China’s education minister has taken an oath to ban textbooks that promote “Western values”, the state media said. This seems to be the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping. One of the Chinese provinces even announced plans to install CCTV cameras in classrooms, and this raised an outcry from lawyers who believe that it would curb academic freedom.
Unfair changesSome students in the U.K. are subjected to unfair changes in their courses, alleges a consumer group called Which. The group has issued Freedom of Information requests to more than 150 universities in the U.K. for documents about the institutions' right to vary courses after enrolment. About 131 responded, of which 40 were considered by the group to have bad practices and policies that needed improvement.
Anti-terror bill must exempt universitiesThe House of Lords’ counter-terrorism and security bill may restrict academic freedom of speech and hence, universities must be exempt from it, say MPs and peers who have informed home secretary Theresa May. The warning from the parliament’s joint human rights committee came before the second reading on Tuesday as the bill includes powers that could require colleges to ban extremist speakers from campuses. It also mentions that university staff will be expected to refer students who are at risk of being drawn into terrorism to external anti-radicalisation programmes.
