Professor Katy Hayward:

I thank the Senator. We need to be clear about what the role of academics is in all this. It is fundamentally around good research and evidence. You can only do so much. You can have good-quality research and evidence and engage in fact checking, for example, and this is fundamental to the proper operation of democracy. The protection of academic freedom and recognition of the role of universities, which is privileged, is vital and needs to come from other institutions of democracy that are essential to democracy, most particularly elected institutions.

There is a worrying trend, which has been alluded to, of demoting the value of evidence and expertise. We have seen the consequences of that and there are, of course, obvious dangers in this regard. That is especially evident in Northern Ireland. When we did the polling on where people get information from on the protocol, we were not too surprised to see academic institutions were not super-high in that. That said, when we look in more detail at that data, those who have more moderate views on the protocol are those who engage more frequently with official sources, academic sources and business, so there is probably something in that. However, rather than thinking about things that might particularly dissuade a given community, it is the responsibility of academics to present their information as appropriate in accessible ways. All of us on the panel try to do that when presenting evidence.

Another aspect is the university being a place where we can have a safe space for public discussion. Again, we have a very privileged role in relation to that. However, we must fundamentally come back to the fact there is a distinct role to be played. For elected representatives, there is the responsibility to not selectively use information in a way that can try to present a particular picture of the protocol or whatever issue is at hand. There is a responsibility there not just to democracy but to good governance and decision-making.

The points raised by the Senator are profound but the answer is quite simple and fairly straightforward and is around valuing the role of evidence and protecting the independence of institutions such as universities in what is a very highly contested and complicated situation, and what are very difficult matters to address, particularly given the emotions and the values which surround all of these issues.