Uni’s on the Front Line :: Wessex Scene Online

Uni’s on the Front Line

9th March 2008
Hannah Slater

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University leaders have agreed to inform the police of any extremist behaviour by students or visiting speakers at their institutions

Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, has issued a new ‘tool kit’ which advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on university campuses. Last year, angry scenes erupted at Oxford University when BNP leader, Nick Griffin and controversial historian, David Irving were invited to speak at the Oxford Union Society.

This latest guidance advises universities to make proper checks on student groups or outside bodies that book university premises for speaking events. Leaflets distributed on campus should be translated into English and students and lecturers should be advised to report suspicious activity, such as unusual internet use.

Mr Rammell suggests that universities should also consider setting up multifaith chaplaincies instead of separate chair rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming. This would allow Muslim chaplains to support vulnerable students who are being groomed, bullied or harassed by violent extremists, so that they can alert the police.

However, Rammell has emphasised that Muslim students, particularly those from overseas, should not have the right to demand special treatment from British universities: "Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, [you] would be disappointed," he said.

He added that the biggest threat facing Britain is Al-Qaeda influenced terrorism: "Our judgement is that the threat in higher education is serious but not wide spread" he said. However, the government has gained a greater insight into terrorists minds since the last guidance on the subject was published in 2006: "It reflects our increased knowledge of how violent extremist groups operate, ho they recruit and what the scale and nature of this activity is with our communities" he said.

Universities that initially rejected the previous guidance ‘as a threat to freedom of speech’ have since accepted the latest version. Diana Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, representing vice-chancellors, said: "Violence, or the incitement of violence, has no place on a university campus."

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which also criticised the previous guidelines, welcomed the revised document, although it insisted that there was still no evidence of an Islamic threat on British campuses.

The government hopes that these guidelines will help to prevent young Muslims from becoming radicalised. The guidance states that whilst there is no single profile of potential recruits to be aware of, it is likely that they are to be younger than 30 and male. Howver, it is reported that the number of women who support and participate in violent extremism is on the increase.