My Lords, this has been a fascinating debate, and one we could continue for some time, because it is about trying to reach a consensus about concepts—I have my name down to Amendments 3, 11 and 30—but it is also about how we talk about free speech in universities and about academic freedom. There has been confusion in the debate about those two things. One of my amendments tries to say that we should not forget academic freedom and how important it is to university life, and asks about the constraints on it, which are not necessarily all the things that we have been talking about. In my experience, academic freedom can be constrained by economic factors and income streams that universities might have. Research can be restrained for those sorts of reasons, and academics who followed a particular route of research have been constrained by those other pressures.
The noble Lord, Lord Mann, is absolutely right. He and I have shared the same experience: political views can be unpopular, and some of the demonstrations that we have faced have been quite violent. The noble Lord, Lord Alton, has sadly left the Room, but we had a debate on Friday on his genocide Bill, as well as a debate on Thursday about Ugandan Asians. I remember standing up and defending the need to protect Ugandan Asians and facing a quite violent reaction from people. It was not limited to the streets; it was in other institutions, even in my own trade union and my own party.
As a lifelong trade unionist—I am not making a Second Reading speech, but talking specifically about my amendments—I have long experience of how politicians want laws to change culture, which is impossible. The most successful progress in industrial relations has been made not by legislation but by consensus, agreement and discussion.
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My noble friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath is absolutely right. There have been failures; the Kathleen Stock situation was a complete failure of leadership, in my opinion. Even though my noble friend and I have had disagreements about the actual issue, I do not have a problem in saying that we must stand up
and say when management gets it wrong. They clearly did in that case. The failure of leadership is a key issue in terms of the definitions that will apply in this Bill.
We need to ensure that this Bill does not inhibit good practice when it becomes an Act. The danger is that some of the things in these clauses will. Universities UK issued a very clear statement on good practice that universities should follow, which I read this morning. It was a very clear statement about protecting and promoting free speech and academic freedom, and the obligation on universities to defend staff. I shall refer to one bit that struck me:
“Universities must also invest in good relations between different groups on campus, creating a climate in which all students and staff can discuss a range of topics—including the complex and controversial—in the knowledge that they will be listened to and treated with mutual dignity, tolerance, and civility.”
I do not think that this Bill will do that. What will is universities taking their responsibilities seriously, giving leadership and complying with the law.
One of my amendments specifically addresses academic freedom and goes into the issue of definition. My noble friend Lady Chakrabarti made a very strong case, and I agree with the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, that repeating the convention and Article 10 is a good thing. We are being very clear that the existing obligations on universities include Article 10. But what about academic freedom? This is not about just the right to free speech. What are the pressures on students and academics that could inhibit academic freedom? Hence, I have proposed the UNESCO definition, the internationally agreed definition of academic freedom, which covers the freedom of teaching and discussion, the freedom to research and publish the results, and the freedom for higher education teaching staff to express their opinion about the institution and system in which they work.
We have mentioned and will go on to discuss that insecurity in employment is often the biggest constraint on what academics can say at the moment, which is something that has changed a lot. The noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, said, and this came up in the Commons debate on academic freedom, that evidence was presented of some universities blocking research that they deemed too controversial. A lot of that is to do with the marketisation of the sector and the promotion of students as customers. I see no reason why the research interests of academics should not be protected under the definition of academic freedom.
Coming back to the point made by my noble friend and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, we have mentioned before that a week is a long time in politics, so we may not know which Minister is responsible, but in the light of the Government’s stated desire to repeal the Human Rights Act there is no doubt that we need to reinforce the convention and Article 10. It is a really good point and therefore I support the noble and learned Lord’s amendment.
The most important thing about the Bill is that the scope of academic freedom needs to be as I suggest in the amendment and that we do not narrow it in the way that some noble Lords have suggested. That is why our amendment is vital.
I conclude with this point. Protecting academic freedom goes beyond partisan political lines. It provides a solid basis on which academics can feel secure enough to test and challenge the perceived wisdom. No matter how much we disagree on some of the issues—my noble friend Lord Hunt and I have disagreed on some of them—we are at one on protecting the principle of free speech and how we change the culture. As a trade unionist, I come back to that basic point. Codes of practice and understanding responsibilities are the most important things. I hope that, in our debates on the Bill as we go through each clause, we will have that uppermost in our minds.