BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Does higher education politicise today’s students? - Rob Ford (U niversity of Manchester)\, Ralph Scott (University of Bristol)\, Rachel Br ooks (University of Oxford)\, Tom Fryer (University of Manchester)\, Gritt Nielsen (Aarhus University)\, Jan McArthur (Lancaster University)\, Rille Raaper (Durham University) DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250603T140000 DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250603T160000 UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ab8bbc48-b6ec-4ac5-92aa-ddbadb59347c/ DESCRIPTION:This webinar will launch the ESRC-funded ‘Students and Polit ics’ project\, run by Rachel Brooks (University of Oxford)\, Tom Fryer ( University of Manchester) and Rille Raaper (Durham University).\n\nIt will comprise short talks from four scholars working in this area – Rob Ford (University of Manchester)\, Ralph Scott (University of Bristol)\, Gritt Nielsen (Aarhus University) and Jan MacArthur (Lancaster University) – a s well as an introduction to the ‘Students and Politics’ project by me mbers of the research team. There will also be plenty of time for audience discussion and questions.\n\n \n\nTalk 1\n\nDegrees of separation: The ri se of education as a political divide\n\nRob Ford (University of Mancheste r)\n\nIn this talk I will briefly chart the emergence of educational quali fications as a significant dividing line in electoral politics\, both in B ritain and beyond\, and look as some of the factors driving this – issue priorities\, social values\, social identities and the role of Brexit. I will conclude with some thoughts on the role of education in the 2024 gene ral election and the possible future trajectories of education divides in Britain.\n\n \n\nTalk 2\n\nIs higher education a new political cleavage in British politics?\n\nRalph Scott (University of Bristol)\, with co-author s Hannah Bunting (University of Exeter)\, Rob Ford (University of Manchest er) and Maria Sobolewska (University of Manchester)\n\nThe role that educa tion plays in shaping an individual’s political attitudes and behaviour is increasingly well-observed across established democracies\, including i n Great Britain (Apfeld et al.\, 2024). Graduate status divides British vo ters on issues (such as immigration) and has led to the emergence of new p arties (Reform UK) and the transformation of existing ones (Conservatives after Brexit). Some argue that it represents a new cleavage across Western Europe (Ford and Jennings\, 2020). Extrapolating from the Danish case (St ubager\, 2010)\, we test whether higher education constitutes a new politi cal cleavage in Great Britain. We use a new representative survey of the B ritish public\, including survey experiments\, to develop a measure of edu cation-based social identity among British voters. Next\, we examine the p olitical effects of this identity\, finding that it motivates political at titudes\, vote choice and candidate preference\, suggesting that the educa tion divide will continue to restructure party competition.\n\n \n\nTalk 3 \n\nPolicing student protests: safety\, free speech and calls for ‘stock ing foot activism’ at Danish universities\n\nGritt Nielsen (Aarhus Unive rsity)\n\nIf universities function as a mirror of democracy and a window i nto its future (Ben-Porath 2017: 8)\, then our time is one of fundamental transformation. In Denmark\, in recent years\, students’ political engag ement and activism have caused intense public debate about the limits of f ree speech and what it means for students to be safe at their university. In 2018-23 debates revolved around whether (some) students were being over -sensitive and conveying a growing ‘readiness for taking offence’ that could stifle free speech\, among other by calling for the university to b e a safe(r) space. With recent pro-Palestinian protests\, however\, the me aning of safety and free speech\, and accordingly of democracy\, seem to b e undergoing changes. Building on a strong post-68 tradition for student p articipation and democracy\, Danish university leaders usually engage in d ialogue with students who protest or occupy parts of the university. Howev er\, for the first time in more than half a century\, leaders at a Danish university recently called upon the police to remove activists who attempt ed to occupy a university building\, arguing that they caused other studen ts and staff to feel unsafe. Instead\, the leader said\, students should e ngage in what he called more caring and respectful forms of ‘stocking fo ot activism’. The different efforts to govern and police students as pol itical actors\, I argue\, offers important insights into processes of de/p oliticisation of the public university and its changing role in developing democracy within the frames of the Danish nation state.\n\n \n\nTalk 4\n\ nHigher education’s responsibility to nurture political sensibilities\n\ nJan McArthur (Lancaster University)\n\nIt is very difficult to understand how higher education can realise its responsibilities without clear links to the ongoing development of students’ political understandings and co mmitments. At its heart\, higher education is about engagement with the m inds of others\, and as such is an inherently political\, social and histo rical process. The world of higher education is a world of generating\, cu rating and disseminating complex\, dynamic and contested bodies of knowled ge. The idea that the development of political sensibilities may be questi onable\, even inappropriate within an educational context harks back to so me serious distortions in understanding the nature of knowledge\; ironica lly of course\, these are themselves deeply political\, if not actually id eological. Firstly\, they reflect an idea of knowledge as static and uncon textualized. As Brown and Duguid\, in their wonderful book The Social Life of Information\, outline\, that may well be a fair description of informa tion\, but knowledge by distinction is deeply interconnected with the know er and is a fully socially-embedded process. Secondly\, and not un-related \, is a view that politics is a naturally oppositional activity\, a grubby sport based on entrenched positions and conflict. In contrast\, politics is as naturally a social activity as is engagement with knowledge. They ar e both about understanding the minds of others\, and understanding how dif ferent minds and people interact. Politics is natural\; we may be reminded here of the Aristotelean idea of zoon politik. In this session I will dra w on critical theory to demonstrate that the nurturing of a political sens ibility is one of the core responsibilities of higher education.\n\n \nSpe akers:\nRob Ford (University of Manchester)\, Ralph Scott (University of B ristol)\, Rachel Brooks (University of Oxford)\, Tom Fryer (University of Manchester)\, Gritt Nielsen (Aarhus University)\, Jan McArthur (Lancaster University)\, Rille Raaper (Durham University) LOCATION:Teams\, online TZID:Europe/London URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/ab8bbc48-b6ec-4ac5-92aa-ddbadb59347c/ BEGIN:VALARM ACTION:display DESCRIPTION:Talk:Does higher education politicise today’s students? - Ro b Ford (University of Manchester)\, Ralph Scott (University of Bristol)\, Rachel Brooks (University of Oxford)\, Tom Fryer (University of Manchester )\, Gritt Nielsen (Aarhus University)\, Jan McArthur (Lancaster University )\, Rille Raaper (Durham University) TRIGGER:-PT1H END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR