Students are often self-censoring because they fear the social and academic consequences of raising controversial topics, a new study published by the Office for Students (OfS) has found.
Drawing on a YouGov survey of just over 1,000 students at English universities, the study commissioned by England’s higher education regulator found one in five students (20 per cent) did not feel free to raise controversial topics in in-person seminars – a figure that rose to 28 per cent for online discussions, 30 per cent for in-person lectures and 32 per cent for online talks.
Asked which topics they believed were off limits within in-person seminars, 52 per cent said race or racism, 50 per cent said immigration and 45 per cent mentioned sex and gender, according to the study published on 28 May.
On why they feared raising a controversial topic in class, 69 per cent of those who reported self-censoring cited the fear of social consequences, such as people thinking poorly of them or being ostracised by peers, 49 per cent worried about causing offence and 42 per cent cited the fear of academic consequences.
In follow-up interviews with 42 students, many respondents mentioned the Israel-Palestine conflict as a topic on which they frequently held back “due to fear of accusations of anti-semitism or disciplinary action after witnessing others facing academic consequences”, the report explains.
