The new Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University has said that free speech is “critical” as she sets out to create events to help it flourish on campus.
Professor Debbie Prentice, the University’s first American leader, plans to introduce forums where controversial issues can be discussed in a non-confrontational way.
The former Princeton University Provost considers self-censorship even more worrying than speaker cancellations, saying it leads to “spirals of silence”.
‘Critical issues’
The forums or “dialogues” will provide opportunities for people from different positions to exchange views on “critical issues”.
The psychology professor said: “The message is simple: free speech is absolutely core to everything that we do, critical to our community and is really inviolable.”
She added: “I want to create environments in which free speech can flourish.”
Free speech tsar
Last month, the Government’s newly appointed free speech tsar pledged to use his role to “defend free speech within the law for all views and approaches”.
Arif Ahmed became the first Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students.
The Cambridge Professor of Philosophy said he will use “all means necessary” to address the “urgent threats to free speech” on campuses.
He said disputes are settled by “discussion, not censorship or violence”, and explained that new legislation requires universities and colleges to “promote, and take steps to secure, academic freedom and free speech within the law”.
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