Students in at least one college of Cambridge University will be forced to take mandatory ‘inclusivity training’ from the start of the new term next week, The Spectator has learned.
The 90-minute sessions are being delivered by Stop Hate UK. This group has published a video demanding that university students must always display ‘positive attitudes’ and ‘use respectful and kind language that will not cause harm or offence.’ Its training syllabus for ‘educational settings’ tells students that their right to free speech should be ‘restricted by other duties, responsibilities, and legislative and contractual obligations’ and teaches them how ‘opinions, attitudes and prejudice are influenced and shaped by unconscious bias, media bias, fake news, etc.’
How will students be required to ‘demonstrate’ that their behaviour is ‘inclusive?’
The hostility to free speech and the strictures about kindness and offence, in an institution supposedly about free intellectual enquiry, are ominous enough. It is a further sign of Cambridge’s intellectual decline that, if this syllabus is followed, among the first things its students will be taught is a concept, ‘unconscious bias,’ which has neither scientific validity nor empirical evidence of its effectiveness. As a UK government report found, ‘evidence that [unconscious bias] training content and techniques “works” is lacking’ and such interventions ‘do not seem to be effective at improving diversity outcomes within workplaces.’ Most of the evidence used to justify it ‘did not use valid measures of behaviour change’ and there was even ‘potential for back-firing effects.’
Stop Hate UK has also claimed that ‘Islamophobia is a crime,’ which is untrue. It will be interesting to know if the organisation will be able to peddle this direct lie to Cambridge students.
According to an email about the course sent out by the education and tutorial office at Caius College, Cambridge, and seen by The Spectator, ‘attendance by undergraduate students is mandatory. It is important for the community as a whole to ensure a collective and unified response.’ The course will cover, among other things, ‘demonstrating inclusive behaviours’ and ‘recognition of a hate incident and its impact.’
Again, both of these are worrying and potentially coercive. How will students be required to ‘demonstrate’ that their behaviour is ‘inclusive?’ And the use of the word ‘hate incident’ rather than ‘hate crime’ suggests that behaviour falling far below the legal standard will be sanctioned. Stop Hate UK helpfully says that hate incidents can include, for instance, ‘abusive gestures’ or ‘malicious complaints about parking.’ Its glossary speaks of ‘microaggressions’ and ‘micro-inequities’ including ‘unintentional comments’ and ‘unconscious messages’ that ‘devalue and discourage people… conveyed through facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, choice of words.’
Among the other things defined as hateful by Stop Hate UK is truthful media reporting about Muslim grooming scandals. As it puts it, ‘this leads to the formation of Anti-Muslim attitudes, subconscious biases and hate.’ Its work on this subject cites the Centre for Media Monitoring, then part of the Muslim Council of Britain, long boycotted by the British government for its views. We have covered CfMM’s deeply problematic output here.
Every week it now feels like we have to ask: what on earth is happening at Cambridge University? Where does this slide end?
A spokesman for Caius College said: ‘In consultation with student representatives, the College has committed to hosting facilitated discussions around inclusivity to support the whole community at Caius.’
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