As first reported in the Telegraph, FSU member and University College London (UCL) academic Michelle Shipworth has been banned from teaching her own course, after a Chinese student complained that discussing modern slavery in China was too “provocative”. Incredibly, UCL sided with students who said they were “distressed” by her handling of the topic, and imposed a raft of restrictions on Michelle in order to ensure their courses remained “commercially viable” to Chinese students.
Michelle Shipworth is an Associate Professor at UCL’s Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, and has taught at the institution since 2009.
Michelle found herself under investigation after a seminar last October examining data from the Global Slavery Index 2014. The seminar forms part of her ‘Data Detectives’ training module, and is designed to prepare students for an assignment which external examiners have described as “particularly innovative” and “excellent”, and her Faculty’s teaching lead has previously stated is worthy of a teaching award.
This is what fucking happens when you start charging a fortune for university access.
People stop seeing it as an educational institution and start seeing it as a transaction. A service, with the students as customers.
“I pay tens of thousands for this, and I don’t like what’s being discussed, why am I paying to support this?”
This, and stuff like it, has been happening for a while, and crops up practically everywhere where university is locked behind a big paywall.
If you start structuring universities like a commercial enterprise, students will start treating it like one. They will start voting with their wallet.