Call for sector guidelines on academic freedom on social media

Academic environment is a controlled space. Whatever we say about freedom of expressions; this cannot be open ended because of the impact of events within the ivory towers on the larger society. It may therefore be necessary to have some degree of regulated activities on the social media platforms in a way that will not gag the creative input of scholars.

So peer referreed scholarly outputs on HE policy are entered into the REF which might implicitly or explicitly be critical of government or institutional priorities. Yet if those same academics promoted their work on social media, or if similar views were expressed without the peer review process, academics could face reprimand. How can we teach critical thinking, responsible leadership, effective communication, innovation, dispute resolution, digital literacy, tolerance, civic engagement, global citizenship, inclusivity and diversity, etc to our students if we operate under the tyranny of the thought police?