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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.
When a place of education fails its primary duty of education for the sake of money, it has failed at its core and those responsible should be held accountable.
This is like a library doubling late fees and adding checkout fees to stay “financially viable”. That’s not your fucking purpose. Your purpose is education.
Unfortunately this is a direct result of the government shafting the education sector. Lack of funding plus Brexit means that to stay afloat British universities have to get a certain quota of wealthy overseas (read: Chinese) students, or else face going under. It’s really depressing to see.