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 |  Subject: Universities stifle debate as destructive academics lurch to the left  Sun Dec 15, 2019 1:58 am | |
| Universities stifle debate as academics lurch to the left – with THREE IN FOUR now backing left and liberal parties
Proper debate at universities is in danger of being stifled because three-quarters of academics are now left-wing liberals, a report has warned.
The Adam Smith Institute said there has been an increasing ‘skew’ towards the left in higher education since the 1960s, which has resulted in a ‘homogenous’ academic community.
The free market think-tank said only 12 per cent of lecturers and researchers are conservatives, prompting fears those with certain views may be being discriminated against.
The differing proportions are in contrast to the general population, half of which tend to vote for right-wing parties, the report said.
Ben Southwood, head of research, said: ‘Conservatives have left the academy. You find a fair few libertarians—people with economically right-wing but socially liberal views—but hardly any who admit to being socially conservative.
‘In principle, political views shouldn’t affect good scholarship, and it probably doesn’t matter if all our physicists are communists—unless they are passing nuclear secrets to foreign powers.
‘But we should be less sanguine if all sociologists or anthropologists are, as they seem to be, there are obvious ways their views could infect their scholarship.
‘No one is suggesting quotas, but we should be mindful of too much intellectual homogeneity. As John Stuart Mill pointed out, we need to air views in order to find out what’s true.’
The paper said it is not the case that intelligent people are more likely to be left-wing, as the top five per cent of the population tend to be split along the same political lines as the wider public.
The report warns that without more ideological diversity in academia, the rejection of left-liberal values will increasingly equate to denying objective facts.
It may also cause a ‘right-wing backlash’, with right-leaning Governments taking away funding from universities they see as ideological opponents rather than apolitical scholars, the think-tank warned.
The report said the trend could lead to curtailing of free speech on campus, biased research and skewed teaching.
It said economic textbooks are giving market failure six times as much coverage as government failure and only half recognising its presence at all.
The report urges universities to commit to ideological diversity with the same fervour they commit to gender, class and race diversity.
Noah Carl, author of the report and researcher at Nuffield College, Oxford, said: ‘It cannot have escaped the notice of anyone who has spent time in British academia, especially in the social sciences and humanities, that there is a sizable left-liberal skew.
‘One rarely encounters a fellow academic who supports the Conservatives, and I have never met one who supports UKIP.
‘While differences in personality and interests appear to explain some of the left-liberal skew, discrimination may also be a factor.
‘Moreover, growing evidence from the empirical literature indicates that the academy’s sizable left-liberal skew has had an adverse impact on scholarship.
‘Universities are supposed to be places where perspectives are challenged, arguments are picked apart, and all ideas are up for discussion.
‘This ideal is very difficult to achieve when the vast majority of scholars adhere to the same ideological precepts.’
https://insiderfinancial.net/universities-stifle-debate-as-academics-lurch-to-the-left.html
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