Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking to amendment No. 317, which proposes to amend section 129, which relates to the equality statement of the college. However, this part of the Bill relates to the National College of Art and Design, NCAD. My error was in tabling the amendment to that section when it should more properly have been proposed to section 62.

On the principle of the amendment, in the context of the preparation of an equality statement, a number of different requirements are made of a designated institution of higher education. There is an onus on such an institution to prepare an equality statement. This involves the preparation of a statement of the policy of the institution for enabling access to it and to the education it provides by students in priority groups and persons in those groups who seek to become students and a statement on the policy of the institution relating to equality, including gender equality, in all activities of the institution. In addition, section 62(5)(c) refers to "the manner in which the plan relates to any strategic development plan under section 61" and so on.

I wish the Minister to consider the inclusion among these requirements of a requirement for the equality statement to address the policy of the college relating to respect for the academic freedom of students of that college. That is a core issue in respect of equality. I apologise for my mistake, which was to propose the amendment of a section that deals only with NCAD. It is of course my intention that the requirement to prepare a policy on the academic freedom of students would apply to all designated institutions. I believe the Minister will agree that the principle is the same and that it could be addressed. I hope he will agree with me. I am happy to submit a revised amendment on Report Stage and I would be even more happy to withdraw in anticipation of the Government introducing an amendment of its own on this matter on Report Stage.

Why am I proposing this amendment? We talk about the importance of academic freedom. Academic freedom as generally understood in an academic context is not just a matter of equality. Academic freedom goes to the integrity of universities and institutes of higher education. It is part of the secret sauce of an institute of higher education. It is what makes possible the exploration of ideas and an expansive approach to research in all areas, not just in the humanities. We know that the curtailment of academic freedom is a recipe for disaster where it occurs. This issue has many dimensions and there are other aspects we might rightly consider in the context of other legislation. For example, a matter of major concern to people is the implications not just for academic freedom, but for human rights.Academic freedom is part of that and separate from that in the context of the connections between institutions of higher education and countries such as China. One thinks of the influence of the Confucius Institutes, as well as the joint college arrangements that have been embarked on and the joint delivery of academic courses between Irish colleges and colleges in countries such as China. When one also considers the surveillance state that China is, one must surely have questions about the risks to academic freedom inherent in those links. The links might be welcome for all sorts of reasons but there are inherent risks to academic freedom where one is dealing with institutions that are, in one way or another, under the control of a surveillance State.

What happens to a student who comes here and wants to write a thesis about democracy and the problems with the Chinese system? To what extent are the academic freedom, human rights, welfare and safety of such a student or indeed a member of academic staff who comes from a country like that to work here compromised? That is just one example. That is just one of the issues that are coming up around academic freedom these days. The issue is broader and more general than that. It touches on the capacity of an institute of higher education to be the best it can be, to give access to all areas in terms of the exploration and development of ideas, theories and so on.

The key point is that academic freedom cannot be just understood in the context of equality, although there is an equality dimension to it. Nor can it be understood just as an issue that applies to academics or the paid staff of the university. Increasingly, we live in a world where institutes are highly politicised and students can come under various different kinds of pressure not to think certain thoughts or develop certain ideas and not to go there on certain issues, whether it is the Chinese Government and its attitude to some of the course content or some of the proposed research areas undertaken by a Chinese student who is based in Ireland, for example, or whether it is a student who feels inhibited from getting into an area of sociology, politics or whatever other discipline it may be because it might incur the displeasure of college authorities, academic authorities or the people to whom they have to submit their work for assessment.

We read in these days about the apparent lack of academic freedom that is going on in the western world and the shouting down of academics and other students by people. When we read about that - thankfully, we have generally come across this in other countries so far - we know that something antithetical to the idea of a university is going on. University must surely be the place where people come up with ideas and where people are free to explore ideas. They may be unpopular ideas. They may go against the grain of establishment thinking within the university or outside of it. It is time now to ask universities over which the State exercises a certain level of oversight, and clearly this legislation is about that, what they are doing to protect the academic freedom of students. A key area of this comes under equality. As I said, it is not confined to equality, but it very much comes under equality. If one student feels inhibited, or is inhibited, from engaging in the pursuit of ideas, for example, a proposal for thesis, and another student does not, for whatever reason, for instance, because the ideas are in vogue or not in vogue or there are cultural, economic and institutional pressures, that is antithetical to what a university is supposed to be about. That is the reason I am asking, in conclusion.