How Free Speech Is Talked About

Abstract

Though barely an issue within higher education until recent years, culture wars are now ubiquitous in university discourses, and a reminder of how the sector is attacked by those who regard its existence as a threat. In this chapter, I explain that free speech is far less imperilled on campus than some critics, and a clutch of ‘rogue’ academics, like to imply. However, the wars waged against universities are immensely useful to politicians and media commentators seeking to distract from more substantive issues, like students’ indebtedness or mental health problems. I suggest that attacks on viewpoint diversity, wokeness and no-platforming potentially represent a first step for right-leaning governments on the road towards reimagining the university as an arm of populist, nationalistic government.