Catholic Union asks Office for Students to promote free speech

Jul 28th, 2023

The Catholic Union has called on the Government's new free speech champion to take action about "serious problems" experienced by Catholic staff and students at universities.

In a letter to Professor Arif Ahmed, the first Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students, the Catholic Union has said that universities need to be welcoming places for people of faith.

Professor Ahmed's role was created as part of the Government's Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, passed earlier this year. He took up the post last month and has statutory powers to investigate cases of legitimate views being silenced on campuses.

In their letter, the Catholic Union highlighted the results from a recent survey on religious freedom at work, which found that 1 in 3 people had faced disadvantage because of their faith and almost half of people felt unable to talk about their faith openly with colleagues.

The survey found particular problems for Catholics at schools and universities. Higher Education Minister, Robert Halfon MP, told the Catholic Union he was "disappointed to read about the poor experiences some Catholic employees face in HE [higher education]."

The Catholic Union is continuing to make politicians and others in public office aware of the survey results in an attempt improve the experience of Catholics in the workplace.

Catholic Union Director, Nigel Parker, said: "The creation of a new post at the Office for Students to promote free speech is a welcome step. Sadly, we know that too many Catholic staff and students do not feel able to speak freely about their faith at their university. The results from our survey earlier this year raised serious problems in this regard. Efforts to promote free speech and academic freedom at universities must surely include addressing concerns about religious freedom. We hope that Professor Ahmed will take these concerns seriously and meet us at the earliest opportunity to discuss them."

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