Extremist speakers at universities on the increase, think tank warns

Universities are guilty of an “industrial-scale failure” to protect students from extremist speakers, a think tank has claimed.

A total of 435 events at UK universities in the last three academic years have featured elements of extremism as defined by the UK government, according to the annual report from the Henry Jackson Society’s Student Rights Project.

The think tank, which is often described as right-wing, also found that in the 2017-18 academic year there were 204 events featuring extremist speakers at UK universities, compared with 128 in 2015-16 and 107 in 2016-17.