At midnight last night, submissions closed on the Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 2). The bill would introduce new measures to protect academic freedom, which is defined in the Education and Training Act as ‘the freedom of academic staff and students, within the law, to question and test received wisdom, to put forward new ideas, and to state controversial or unpopular opinions.’ 

These measures are sorely needed. There is now overwhelming evidence that we have a problem with academic freedom in this country. Readers who doubt this could consult the report I released last year, Unpopular Opinions: Academic Freedom in New Zealand.  

In its current form, the bill would require universities to have policies on freedom of expression, to set up an internal complaints procedure for those who feel their speech rights have been violated, and to report on the climate for free speech on their campus every year. 

All of this is very welcome. At the same time, the current draft of the bill lacks any mechanisms to ensure that universities comply with its provisions. In other words, the bill lacks teeth. 

Our submission, available on our website, attempts to give the bill teeth. Our model throughout was the United Kingdom’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. 

We recommend establishing an Academic Freedom Ombudsman (AFO) modelled on the UK’s Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom. The AFO would help ensure that universities comply with the law on academic freedom and advocate for academic freedom at the national level. 

We also suggest bolstering the complaints process, which as the bill stands would be run entirely by university managers. We suggest making it possible to appeal internal decisions to an external body appointed by the AFO, and for complainants to bring civil proceedings against universities for breaches of their duty to academic freedom. 

Finally, we suggest some minor changes to the wording, including strengthening and clarifying the provision for institutional neutrality. 

That this bill has been introduced at all is very heartening. In its current form, though, university managers may simply pay lip-service to it while undermining its true intent at every opportunity.  

Our recommendations would make sure that universities instead fulfil the obligations to academic freedom that they have ignored or gleefully contravened for far too long.