Questions of censorship

In February, Quality Assurance Agency auditors accused the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside of complying with a ban imposed by a partner college on materials referring to Jewish books.

They said the ban on books with bibliographies listing Jewish authors affected franchised degree programmes in tourism and business run by the university and a college in the United Arab Emirates.

Their report questioned "whether the university could claim that it is delivering to its students in the UAE an education fully comparable to that being delivered to students on the same modules in the UK".

The university denied complying with the ban, suggesting that auditors had confused "limited" censorship in the UAE and university reading lists.

Vice-chancellor Roger King said unavailability in the UAE of some articles and books applied to every university or educational body operating there, not just to Lincolnshire and Humberside.