A group of lawyers which campaigns on free speech has sent an email to senior figures at Edinburgh University this week raising concerns about the legality of the way the university recruits people and promotes its staff. The lawyers have also told the university they’ll be reporting it to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Charity Commission and the Scottish Funding Council. How did we get here?

I’ve seen the email, sent to four senior people at the university by Alumni for Free Speech (AFFS), and it’s a thorough piece of work. For some time now, AFFS has been conducting a review of the recruitment practices at British universities to determine if they’re compliant with their legal obligations on free speech and it published a report last year which found that nearly half of English and Welsh universities were likely to be non-compliant, which is lawyer speak for breaking the law. AFFS have now extended their work to Scottish universities and will be publishing a report on the subject later this month.

In the meantime, the work they’ve already done has prompted them to email Edinburgh University to raise concerns about the consequences for free speech of job adverts which require applicants to be committed to equality, diversity and inclusion (or EDI as it’s known). The lawyers are also worried about the university’s policy on staff promotions which states that academics seeking a promotion “are expected to demonstrate commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion”.

There will be some who say ‘what’s your problem, equality, diversity and........

© Herald Scotland