CAFAS The Council for Academic Freedom and Academic Standards
CAFAS
Is a group dedicated to maintaining standards of integrity and
practice in academia, to exposing breaches in those standards and to supporting
the victims of those breaches.
CAFAS
Welcomes widened access to further and higher education. But
expansion in the absence of a corresponding increase in funding and the
attempt to run education on commercial principles have led to standards
being undermined and to staff who protest being victimised. Many are too
demoralised, or too pressured by the provision of inadequate resources
to challenge the decline; others are fearful of redundancy or are intimidated
by the threat of victimisation and some respond to job insecurity by themselves
becoming victimisers of the vulnerable.
CAFAS
Faces the fact that the British educational system is decaying. The
Council will not collaborate with the pretence that this is not happening
nor will it compromise on the right to say so. The principle of academic
freedom enshrined in the Education Reform Act (1988) - that "academic
staff have freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom
and put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions without
placing themselves in jeopardy of losing their jobs" - is increasingly
under attack, particularly when staff expose instances of corruption
and shoddy standards. CAFAS is committed to campaigning against
the formal or informal abuse of power and influence by persons at all
levels in universities and colleges of further education. As such CAFAS
provides a means of challenging arbitrary, unjust, unreasonable or biased
decisions in H.E. and F.E.
CAFAS
- Campaigns against the decline in academic standards
- Defends individuals against victimisation
- Gives moral support and informal legal advice
- Investigates malpractice and publishes findings
- Seeks to develop a support network with unions and other organisations.
University in Exile Conference
Members of CAFAS may bbe interested in an upcoming Social Research conference,
Free Inquiry at Risk: Universities in Dangerous Times
The New School in New York City on October 29, 30, and 31, 2008
This will be the 18th conference in the Social Research series dedicated
to enhancing public understanding in an engaging, multi-disciplinary discussion.
Over three days, the conference speakers will explore how the trends and
challenges that face universities in the US and abroad today, and may
affect the core values of academic freedom and free inquiry. These current
trends include rapid globalization, changes in the geo-political arena,
modes of financing, the extension of higher education franchises, the
rise of collateral institutes and research centers, the relationship between
specialization and integration, regime change, and other conditions of
duress. For the keynote, endangered scholars from Ethiopia, Zimbabwe,
Belarus, and China will discuss their experiences in their home country
where they faced persecution, prosecution, and imprisonment. Aryeh Neier,
President of the Open Society Institute, will moderate.
The conference is a major part of commemorations for the 75th anniversary
of the University in Exile, a remarkable haven of academic freedom and
free inquiry created by Alvin Johnson, the first president of The New
School, for the scholars he presciently rescued from the ravages of fascism.
The conference begins on October 29th with a talk by Ira Katznelson, Former
Dean of The New School for Social Research about the Two Founding Moments
of the New School.
For more information please visit :-
www.socres.org/conferences.
To view the agenda, schedule, speaker bios.
To register, please visit www.newschool.edu/freeinquiry.
PATRONS
Professors Geoffrey Alderman (Middlesex), Michelle Barrett (City),
David Beetham, Leeds, Jennifer Birkett (Birmingham), Noam Chomsky (MIT,
USA), G A Cohen (Oxford), J B Deregowski (Aberdeen), Michael Dummett (Oxford),
Terry Eagleton (Oxford), Chris Freeman (Sussex), John Griffith (LSE),
Reuben Hasson (York, Canada), David Howell (Manchester), Richard Hyman
(LSE), J F Lamb (St Andrews), David McLellan (Kent), T J Reed (Oxford),
Hilary Rose (Bradford), Steven Rose (Open), John Saville (Hull), Phil
Scraton (Edge Hill), Stan Smith (Dundee), John Westergaard (Sheffield)
The opinions expressed on this site are those of individual members
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Council or its officers.
For more information go to Contact
This website is currently maintained by John Hewitt. Please report faults
to (john.hewitt22@virgin.net).
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