Still time to apply for Living Freedom Summer School

The annual residential school in London is a fantastic opportunity to discuss the past, present and future of freedom – and the deadline to apply has been extended until Monday 22 May.

Last week, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill finally received royal assent. For once, I am positive about a new government law because, on this occasion, it extends freedom. There are many people and organisations who inspired me to believe that for once, the law might just help defeat campus cancel culture - and who deserve much credit for playing an important role in ensuring that the bill retained its teeth.

At the same time, we must recognise that while helpful to the cause, this legislation cannot, on its own, secure academic freedom. Just in the past week or so, we’ve seen the forces of cancel culture undermine open discussion on campus by ensuring that film showings planned for universities in Edinburgh and Cambridge were cancelled. Meanwhile in Oxford, some students are doing their best to ensure Professor Kathleen Stock is disinvited from a planned talk at Oxford Union.  

So, in addition to legislation, we should all support the creation a culture of free expression and free exchange of ideas in universities. This is something that Living Freedom, the initiative created by the charity Ideas Matter, has been pursuing with events in universities – with more to come next year.

But for now, anyone aged 18 to 30 has the chance to apply for the Living Freedom annual residential summer school to take place in central London from 29 June to 1 July. Full details can be found here and you can apply here. The deadline is Monday 22 May.

To get a flavour of the event, watch Living Freedom’s Alastair Donald and 2022 attendee Ella Nixon discuss the Summer School on yesterday’s edition of Free Speech Nation on GB News.

Please do pass the word on to as many young people as possible (you can share this post with the button below). To make this legislation work, we need to enthuse young people about the importance of free exchange of ideas and make sure that academic freedom in universities thrives.