Victoria University stands up for academic freedom - with a few caveats

Only a few days after the University of Auckland’s so-called academic freedom policy was rejected by the university’s Senate, Victoria University of Wellington’s own academic freedom policy has come to light.

Victoria’s policy is likely a response to the government’s stated intention to make such policies a condition for government funding.

James Kierstead: VUW Free Speech Event Shows Why Government Intervention is Now Necessary

A couple of weeks ago now, Victoria University’s long awaited panel event on free speech finally took place. VUW Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith told journalists after the event that new legislation to protect free speech was not necessary in our university sector, and ‘certainly [not] at my university.’

To any neutral observer, though, the event will have made clear quite how far our universities have strayed from being the politically disinterested, open institutions we pay them to be, and how urgently government intervention is now needed to make them fit for purpose again.

David Farrar: Vic Uni shows how under threat free speech is

The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act.

Point of Order: Joanna Kidman

Finding out about Joanna Kidman – the tweets are private but her invective has not been removed from public view

A professor by name of Joanna Kidman seems to have caused a stir in political circles this week.

So what do we learn about her, if we put her name into the Google search system?