Connect with us

Published

on

Academic freedoms are at risk in UK universities, according to an associate professor at University College London (UCL) who says staff are caving in to demands from Chinese students seeking to influence British academia.

Michelle Shipworth, who teaches energy and social sciences, told Sky News the university removed a module from her after complaints were raised by Chinese students.

The academic had included a data set slide on slavery during one of her teaching exercises, asking why there are so many slaves in China.

She says she went on to dissect the numbers with her students in a bid to encourage them to explore debunking the theory.

View of Michelle Shipworth's lecture on modern day slavery, which says "why does China have so many slaves?"
Image:
The professor said UCL removed a module from her after complaints were raised by Chinese students

“Right at the end of the class I had one Chinese student object to the exercise in a slightly cross way,” Prof Shipworth said, explaining that at first she didn’t think much of it.

“My guess is that he decided to make a show of objecting to my challenging question.”

She describes the student as “a very nationalist Chinese student” and says the head of department at UCL got involved after other students also complained.

More on China

“I think it’s over-reaction and I think some of my colleagues are hyper anxious about losing income from overseas students to a point where they will be prepared to do almost anything to keep our students happy.”

View of Michelle Shipworth's lecture on modern day slavery.

An increasing proportion of universities‘ income comes from international student tuition fees. In the UK, the economic benefit of these students rose from £31.3bn to £41.9bn between 2018-19 and 2021-22.

With more than 10,000 students from China, UCL is reported to have the largest cohort which makes up almost a quarter of its total student population.

Prof Shipworth says large groups of foreign students can contain significant minorities seeking to curtail academic freedoms in the interest of protecting their home governments’ reputations.

“All we need to do is just be conscious that the interests of their government might not align with our interests, with the interests of our universities and our government,” she said.

“We simply need to bear that in mind and put in place measures that mean our interests are not overridden in the interests of theirs.”

“UCL and other universities have not taken the steps that they should have,” she adds. “The other students – whether they’re overseas or UK – need to be able to speak out as well. Their academic freedom is being infringed.”

Michelle Shipworth, Energy and Social Sciences associate professor at University College London
Image:
Prof Shipworth warns that students are ‘trying to manipulate our system’

Prof Shipworth, who has been at UCL for more than 10 years, cited a Human Rights Watch report that revealed Chinese government attempts to influence academic discussions in Australia – and she warned the same is happening in the UK by students “trying to manipulate our system”.

“You might have just one or two Chinese students in a department who are very nationalistic and might feel it’s their duty. But they can then impose pressure on the other Chinese students to act in a particular way and the really scary thing is that they then report back to the (Chinese Communist Party) if the other Chinese students don’t do as the nationalistic Chinese students demand.”

Read more from Sky News:
Restrictions on overseas students bringing family to UK
Russian-British citizen in jail’s wife says UK could be ‘more vocal’

The academic warned this can have dangerous consequences for teaching and research.

“Unless you can ask people challenging questions, then you will never have high-quality research. And when it comes to teaching, if we don’t have academic freedom, then I don’t have academic freedom to learn from the pedagogic research.”

A UCL spokesperson told Sky News: “We are proud to have a thriving and diverse student community, with the brightest minds from the UK and more than 150 other countries, choosing to study and research here.

“We also have a long tradition of safeguarding freedom of speech and are committed to upholding the rights of our staff and students to facilitate debate and exercise their academic freedom of enquiry.

“While it would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases, the issues raised in this article are clearly concerning and we are working to establish what has happened.”

Continue Reading

UK

Inflation: Cost of living challenges require bold decisions

Published

on

By

Inflation: Cost of living challenges require bold decisions

You know bad economic news is looming when a Chancellor of the Exchequer tries to get their retaliation in first.

Treasury guidance on Tuesday afternoon that Rachel Reeves has prioritised easing the cost of living had to be seen in the light of inflation figures, published this morning, and widely expected to rise above 4% for the first time since the aftermath of the energy crisis.

In that context the fact consumer price inflation in September remained level at 3.8% counts as qualified good news for the Treasury, if not consumers.

Money latest: What inflation hike means for state pension and rail fare increases

The figure remains almost double the Bank of England target of 2%, the rate when Labour took office, but economists at the Bank and beyond do expect this month to mark the peak of this inflationary cycle.

That’s largely because the impact of higher energy prices last year will drop out of calculations next month.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Inflation sticks at 3.8%

The small surprise to the upside has also improved the chances of an interest rate cut before the end of the year, with markets almost fully pricing expectations of a reduction to 3.75% by December, though rate-setters may hold off at their next meeting early next month.

September’s figure also sets the uplift in benefits from next April so this figure may improve the internal Treasury forecast, but at more than double the rate a year ago it will still add billions to the bill due in the new year.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Minister ‘not happy with inflation’

For consumers there was good news and bad, and no comfort at all from the knowledge that they face the highest price increases in Europe.

Fuel prices rose but there was welcome relief from the rate of food inflation, which fell to 4.5% from 5.1% in August, still well above the headline rate and an unavoidable cost increase for every household.

Read more from Sky News:
Beef market in turmoil and affecting farmers and consumers
Rachel Reeves looking at cutting energy bills in budget

The chancellor will convene a meeting of cabinet ministers on Thursday to discuss ways to ease the cost of living and has signalled that cutting energy bills is a priority.

The easiest lever for her to pull is to cut the VAT rate on gas and electricity from 5% to zero, which would reduce average bills by around £80 but cost £2.5bn.

More fundamental reform of energy prices, which remain the second-highest in Europe for domestic bill payers and the highest for industrial users, may be required to bring down inflation fast and stimulate growth.

Continue Reading

UK

Schools must be ‘brave enough’ to talk about knives – as Harvey Willgoose’s killer is sentenced

Published

on

By

Schools must be 'brave enough' to talk about knives - as Harvey Willgoose's killer is sentenced

Schools need to be “brave enough” to talk about knives, Sky News has been told, as the killer of Sheffield teenager Harvey Willgoose is sentenced today.

The 15-year-old was stabbed outside the school canteen at All Saints Catholic high school by a fellow pupil in February this year.

His killer, who was also 15 and cannot be identified for legal reasons, had brought a 13cm hunting knife into school.

Harvey Willgoose. Pic: Sophie Willgoose
Image:
Harvey Willgoose. Pic: Sophie Willgoose

Following Harvey’s murder, his parents Caroline and Mark Willgoose told Sky News they wanted to see knife arches in “all secondary schools and colleges”.

“It’s 100% a conversation, I think, that we need to be empowered and brave enough to have,” says Katie Crook, associate vice principal of Penistone Grammar School.

The school, which teaches 2,000 pupils, is just a few miles away from where Harvey was killed.

After being contacted by the Willgoose family, it has decided to install a knife arch.

More on Education

The arch – essentially a walk-through metal detector – has been described as a “reassuring tool” and “real success” by school leaders.

“We’re really lucky here that we don’t have a knife crime problem – but we are on the forefront with safeguarding initiatives,” says Mrs Crook.

“I didn’t really think we needed one at first,” says Izzy, 14. “But then I guess at Harvey’s school they wouldn’t think that either and then it did actually happen.”

Joe, 15, says he did find the knife arch “intimidating” at first.

“But after using it a couple of times,” he says, “it’s just like walking through a doorway”.

“And it’s that extra layer of, like, you feel secure in school.”

After Harvey’s death, then home secretary Yvette Cooper said that she would support schools in the use of knife arches.

But there remains no official government policy or national guidance on their use.

Read more from Sky News:
ChatGPT maker launches web browser Atlas
Jewels stolen in Louvre heist worth £76m

Some headteachers who spoke with Sky News feel knife arches aren’t the answer – saying the issue required a societal approach.

Others said knife arches themselves were a significant expense to schools.

But Mrs Crook says they are “well worth the funding” if they prevent “a student making a catastrophic decision”.

“I’m a parent and, of course, my focus every day is keeping our students safe, just as I want my son to be kept safe in his setting and his school.”

Mrs Crook says she thinks schools would “welcome” a discussion at “national level” about the use of knife arches and other knife-related deterrents in schools.

“It’s sad, though that this is what it’s come to, that we’re having lockdown drills in the UK, in our school settings.

“But I suppose some might argue that has been needed for a long time.”

Continue Reading

UK

Shrinking herds and rising costs: The beef market is in turmoil – and inflation is spiralling

Published

on

By

Shrinking herds and rising costs: The beef market is in turmoil - and inflation is spiralling

If you eat beef, and ever stop to wonder where and how it’s produced, Jonathan Chapman’s farm in the Chiltern Hills west of London is what you might imagine. 

A small native herd, eating only the pasture beneath their hooves in a meadow fringed by beech trees, their leaves turning to match the copper coats of the Ruby Red Devons, selected for slaughter only after fattening naturally during a contented if short existence.

But this bucolic scene belies the turmoil in the beef market, where herds are shrinking, costs are rising, and even the promise of the highest prices in years, driven by the steepest price increase of any foodstuff, is not enough to tempt many farmers to invest.

For centuries, a symbolic staple of the British lunch table, beef now tells us a story about spiralling inflation and structural decline in agriculture.

Mr Chapman has been raising beef for just over a decade. A former champion eventing rider with a livery yard near Chalfont St Giles, the main challenge when he shifted his attention from horses to cows was that prices were too low.

“Ten years ago, the deadweight carcass price for beef was £3.60 a kilo. We might clear £60 a head of cattle,” he says. “The only way we could make the sums add up was to process and sell the meat ourselves.”

Processing a carcass doubles the revenue, from around £2,000 at today’s prices to £4,000. That insight saw his farm sprout a butchery and farm shop under the Native Beef brand. Today, they process two animals a week and sell or store every cut on site, from fillet to dripping.

More on Farming

Today, farmgate prices are nearly double what they were in 2015 at £6.50 a kilo, down slightly from the April peak of almost £7, but still up around 25% in a year.

For consumers that has made paying more than £5 for a pack of mince the norm. For farmers, rising prices reflect rising costs, long-term trends, and structural changes to the subsidy regime since Brexit.

“Supply and demand is the short answer,” says Mr Chapman.

“Cow numbers have been falling roughly 3% a year for the last decade, probably in this country. Since Brexit, there is virtually no direct support for food in this country. Well over 50% of the beef supply would have come from the dairy herd, but that’s been reducing because farmers just couldn’t make money.”

Political, environmental and economic forces

Beef farmers also face the same costs of trading as every other business. The rise in employers’ national insurance and the minimum wage have increased labour costs, and energy prices remain above the long-term average.

Then there is the weather, the inescapable variable in agriculture that this year delivered a historically dry summer, leaving pastures dormant, reducing hay and silage yields and forcing up feed costs.

Native Beef is not immune to these forces. Mr Chapman has reduced his suckler herd from 110 to 90, culling older cows to reduce costs this winter. If repeated nationally, the full impact of that reduction will only be fully clear in three years’ time, when fewer calves will reach maturity for sale, potentially keeping prices high.

That lag demonstrates one of the challenges in bringing prices down.

Basic economics says high prices ought to provide an opportunity and prompt increased supply, but there is no quick fix. Calves take nine months to gestate and another 20 to 24 months to reach maturity, and without certainty about price, there is greater risk.

There is another long-term issue weighing on farmers of all kinds: inheritance tax. The ending of the exemption for agriculture, announced in the last budget and due to be imposed from next April, has undermined confidence.

Neil Shand of the National Beef Association cites farmers who are spending what available capital they have on expensive life insurance to protect their estates, rather than expanding their herds.

“The farmgate price is such that we should be in an environment that we should be in a great place to expand, there is a market there that wants the product,” he says. “But the inheritance tax challenge has made everyone terrified to invest in something that will be more heavily taxed in the future.”

While some of the issues are domestic, the UK is not alone.

Beef prices are rising in the US and Europe too, but that is small consolation to the consumer, and none at all to the cow.

Continue Reading

Trending