Latest news with #studentProtests
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
English universities barred from enforcing blanket bans on student protests
Universities in England will no longer be able to enforce blanket bans on student protests under sweeping new guidance that urges a 'very strong' approach to permitting lawful speech on campus. The detailed regulations set out for the first time how universities should deal with inflammatory disputes, such as those between the University of Cambridge and students over the war in Gaza, and rows over academics who hold controversial but legal opinions, such as the gender-critical professor Kathleen Stock. The guidance issued by the Office for Students (OfS) will make it harder for universities to penalise students and staff for anything other than unlawful speech or harassment. But experts said the guidance failed to address the complexity of balancing free speech with activities that have 'chilling effects' on students or staff. Universities are advised not to apply prolonged bans on protest encampments involving the Israel-Gaza conflict – as used by the University of Cambridge earlier this year – but will also be required to block 'frequent, vociferous and intrusive' protests if they intimidate Jewish students. The guidance also says: Academics should not be pressed to support particular views. Protests should not be restricted for supporting legal viewpoints. Students or staff should not be 'encouraged to report others' for lawful speech. Universities must 'secure freedom of speech' for visiting speakers. The OfS said its guidelines would help universities 'navigate' their duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which is due to come into force in August. Julian Sladdin, a partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons and a specialist in higher education regulation, said the guidance gave some 'much-needed clarity' for providers but left others unclear. 'The difficulty which remains in practical terms is the fact that institutions are still subject to dealing day-to-day with extremely complex and often polarising issues on campus and where the bounds of what may be lawful free speech are constantly being tested,' Sladdin said. 'These matters do not appear to be sufficiently addressed by the guidance at present. 'This still leaves institutions with the need to put in place their own procedures to assess these questions, and [assess] how any risks can be addressed by reasonable and practicable steps given the multifaceted and fact-sensitive nature of free speech issues and the considerable time pressure often involved in managing the same – particularly in a period where we have increasingly seen protest and occupations across UK higher education.' Universities will also expect staff and students to legally use social media in a personal capacity, without regard to any impact on institutional reputation, while reprimanding staff members whose speech or activities interferes with their teaching. Earlier this year the OfS imposed a £585,000 fine on the University of Sussex, saying it 'failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom' affecting Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor targeted by protests for her views on gender identification and transgender rights. The OfS published a survey of academics in which 21% said they did not feel free to discuss 'challenging' ideas in their teaching, including 19% who identified as leftwing and 32% as rightwing. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of the Policy Institute at King's College London, said: 'The reality is it's really tough to have completely clear regulations and laws in this space, which means that the testing of thresholds will be key in particular cases. 'We need to recognise that this is not a neutral space but is linked to more general 'culture war' divisions in society as a whole – which means that people will be motivated to use regulatory and legal routes to make a point – the process itself can be used to divide. 'There's no way around that but we do need to be aware of it.' Arif Ahmed, the OfS's director for freedom of speech, said: 'It's important to remember that universities can regulate speech where appropriate. 'No university needs to allow shouting during an exam, or for a maths lecturer to devote their lectures to their own political opinions rather than the subject at hand. 'Equally, they can and should take steps to address harassing speech on campus. Antisemitic harassment, for example, should not be tolerated on any campus and we fully expect universities to take robust steps to tackle it.' The OfS guidance also suggests that universities refuse places to international students whose funding requires them to follow the policies of foreign governments, potentially threatening state-sponsored students from a number of Asian and Middle Eastern countries. A spokesperson for Universities UK said: 'We strongly agree that universities must be places where free speech is protected and promoted. 'These guidelines cover complex issues, and we are pleased to see that the OfS has taken onboard some of the feedback from the previous version. 'We will continue to work constructively with the OfS and with government as these changes are introduced, and will make sure universities are appropriately supported to comply with them.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted' due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students. Alistair Kitchen said he left Melbourne on Thursday bound for New York and was detained for 12 hours and interrogated by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials during the stopover in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old said he was 'clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons' and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his 'thoughts on Hamas'. Kitchen said officials asked him for his 'thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense', including about student protesters, what Israel 'should have done differently' and 'how I would resolve the conflict'. 'It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,' he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning. 'The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,' he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment. Kitchen said he lived in New York for six years and wrote about the protests staged in support of Gaza at Columbia University while he was a master's student at the college, before he moved back to Australia in 2024. 'Because I was a creative writing student, I took the opportunity to witness the protests and wrote about them in depth on my personal blog,' he said. This year, Kitchen published a piece on his blog, Kitchen Counter, on the Department of Homeland Security's detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator of the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment. In the article, Kitchen said Khalil had been arrested 'on utterly specious grounds by a neo-fascist state' with the goal of 'the deportation of dissent'. He referred to the Trump administration's executive order of 30 January in which the government promised to go on the 'offense to enforce law and order' and 'cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses'. Kitchen, who was planning to return to New York for two weeks to visit friends, said he deleted 'sensitive political posts' from his blog as well as 'some social media' because he was aware of the increased risk of crossing the US border. However, he believed US border officials had used technology to link his posts to his application for a Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta), which allows eligible visitors to make a short trip to the US without a visa. He said he was called for over the intercom shortly after exiting the plane at Los Angeles international airpot and 'taken into a back room' for secondary processing 'Clearly, they had technology in their system which linked those posts to my Esta … a long time before I took them down,' he said. 'Because they knew all about the posts, and then interrogated me about the posts once I was there.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Kitchen said he wanted other Australians to be aware that 'cleaning' their phones wouldn't necessarily mean they would be able to get their Esta approved upon arrival in the US. 'They had already prepared a file on me and already knew everything about me,' he said. Kitchen said he agreed to give officials the passcode for his phone, which he now regretted. 'I had at that time, the wrong and false hope that once they realised I was, you know, just a Australian writer and not a threat to the US that they would let me in,' he said. 'But then they took my phone away and began downloading it and searching it.' Kitchen said he was 'terrified of retribution and reprisal from the US government' for speaking out about his experience but he wanted people to know what had happened. He urged other Australians who were detained upon arrival into the US to accept 'immediate deportation' instead of handing their phones over the border officials. He said he had put the 'offending posts' back online on his blog. Kitchen said his phone and passport were handed to a Qantas flight attendant at the start of his deportation flight and he was unable to get them back until they landed in Melbourne. Qantas confirmed that its staff received a sealed envelope from US customs officials containing the passenger's personal items which was returned upon arrival in Australia. The airline declined to comment further.
The Guardian
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
University of Michigan ends undercover surveillance contracts after Guardian revelations
The University of Michigan has canceled its contract for undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestininan campus groups, following outcry after a Guardian story revealed the private investigators had been trailing and recording students for months, and published damning video of one investigator's interaction with a student. 'We recently learned that an employee of one of our security contractors has acted in ways that go against our values and directives,' the U-M president, Domenico Grasso, wrote in an email to students and faculty on Sunday night. 'Going forward, we are terminating all contracts with external vendors to provide plainclothes security on campus.' The investigators appeared to work for City Shield, a private security group based in Detroit, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students. The university, which has taken a particularly heavy-handed approach to suppressing student protests against Israel's war in Gaza, paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield's parent company, Ameri-Shield. The contract was part of at least $3m in spending on higher education consultants and security in response to the protests. The Guardian's reporting found that dozens of investigators were following student protesters on and off campus, and in some instances were confrontational, cursed at students, threatened them, and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian. The students detailed bizarre interactions with the investigators. In an incident captured by a student on video, a man who had been following him faked disabilities and accused a student of attempting to rob him when he was confronted. The same investigator, who pretended to be deaf and mute, appears to have insulted a student recording him, calling him a 'special needs student'. 'What happened was disturbing, unacceptable, and unethical, and we will not tolerate it,' Grasso wrote in an apparent reference to the conduct in the video. The story drew broad outrage on social media, and from current and former U-M students and faculty. In the email, Grasso said the investigators 'were intended to help us keep watch over our campus and enable us to respond quickly to emergencies. However, we are clear: no individual or group should ever be targeted for their beliefs or affiliations.' Katarina Keating, a PhDd student who was being followed, said she welcomed the news and called it a 'step in the right direction', but added that it was 'insulting' for the university to say pro-Palestinian groups were not targeted for their beliefs or affiliations. There is no evidence that the investigators surveilled anyone aside from pro-Palestinian activists. She called on the university to also eliminate security it hired that is not undercover, and lift campus bans in place for 'dozens' students involved with demonstrations. Some evidence collected by the investigators was used by Michigan attorney general Dan Nessel to charge students with violating the terms of bonds from previous arrests for allegedly trespassing and resisting arrest. One student was jailed for four days. Nessel dropped the rest of the charges. City Shield did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Keating questioned the university's focus, in the president's email, on one investigator's conduct. 'It would be bad even if [the investigators] were competent and followed all the rules,' Keating said. 'It's still bad and scary to be putting private security contractors after your students.'
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Trump officials intensify Columbia dispute with accreditation threat
The Department of Education announced on Wednesday afternoon that it has notified Columbia University's accreditor of a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws by the elite, private university in New York that is part of the Ivy League. The alleged violation means that Columbia, in the Trump administration's assessment, has 'failed to meet the standards' set by the relevant regional, government-recognized but independent body responsible for the accreditation of degree-granting institutions, as a kind of educational quality controller. In this case the accreditor is the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Accreditors determine which institutions are eligible for federal student loans and various federal grants. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The notice marks the latest escalation in the Trump administration's bid to dictate to Columbia after accusing the college of failing to protect students from antisemitic harassment. It follows the cancellation of $400m in federal grants and contracts, after which the university yielded to a series of changes demanded by the administration, including setting up a new disciplinary committee, initiating investigations into students critical of Israel's war in Gaza, and ceding control of its Middle East Studies department. Columbia was at the forefront of student encampment protests last spring, with more direct action protests erupting in recent weeks and jeers at leadership at commencement ceremonies last month, and has cycled through a series of university presidents in the past 18 months. More details soon … Reuters contributed reporting
BBC News
04-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Abbott voices support for Oxford student Gaza protestors
Diane Abbott MP has voiced her support for pro-Palestinian campaigners facing disciplinary action after a protest at the University of than a dozen Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) protesters were arrested after the group occupied university offices on Wellington Square in May group, who were later released without charge, are currently the subject of university disciplinary procedures - with hearings expected to take place this a letter, former shadow Home Secretary Abbot said it was "neither fair nor reasonable" to treat such protests as misconduct. The university has yet to respond to a BBC request for comment. "Subjecting students to formal sanctions for their involvements risks undermining the core values of freedom of expression and academic freedom that universities ought to uphold," she wrote in the letter to the university that has been seen by the BBC. The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said any potential disciplinary action against the students, including suspensions, could have "long-lasting consequences on a young person's future" and were "particularly disproportionate"."It is neither fair nor reasonable for a university to treat principled protest on urgent moral and humanitarian issues as misconduct warranting punitive measures.""To do so risks chilling the very civic engagement and moral leadership that we should be encouraging in the next generation," she university has failed to respond to a BBC request for comment, but in a statement following last year's protest it said it was "not a 'peaceful sit-in', but a violent action designed to escalate tensions"."It is clear that the actions of some of the protesters involved in the encampment have created a deeply intimidating environment for many members of our community, including our Jewish students and staff and members of the local Jewish community," it added. Abbott has been vocal in her support of Gaza during the on-going conflict with Israel, that began more than a year and a half launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 54,470 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4,201 since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
