Colleges to play a
greater role in promoting community cohesion and preventing extremism
DEPARTMENT FOR
INNOVATION, UNIVERSITIES AND SKILLS News Release (2008/0014) issued
by The Government News Network on 11 February 2008
Colleges have a
responsibility to foster our shared values and protect their
students and staff from those who wish to intimidate and promote
violence, Bill Rammell, Minister for Further and Higher Education
announced today.
The proposals are part of a consultation, published today, on the
role of Further Education (FE) colleges in promoting community
cohesion, fostering shared values and preventing violent
extremism. The FE consultation mirrors the updated guidance issued
to Higher Education institutions last month.
The Government's assessment is that the biggest current
threat the UK faces is from Al Qa'ida-influenced terrorism.
Our judgment is that the threat in FE Colleges is serious but not
widespread. Government has been working with the Association of
Colleges to develop the consultation which will lead to the first
guidance to colleges on tackling extremism and promoting community cohesion.
The Further Education sector faces its own unique issues and
challenges in fostering community cohesion, promoting our shared
values and tackling violent extremism. FE intuitions are often at
the heart of local communities and serve students diverse in terms
of age and background.
This is the first time Government has made proposals on these
issues and wishes to work closely with the FE sector in
considering how best colleges can be supported to work towards a
common understanding of their role.
Bill Rammell, Minister for Further and Higher Education,
said:
"Our shared values which bind communities together
belong to everyone in Britain; they are not possessed by any one
race, creed or nationality. The Further Education sector's
task is to foster these values in their institutions.
"Colleges have a unique role to play in fostering our shared
values of openness, free debate and tolerance. Many colleges
already play an important role in their communities and are
ideally placed to expand their work into reinforcing shared values
and protecting their students and staff from those who would seek
to exploit the freedom we all benefit from in this country to
promote violence or incite racial hatred."
Sue Dutton, Acting Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said:
"Organisations such as colleges, schools and universities
have a duty to their students and to society at large to promote
community cohesion. These proposals contribute to continuing
college efforts to take all appropriate action for fostering
shared community values, including dealing with extremism in any form."
The consultation highlights five key areas, offering practical
advice and issues for staff and students to consider. These
are:
* Promoting and reinforcing shared values: creating space
for free and open debate; and listening to and supporting
mainstream voices;
* Breaking down segregation among different
student communities: supporting inter-faith and inter-cultural
dialogue and engaging all students in playing a full and active
role in wider engagement with society;
* Ensuring student
safety and that campuses are free from bullying, harassment and
intimidation;
* Providing support to vulnerable students and
offering appropriate advice, guidance and sources of support to
all staff and students;
* Ensuring staff and students are
aware of their roles in preventing violent extremism.
Notes to editors:
1. To view the consultation, 'The role
of further education providers in promoting community cohesion,
fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism:
consultation document' please visit, http://www.dius.gov.uk
2. The consultation will run for 12 weeks closing on 06 May 2008.
3. Updated guidance to Higher Education institutions was issued
on 22 January and can be viewed at http://www.dius.gov.uk
4. In his speech on Liberty in November 2007, the Prime Minister
called on the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and
Skills, John Denham and the Minister of State, to lead the
university sector in debate on how to maintain academic freedom
while ensuring that extremists can never stifle debate or impose
their views. In this context, the document focuses on the key role
HE must take in fostering shared values through free, open debate,
underpinned by tolerance. These shared values are one of the most
important tools available, for tackling violent extremism.
5. The Government judges the main terrorist threat to the UK at
this time to be from Al Qa'ida-influenced terrorism. It is
for this reason that in this guidance, we specifically focus in
some areas on this form of violent extremism and in other areas,
all forms of violent extremism. We recognise that universities
face similarly complex issues with regard to the activities of the
extreme far right, animal rights activists, anti-Semitism,
Islamaphobia as well as wider issues of race, faith, sexual
orientation and gender intolerance.
6. Academic Freedom forms a key strand of our policy in
preventing violent extremism in both Higher and Further Education
institutions. Bill Rammell gave a lecture on Academic Freedom at
the Fabian Society on 27 November 2007. This can be viewed online
at http://www.dius.gov.uk/speeches/rammell_fabiansociety_271107.html.