The UCU have continued to campaign against the UK government’s ill thought out and divisive ‘Prevent’ strategy which seeks to turn academic and support staff into snoopers who monitor students for signs of ‘extremism.’

Having been a part of the English educational scene for several years, the Home Office decided last year that it should also be applied to Scotland, including Scotland’s universities. They instructed the Scottish government to apply a version of their UK policy north of the border, and the result is a set of guidelines, which quite frankly neither the Scottish government nor it seems, the Scottish universities are happy with, but which have been applied to higher education in Scotland, and in even stricter form to further education in Scotland

Douglas Chalmers. UCU Scotland president represented the union at the Islamophobia 2015 conference

The ‘Prevent’ guidance which has been issued to all universities and colleges (and which can be downloaded here), raises the expectation that university staff will now be expected to monitor students for signs of ‘extremism’ one part of which is that they do not display support for a very loosely defined set of ‘British values.’

This has already led to the ridiculous situation in some English universities, of muslim students being questioned on their views because they have been seen reading (set) textbooks on global terrorism and security – despite this being the postgraduate course they are studying.

The UCU has supported the “Students not Suspects’ tour when it visited Scotland

The UCU has drawn up a set of guidelines for staff which can be downloaded here. NUS has also produced some useful guidance here.  The branch at GCU have produced our own broadsheet on the issue.  We will also continue to support the ‘students not suspects’ initiatives, and campaign to get the prevent measures scrapped.