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How Did Universities Become Woke Madrassas?

by Toby Young
24 June 2022 6:44 PM

Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics at Kent University, has written a terrific piece for UnHerd about the HEPI poll of university students that I wrote about in the Spectator this week. After documenting the lurch towards intolerance in British universities – as evidenced by the poll – Goodwin offers a three-part explanation for why this has happened.

First, it reflects a shift in attitudes between generations arising from their different coming-of-age experiences.

Millennials and Gen-Xers came-of-age in the Eighties and the Nineties, sandwiched between Thatcher and Blair. Politics was turbulent but also more stable. People were generally committed to the two main parties. The agenda was more economic than cultural. And there was still a diverse range of voices in politics, media, creative, and cultural institutions, which helped to ensure that people were exposed to alternative views. The growing education-based polarisation between graduates and non-graduates had not yet intensified. And the far more liberal graduate class had not yet taken over the institutions.

Zoomers, in sharp contrast, have grown up in a completely different world. They were 13 when the Trump and Brexit revolts erupted and they spent their adolescence living amid what political scientists call “affective polarisation” — a far more divisive, volatile, and emotion-led politics in which Remainers and Leavers, liberals and conservatives, have simultaneously became more positive about their own tribe and more openly hostile toward the opposing side.

Aside from being the first generation to witness a strong populist Right (UKIP) and a strong populist Left (Corbyn), they have been raised by parents who have more openly taken sides in this more polarised environment — symbolised by the 36% of Remain-voting parents who would “feel upset” if their child married a Brexiteer, and the 21% of Brexit-voting parents who would feel similarly if their child were to marry a Remainer.

Given this polarisation is underpinned by the growing educational divide between more culturally liberal graduates and more conservative non-graduates, it is perhaps unsurprising to find that the university students who are self-selecting into universities have also become more focused on prioritising the needs of their own tribe and more willing to ostracise others.

Second, Zoomers are the first generation to be immersed in what the sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning call the Culture of Victimhood.

Unlike moral cultures in the past, which stressed dignity and honour, and put an emphasis on toleration and negotiation as a route out of conflict, victimhood culture encourages students to stress their oppression, marginalisation, and victimhood as a means of acquiring status from their peers; while simultaneously turning to third parties (i.e., university administrators) to punish those who are seen to be “oppressing” or merely challenging their safety and beliefs.

This is reflected in the finding this week that 64% of students now think that universities should “consult special interest groups (i.e. religious or gender societies) about on-campus events”, up from only 40% in 2016. And in the finding that 61% of students now think that main job of the university is to ensure that all students are protected from discrimination rather than allow unlimited free speech, up from only 37% in 2016.

The rise of this victimhood culture is also, almost certainly, being encouraged by the broader ideological evolution of Britain’s universities. As my research, and that of others, has shown over the past four years, these are morphing into “ideological monocultures” where the ratio of Left-wing to Right-wing academics has increased from three to one in the Sixties to around eight to one today. Much like institutions in America, it is increasingly hard to find visible conservatives or other nonconformists on campus. Some students will now go through their entire degree never really knowing one at all.

One basic problem with monocultures is they embolden the most radical activists to lash out against others, safe in the knowledge that the moderates won’t challenge them. In turn, significant numbers of academics openly admit to being biased against conservatives, including one in three who would not hire a known Brexit supporter. Most conservative and gender critical scholars say they are self-censoring on campus, as do one-quarter of all university students, while those on the right or who do not subscribe to the new orthodoxy on campus are especially likely to do so, underlining the impact of this new moral culture.

Nor is this lost on students themselves. While prominent academics sit on Twitter arguing that the crisis unfolding in our universities represents a moral panic being whipped up by Right-wing campaigners, the students who are actually sitting in their seminars and lectures are increasingly taking the opposite view — the latest report finds that 38% of students think “universities are becoming less tolerant of a wide range of viewpoints”, up from 24% in 2016.

Third, organisational changes in universities have meant students-as-customers have become more empowered, with ‘student satisfaction’ being the all-important metric by which universities judge themselves.

Conservatives are as much to blame as the Left. By focusing relentlessly on the marketisation of universities, by talking about students as consumers, we have created a climate in which the demands of students, not academics, increasingly shape our intellectual culture. Almost all the changes that are being imposed on higher education for largely political reasons — the decolonisation of reading lists, the imposition of ideological litmus tests such as “diversity statements” when applying for jobs or grants, decisions regarding who speaks and works on campus and who does not, and the transformation of universities more generally into hyper-political organisations — are now often made in the name of “student satisfaction”. This is further encouraged by the rampant spread of university bureaucracy, in which cowardly administrators — none of whom really understand the point of academe — routinely bend over backwards to ensure that student-led demands to have events removed, academics investigated, and new restrictive policies implemented are fully met and satisfied.

This is a really excellent analysis by Professor Goodwin (a member of the Free Speech Union’s Advisory Council) and very much worth reading in full.

Tags: Free SpeechHEPI PollIntoleranceStudentsUniversitiesVictimhood Culture

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15 Comments
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nige.oldfart
nige.oldfart
2 years ago

Brown shirts and jack boots come to mind.

62
-1
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  nige.oldfart

Except that this time, they’re coming to you via that friendly little device in your pocket.

27
0
RTSC
RTSC
2 years ago
Reply to  nige.oldfart

You cannot change the national characteristics of a nation …… unless you change the people who make up that nation.

The UK’s national characteristics have been changed by 7 decades of immigration, particularly the mass immigration of the last 30 years.

Merkel only opened the borders to the invaders 7 years ago, so Germany is 6+ decades behind us. They are basically still the same nation they were in the 1930s.

8
0
Occams Pangolin Pie
Occams Pangolin Pie
2 years ago

PayPal is not remotely unsure about where it stands on misinformation. It’s part of the US deep state beelzeblob. It just got the timing wrong.
Is Hunt’s former nanny Dianne Brady still alive do you think and did she look like Billy Whitelaw?

24
-2
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Occams Pangolin Pie

“PayPal is not remotely unsure about where it stands on misinformation.”

I tend to agree. stewart has this theory that these woke global companies are just acting under pressure from governments and all they want to do really is be left in peace to make money. I beg to differ, though I respect stewart’s view and always find his posts interesting. We may never know which of us is closer to the truth.

13
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
2 years ago

Resist these people, if necessary with any and all force at your disposal. They do not deserve mercy.

23
-1
RTSC
RTSC
2 years ago

The authoritarian left in the USA has the First Amendment to contend with, which prevents censorship (or at least should). The EU/Germans are just doing their dirty work for them.

It’s no good just moaning, resist the fascists. Join The Global Walkout https://globalwalkout.com/about-the-global-walkout/

4
0
SomersetHoops
SomersetHoops
2 years ago

Paypal and its owners need to publicly fight laws introduced to control free speech if it effects them. If they don’t, they are dead. The same goes for all companies such as Facebook and Twitter. Why can’t they use the power they have gained for good. Or are they all aiming to control what people can say or think and destroy it if it doesn’t agree with the controlled standard opinion which is often wrong as it was on Covid and will be proved to be on Climate.

5
0
Kornea112
Kornea112
2 years ago

The DSA was initially set up to control the very large ” gatekeepers”, those companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft that stifle competition. The goal was to prevent these companies to be monopolies. Sounds like a noble undertaking. How did it morph into an online censorship and control bureaucracy that operates above the control of any elected officials? More Deep State controls by unaccountable bureaucrats. Just what is needed, all driven by more Germans! Maybe they could get Klaus Schwab involved for some seasoned tyrannical tips.

2
0
Pembroke
Pembroke
2 years ago

It’s a shame the Yanks are no longer interested in freedom of speech. In past times they’d just tell the EU to do one and withdraw their services.

0
0

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