Hague: Oxford lectures cancelled over protests should go ahead

University of Oxford chancellor William Hague has said a series of lectures set to take place at the institution about gender identity should go ahead after the lecturer cancelled them because of “escalating disruptive protests”.

Michael Foran, associate professor of law at Oxford, posted on X that he had decided not to go ahead with the remaining lectures in a planned series on the topic of sex, gender identity and the law. 

“Due to escalating disruptive protests, I have decided to cancel the remainder of these lectures,” Foran writes. “This is deeply lamentable, but the disruption has undermined the academic nature of this series. Students shouldn’t face bullying or harassment when attending academic events.”

He said protesters had disrupted the second lecture in the series for “about 10 minutes” at the start.

It is unclear what happened to the protesters but the lecture did go ahead as planned following the disruption. During the lecture, Foran invited anyone who has “critical views about the topic” to stay and “ask a challenging question afterwards”. 

Foran’s post about the cancellation received 1.5 million views and prompted Hague, who became Oxford’s chancellor last year, to weigh in.

Writing on X on 9 June, Hague said the rest of Foran’s talks “should go ahead”.

“Freedom of speech is a fundamental academic freedom and it must be upheld,” he says. “Equally, legitimate and lawful protest has an important place in university life. The task is to maintain both.”

In a video accompanying the post, Hague says he hoped a way could be found to hold the lectures while “maintaining the right to legitimate respectful protest as well”. 

He added that “hundreds, maybe thousands” of events take place at Oxford and other universities “where people are having entirely civil disagreements and debates every day”.

“I think actually the atmosphere of that has improved in the last two or three years and having a Freedom of Speech Act passed by Parliament has really strengthened that,” he continues.

“So we still have these worrying cases which need resolving but the overall atmosphere of free debate in universities in the UK is actually very strong.”

New freedom of speech laws came into force last August that require institutions to uphold lawful free speech on campuses. 

This includes allowing academics to express controversial opinions and taking “reasonably practicable steps” to secure freedom of speech for speakers, according to the Office for Students. 

In his post, Hague adds: “Especially at events open to the public like this, it is an important Oxford tradition that any disagreement is expressed in a civil and respectful way.” 

The University of Oxford has been contacted for comment. 

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com