Is UK counter-terrorism policy creating a 'safe space' in higher education?

What is it about?

In this article I compare the legal duty imposed on universities to take certain steps to prevent 'radicalisation' of its students (the 'Prevent' duty) with the idea of higher education as a 'safe space'. Both are strategies that seek to prevent harm through the control of speech and the separation of those vulnerable to harm from those who might be causing it. I explore both the obvious differences between the two and the underlying similarities, especially the shared assumptions about students. I argue that critics of the Prevent programme will only strengthen it if they call for education to be a safe space.

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Why is it important?

It seeks to explain how both official counter-terrorism policy and the apparently contrasting campaign for education to be a safe space rely on common assumptions about students, assumptions that subvert the core purpose of higher education.