and aesthetics, he circulated Roger Scruton’s Fools, Frauds and Firebrands to the group. Matthew argued that academia had for too long excluded important conservative voices, and said he wanted students to hear a wider “cacophony” of perspectives. When no one replied, he followed up with a link to Scruton’s lecture “Art Today”, which critiques the way postmodern approaches have, in Scruton’s view, hollowed out artistic standards. Again, no one responded. During the seminar, Matthew asked whether anyone had read the material, and was told by the lecturer — who also happened to be his supervisor — that “we felt it was inappropriate”. Months later, a fellow postgraduate reached out and told him that members of the group had effectively been advised not to contact him because of the “C word” — “Conservative” — following his circulation of the Scruton material. It was in this culture that concerns later arose over Matthew’s PhD viva. During that viva, Matthew — an Irishman who grew up on a deprived council estate — was criticised as a “Western, white, male researcher” whose work had failed to reflect on the “privileges associated with race and cultural dominance” supposedly attaching to his identity. CAF has been supporting Matthew in making a formal complaint to the university about the culture of his department and his treatment after raising concerns about the intellectual direction of the course. We are also helping him prepare a complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and a formal notification to the Office for Students. We’ve written more about this shocking case for @TheCriticMag here: thecritic.co.uk/solent-mean/ To keep up to date with Matthew’s case, and with CAF’s wider work supporting academics and students facing censorship, ideological discrimination and threats to academic freedom, sign up to our free newsletter here: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… @ProfAliceS @drianpace @epkaufm @Fox_Claire @NigelBiggar @LauraTrottMP @ObhishekSaha

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 was intended to transform the enforcement of free-speech and academic-freedom protections at English universities. It did so through two distinct mechanisms: a new statutory tort, giving those who suffered loss access to the courts; and a new Office for Students (OfS) complaints scheme, giving students, staff and visiting speakers a direct route to the sector regulator. Together, these mechanisms were intended, for the first time, to give the statutory protections real teeth. Since Bridget Phillipson became Education Secretary in July 2024, however, the tort has been scrapped. The complaints scheme has also been delayed by more than two years and will not begin until September in substantially diminished form. Students have been excluded, despite undergraduates and postgraduates being at the sharp end of many campus free-speech disputes, as numerous cases supported by CAF demonstrate. What we now know, thanks to the Daily Mail, is that the Government spent more than £500,000 of public money defending its decision to water down the Act. Astonishingly, internal documents disclosed during the litigation show that, even before the general election, officials had been instructed to prepare the statutory instrument needed to halt the Act on the first day of a Labour government, and that Ms Phillipson did “not wish to implement the Act, at least in full”. That is a lamentable response to a campus free-speech problem whose scale and seriousness are demonstrated week after week by the casework of CAF, the Free @SpeechUnion, @AFAF_freespeech and others. Some of those cases reach the media; most do not. Even in its diminished form, however, the OfS complaints scheme remains a vitally important new avenue of redress for academics whose lawful speech has been restricted. If the OfS receives properly evidenced and carefully formulated complaints, and is willing to act decisively upon them, the scheme could begin to change institutional behaviour in a meaningful way. Academics who have encountered restrictions on their lawful speech, or who are considering using the new scheme, are welcome to contact CAF in confidence at manager@afcomm.org.uk. We can help assess whether a complaint falls within the scheme, identify the relevant legal and factual issues, and formulate it as clearly and effectively as possible. @ObhishekSaha @ProfAliceS @theasewell05 @Fox_Claire @aytchellesse

Nearly 4,000 academic posts in the social sciences, humanities and arts were lost in the year to December 2024. This is deeply troubling new analysis from the British Academy — and the picture has only deteriorated since, with further large-scale cuts, many of them again affecting humanities, arts and social-science provision, proposed at Exeter, Nottingham, Lincoln and Hertfordshire and elsewhere. There is no doubt that universities are in serious financial difficulty, placing them under pressure to cut courses and staff. But, as CAF has argued, they do not respond to those pressures in an ideological or political vacuum. Government policy increasingly directs funding, recognition and institutional prestige towards designated strategic sectors — particularly STEM, technology and healthcare provision, alongside fields aligned with the industrial strategy. In doing so, it implicitly distinguishes between economically legible forms of teaching and research — those capable of producing commercial innovation, spin-out companies and a workforce aligned with government priorities — and forms less readily valued on those terms. The result? University leaders are given powerful reasons to treat strategically aligned disciplines as investments, while regarding the humanities, arts and much of the social sciences as liabilities. And, of course, these are often precisely the forms of inquiry academic freedom is most needed to protect: curiosity-driven rather than applied research; artistic and creative work that refuses to let what J. S. Mill called “dead dogma” harden into common sense; and teaching that treats the systems, norms and theories government would prefer to regard as inert resources as objects of critique. Financial pressure creates the imperative to cut. Government policy increasingly shapes what universities choose to protect — and what they allow to disappear. We explored that wider framework here: afcomm.org.uk/2026/07/15/exe… @Freedom_in_Arts @RosieKayK2CO @AFFSUK

There are probably many other stories to be told about how students are penalised when their work does not conform ideologically. This is when the arts and humanities have become corroded. @pensandpoison @pensandpoison/note/p-148435533?r=1mnouu&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">substack.com/@pensandpoison…

The Guardian has an excellent report on the British Academy's findings. Available here: theguardian.com/education/2026…

Today we publish our detailed report showing that, due to AFFS pressure, 36 universities have now scrapped the need for job applicants to show support for EDI. @AFAF_freespeech @StudentAFAF @lucaf_london Full details here affs.uk/edi-reqts-in-r…

“Following recent headlines, an onlooker might assume all university redundancies are logical business decisions. But the Exeter case makes very little financial sense.” Great piece in the New Statesman on how ostensibly financial decisions are accelerating a deeper shift towards commercially and strategically favoured research — with the humanities increasingly left to absorb the costs. newstatesman.com/politics/educa…

🚨 BREAKING: The Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) is supporting a working-class student who left school at 13 and spent years saving and studying after work to get into university, but who may now be forced to abandon his PhD after being frozen out on an art programme. His “crime”? Introducing the conservative philosopher Roger Scruton into a seminar on aesthetics. Matthew Keehan, who studies at Solent University, says disagreements over the dominance of critical race theory and other “progressive” philosophies on his course escalated into ostracism by his peers, disciplinary threats and a politically charged viva. Trouble began when, ahead of an in-person seminar on art and aesthetics, he circulated Roger Scruton’s Fools, Frauds and Firebrands to the group. Matthew argued that academia had for too long excluded important conservative voices, and said he wanted students to hear a wider “cacophony” of perspectives. When no one replied, he followed up with a link to Scruton’s lecture “Art Today”, which critiques the way postmodern approaches have, in Scruton’s view, hollowed out artistic standards. Again, no one responded. During the seminar, Matthew asked whether anyone had read the material, and was told by the lecturer — who also happened to be his supervisor — that “we felt it was inappropriate”. Months later, a fellow postgraduate reached out and told him that members of the group had effectively been advised not to contact him because of the “C word” — “Conservative” — following his circulation of the Scruton material. It was in this culture that concerns later arose over Matthew’s PhD viva. During that viva, Matthew — an Irishman who grew up on a deprived council estate — was criticised as a “Western, white, male researcher” whose work had failed to reflect on the “privileges associated with race and cultural dominance” supposedly attaching to his identity. CAF has been supporting Matthew in making a formal complaint to the university about the culture of his department and his treatment after raising concerns about the intellectual direction of the course. We are also helping him prepare a complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator and a formal notification to the Office for Students. We’ve written more about this shocking case for @TheCriticMag here: thecritic.co.uk/solent-mean/ To keep up to date with Matthew’s case, and with CAF’s wider work supporting academics and students facing censorship, ideological discrimination and threats to academic freedom, sign up to our free newsletter here: afcomm.org.uk/updates-from-t… @ProfAliceS @drianpace @epkaufm @Fox_Claire @NigelBiggar @LauraTrottMP @ObhishekSaha

@ComAcFreedom As an undergrad, I would have considered this student basically a bad person. It's mad how insidious it is, the way the things you are taught couldn't be aimed more precisely at your youthful idealism. Fair play to Matthew - brave as F.

@ComAcFreedom It’s very odd when students refuse to read something because they’ve been told what they should think about it. It’s actually sinister when the same students ostracise a fellow student because of something they themselves have refused to read.

@ComAcFreedom This is a shocking and disgraceful case of academic intolerance of intellectual debate. No students or scholars should be shunned or discriminated against for holding “conservative” views.

How academia excludes the working classes in 2026. Excellent, if very sad, piece by Freddie Attenborough on the plight of a working class PhD student who dared to notice and question others' blinkers. 🙏@drianpace for flagging it.

'During that viva, Keehan, an Irishman who grew up on a deprived council estate, was criticised by representatives of two English universities as a “Western, white, male researcher” whose thesis had failed to reflect on “privileges associated with race and cultural dominance” apparently attaching to his own identity.'

I love to publish things that really teach me something, like this fascinating historically-grounded piece from Freddie Attenborough thecritic.co.uk/these-green-an…

And more on free speech from Frederick Attenborough of @ComAcFreedom: how the Uberization of academics impedes their freedom to write and teach as they see fit. cafeamericainmag.com/tenure-and-the…

“Tenure and the Limits to Academic Freedom”: CAF Research Manager Freddie Attenborough writes for @CAmericain_mag on how the “Uberisation” of academic employment undermines the freedom to take intellectual risks in research, writing and teaching. cafeamericainmag.com/tenure-and-the…

CAF has responded to a Government consultation on the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in workplace harassment cases, warning that academics in Scotland and Wales, where England’s statutory higher education ban does not apply, must be able to seek confidential advice from specialist freedom of speech and academic freedom organisations. Full story here: afcomm.org.uk/2026/06/29/gov…