The Prevent Duty: a threat to academic freedom and civil liberties

UCU National President Liz Lawrence leads an open discussion of the Government’s new ‘Prevent Duty’ on Monday 16th November 1.15 pm in 5W2.1.

Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 contains a duty on specified authorities, including universities, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This duty is usually referred to as “Prevent Duty’’. UCU is opposed to the government imposed Prevent Duty as a matter of principle for many reasons. For example, the Prevent duty seriously threatens academic freedom and freedom of expression, it puts pressure on UCU members to spy on their students and the broad and vague definition of terrorism adopted in the Act will stifle open political debate and legitimate political dissent on campus.* Continue reading

Management want more control of recording of lectures

UCU members have expressed support for the existing policy on the recording of lectures and other teaching sessions. Currently staff make decisions about what is and is not recorded, and many make use of the facility. But now senior managers are saying that they want to record everything unless we sign a form saying we don’t want them to. Branch officers have referred the matter to UCU’s legal department.