In a much trailed development the University of Buckingham has launched its ‘Centre of Heterodox Social Science.‘ According to the University’s website:

The Centre of Heterodox Social Science will be guided by the values of autonomy, independence, and freedom in academia and freedom of speech. The US has some 150 research centres with a classical liberal ethos, until today nothing of this kind existed in Britain.

James Tooley, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham explains:

“Universities matter. They set the tone and incubate ideas for the whole of society. I believe without academic freedom and knowledge, progress does not happen. Buckingham academics will ask the questions that should be asked.”

Academic independence was one of The University’s founding principles and something that will be fostered even more in coming years; it is at the heart of the University’s current strategy. The new centre will pursue social science and humanities research on topics, or from perspectives, that are difficult or hazardous in the contemporary university. 

Alongside the new centre an online course is already being advertised, led by the head of the new centre, Professor Eric Kaufmann:

This 15-week course presents a theoretical, historical and social scientific analysis of cultural socialism. Uniquely among university courses worldwide, it focuses attention on the western cultural left and its accompanying symbolic system of wokeness – defined as the sacralization of minority identity.

The aim is to assess woke in an empirical and analytical manner rather than from a particular political or normative position.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, this has all been jumped on with huge enthusiasm by the parts of the media who get excited by anything to do with wokeism and universities. As GB News put it when interviewing Professor Kaufmann:

Top uni professor prepares for ‘war on woke’ with new ‘faculty of common sense’ anti-woke uni degree

Well, it really is catnip for those who believe that universities are completely overrun by ‘wokeism.’

Those with long memories may recall that Buckingham announced something rather similar to this back in 2016. At that time it was a ‘Contrarian Institute’ and for some reason never really took off. I wrote a rather childish piece for this on Wonkhe at the time which proposed the establishment of a new blog which would cover similar ground:

So welcome to ControversHE. This exciting new blog will be a platform for all that is contrary and for all who are tired of the traditional, narked by the norms and peeved by the pragmatic.

All the offerings in ControversHE come from a widely respected group of commentators on HE who go out of their way to find a generally accepted reality or widely held view and then present utterly irrational and wilfully perverse opposing views. You can, therefore, be confident that every article has been only superficially quality controlled, is utterly without merit and really should have been spiked. 

Not that funny in hindsight and a lot of woke  water has flowed under the free speech bridge since then.

But I think it has to be said universities are all about this stuff. They are all places of critical free enquiry. They are the homes of heterodoxy. Universities are the places of challenge, of dispute and intellectual freedom. Through providing the environment where new ideas and knowledge can be investigated in a climate of free academic enquiry, they enable societal progress.

Research centres and new degree courses in novel areas are established all the time although admittedly they rarely gain TV interviews for the lead academic. But beyond the hype this new centre will stand or fall on the quality and impact of the research its staff produce, the grants it is able to win, the serious visiting scholars it is able to attract and whether enough students are willing to sign up for courses. 

In a sense then, aside from the easy headlines, there really is not much to see here. It’s higher ed business as usual.