UCL professor warns academic freedom at risk as module removed after student complaints
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.
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.
“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.”
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.”
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.”
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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.”
UK drivers are “confused” by the country’s electric car transition, ministers are being warned.
Although most drivers are not hostile towards electric vehicles (EVs), many are confused about what changes are coming and when, according to new research from the AA.
In a survey of more than 14,000 AA members, 7% thought the government was banning the sale of used petrol and diesel cars.
Around a third thought manual EVs exist, despite them all being automatic.
More than one in five said they would never buy an EV.
The government’s plan for increasing the number of electric vehicles being driven in the UK focuses heavily on increasing the supply of the vehicles.
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What you can do to reach net zero
In 2024, at least 22% of new cars and 10% of new vans sold by each manufacturer in the UK had to be zero-emission, which generally means pure electric.
Each year, those percentages will rise, reaching 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans in 2030.
Manufacturers will face fines of £15,000 per vehicle if electric vehicle sales fall short of 28% of total production this year.
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By 2035, all new cars and vans will be required to be fully zero emission, according to the Department for Transport.
Second-hand diesel and petrol cars will still be allowed to be sold after this date, and their fuel will still be available.
There are more EVs – but will people buy them?
In February, 25% of new cars were powered purely by battery and in January, they made up 21% of all new cars registered in the UK.
But despite the growth of electric sales, manufacturers continue to warn that the market will not support the growth required to hit government EV targets, and called for consumer incentives and the extension of tax breaks.
The AA suggested the government’s plan focuses on “supply but does little to encourage demand for EVs”.
It called on ministers to co-ordinate a public awareness campaign alongside the motoring industry which directly targets drivers who doubt the viability of EVs.
“Our message to government is more needs to be done to make EVs accessible for everyone,” said Jakob Pfaudler, AA chief executive.
Which? head of consumer rights Sue Davis said: “When it comes to making sustainable choices such as switching to an electric car, our research shows that people are often held back by high costs, complex choices or uncertainty.
“The government needs to provide the right information on electric vehicles and other sustainable choices so that people have the confidence to switch.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re investing over £2.3bn to help industry and consumers make a supported switch to EVs.
“This includes installing a public charge point every 28 minutes, keeping EV incentives in the company car tax regime to 2030, and extending 100% first-year allowances for zero-emission cars for another year.
“Second-hand EVs are also becoming cheaper than ever, with one in three available under £20,000 and 21 brand new models available for less than £30,000.
“We’re seeing growing consumer confidence as a result.”
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