The Working Group has recently been refreshed following an open call for participation across the University community. New, extended, membership of the group has been established to populate various workstreams to focus on key challenge areas, and new Terms of Reference for the group have been developed and adopted to set out a renewed remit.
As the refreshed group gets to work, Professor Smith answers questions about our approach to Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression and how this is being developed.
1. Let’s start with what might seem like a basic question. What do we mean when we talk about ‘Freedom of Expression’ and ‘Academic Freedom’?
Freedom of expression is your right to hold and express opinions freely. An open and democratic society requires an unwavering commitment to freedom of expression in all its forms, including both the spoken and written word, as well as actions, gestures and images intended to show meaning. It applies to information or ideas that are favourable, but also to those that people might find offensive or shocking, as long as they don’t meet the threshold of hate speech, harassment, discrimination, or inciting violence.
Academic freedom means academics can express their opinions, question established ideas, develop new ones, and present controversial or unpopular points of view, without placing their employment at risk.
While they are distinct concepts, freedom of expression is relevant to academic freedom because academic freedom must also be exercised within the bounds of the law. In other words, if something is an unlawful exercise of freedom of expression, it will not be lawful simply because an academic says it or it takes place in an academic context.
2. Why are these freedoms so important to the University and our community?
They are fundamental to our core purpose as a university. Without the guarantee of freedom of expression, and the broader freedom of inquiry this protects, our vital contribution to new forms of knowledge and understanding would be compromised. Engaging with different perspectives is also a key part of our university experience, allowing students to develop critical thinking skills and a shared understanding of others’ perspectives and experiences.
While we welcome and celebrate a diversity of viewpoints within our community, we recognise that this may often create tension between those with differing opinions and beliefs. We have policies, such as our Dignity and Respect Policy, which set out our expectations for how all staff and students should behave when engaging in debate.
As a University, we take steps to ensure that lawful freedom of expression and academic freedom is supported for all members of – and visitors to – our community. These are outlined in our Statement on Freedom of Expression.
We also have a duty to balance these obligations with other legal duties, such as protecting others from violence, hatred and discrimination, preventing individuals from being drawn into terrorism, ensuring public safety, and protecting the reputation or rights of others.
The Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression Working Group was set up in 2023 to identify how the University can best support our community to exercise their rights lawfully within a culture of mutual respect. The refresh of the group will help us to zone in on key areas of this work, such as how these freedoms intersect with our duties around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
3. Why did you want to become involved in this work?
Since my student days, I have explored questions of identity through the study of religion, history, and education. Different community boundaries (with the concept of freedom featuring) have been a common motif within these studies.
I have also worked overseas in places where LGBT+ relationships are criminalised. As a gay man, this has made me conscious of the legal protections that I experience at home in the United Kingdom where, unlike in some other parts of the world, I can exercise my freedom of expression by being open about my family without fear of the state or legal sanction. I feel deeply privileged to be in this position.
Various experiences over the years have forged in me a commitment to respectful dialogue, within the bounds of the law, with those whose views I disagree with. My hope is that, over time, we can harness our different experiences and perspectives to develop new, supportive, ways to enable all our community to thrive and for our University to continue to be a place where ideas flourish.
4. Tell us more about the Working Group. How has it been refreshed and what’s next for the group?
The group was restructured earlier this year to better align our work with priorities identified by members of our community, and the refreshed structure speaks to the scale and ambition of what we are looking to achieve. A new Coordinating Group oversees our full programme of work and several new workstreams and task and finish groups have been set up, including:
- Legislation and Policy (formerly ‘Legislation’) workstream;
- Education and Curriculum workstream;
- Challenges workstream;
- Equality, Diversity, an Inclusion (EDI) workstream;
- Research task and finish group
- Institutional Care (formerly ‘Pastoral Care’) task and finish group
We worked closely with Human Resources Talent and Development team to create a new peer review selection process to populate these new groups, following an open call for participation across our staff. We are delighted to have expanded the group, bringing together people from different parts of the University with a range of perspectives and expertise.
Five of the six workstreams or task and finish groups met for the first time over the summer to agree their remit and terms of reference. Some have now met multiple times to begin this work in earnest. None of this is easy work. However, it is, arguably, essential; essential to a vibrant and thriving university, like ours (as to universities more broadly). It is also the work of us all and not of any one person or group of individuals.
To give you a flavour of the breadth of work that is in scope, it ranges from considering the implications of the newly commenced Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 through a lens of Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression; to exploring how we might strengthen dialogue across our diverse community, while treating each other with dignity and respect. We are also horizon scanning to proactively consider how we navigate future challenges to academic freedom and freedom of expression; while research is being designed to establish our community’s understanding and experience of academic freedom and freedom of expression.
5. Can members of our community still get involved in this work?
Absolutely. Even though the membership of the group is now confirmed, we have an open call for people to support the Working Group by becoming an ‘Expert Contributor’. These are people who the Working Group might call on occasionally for help while they’re developing policies, communications or guidance and support materials. If you’re interested in becoming an ‘Expert Contributor’, I would encourage you to offer your skills by completing our short form.
If you don’t want to contribute directly but are interested in finding out about our progress, you can read more on our Working Group blog. Bi-monthly updates are being published to help everyone stay up to date. If you visit the blog, you can subscribe to receive the updates directly via email. Please do sign-up. It is quick, easy, and only needs to be done once. Updates for the remainder of this semester will touch on planned engagement, as well as the agreed programme of work and deliverables for the various workstreams.
Thank you for supporting this work. If you are interested in discussing any aspect of it with me, please do get in touch by emailing: acfreedom.workinggroup@ed.ac.uk
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Academic Freedom & Freedom of Expression website
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