SOAS SPIRIT
30 JANUARY 2018
FREE
YOUR INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
PAUL WEBLEY WING REFURBISHMENTS
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HUMANS OF SOAS: STEPHEN CHAN
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ISSUE 3
COMMENT: WHY I LIKE TRUMP
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Charities Commission conducting Prevent inquiries into two student societies at SOAS Indigo Lilburn-Quick, BA History and Politics It has come to light that the activities of two societies at SOAS, the Palestine and Islamic Society, were subject of an inquiry by the Charities Commission due to various concerns. However, it now seems that the Charities Commission suspected violation of the government policy, Prevent. The reasons cited for this inquiry were due to the Islamic Society holding a gender segregated event and the Palestine Society hosting an event with a speaker that was deemed to hold extremist and anti-Israel views. Both of these occurrences fall under what the Prevent policy highlights as behaviour that could lead to extremism and the Prevent Duty Guidance calls on universities to stop such events from taking place. Neither society has wanted to comment on the ongoing investigation. The Prevent policy is part of the CounterTerrorism and Security Act 2015 and places a duty on certain bodies to have “due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.” It includes specialist frameworks for higher education institutions to follow as the government views these institutions as key places where the radicalisation of young people is occurring. The framework also provides guidance for charities, a category that the Students’ Union (SU) falls under. The current regulatory body for universities is the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). HEFCE allocates funding and ensures universities comply with the law. Under HEFCE, SOAS complied to the legal bare minimum in terms of Prevent policy as it was deemed to stifle free speech on campus. However, on the 1st of April 2018 the role of HEFCE will be taken over by the Office for Students, headed
Two SOAS societies are subject to inquiry(Credit: Creative Commons)
by Jo Johnson. Complying with Prevent is a priority in the process of joining the Office for Students and receiving funding. The university must submit annual reports demonstrating its implementation of Prevent, which currently includes specialist staff training and IT policies. Having said this, the university administration’s stance is far from simple: Baroness Amos has given evidence to the ongoing inquiry by the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into Freedom of Speech at University states the
confusion on the subject of free speech on campus has created a “chilling effect” on campus. The official statement on the SOAS website raises no issues with the policy and in the annual report on Prevent the school seem to be making an effort to implement measures beyond their initial commitment to the legal minimum. Furthermore, this annual report contains two requests under the last section of “Areas of Good Practice or Where Further Support May Be Required”
stating “The School would welcome further support around extreme political activism and action and support from HEFCE around all events, not just those directly with Prevent implications.” This suggests that the university deems political activism outside of the Prevent agenda to be a major concern they wish to curb with the help of the government, which may come as a shock to many students. Moreover, they request “advice on how SOAS can suitably engage with student Continued on page 3