Attempts to ‘gag and silence’ academics commonplace

There is “a tremendous atmosphere of gagging and silencing” in UK universities that prevents academics from speaking out when they feel that they have been treated unfairly. This is according to Marina Warner, until recently professor of literature, film and theatre studies at the University of Essex, writes Chris Parr for Times Higher Education.

Warner left her post after 10 years at the university and, rather than stay quiet, publicly documented the reasons for her departure in an article for the London Review of Books. Her criticism relates to the way in which the university is managed, which Warner claims has resulted in scholars being pushed to complete an unmanageable list of activities in the pursuit of “prestige, publicity, glory, impact”; a shift of emphasis from research to teaching in order to attract lucrative overseas students; and a leadership team that enforced top-down change in a manner that, she said, often showed no regard for the opinions of academics.
Full report on the Times Higher Education site