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38% of students believe future careers would be adversely affected if they express opinions

More than a quarter of students ‘self-censor’ due to fear that their views will clash with the values of their university.

A recent survey undertaken by Survation for legal advocacy group, ADF International, has found that 27% of university students have ‘hidden’ their opinions that they believe may be at odds with those of their university.

The same survey found that 44% of students believe that their lecturers would treat them differently if they made their views known, and that 38% believe that their future careers might be adversely affected if they openly expressed their true opinions.

 ‘Of all places, university is where students should be free to debate and explore ideas – especially those with which they disagree” said Ryan Christopher, Director of ADF International UK

‘Today’s censorship on campus can easily become ‘cancel culture’ in the public square.’

The survey, which received responses from 1,028 current university students and recent graduates across the country, showed that 40% of students have witnessed an increase in the cancellation of events due to the views held by the speaker at their university.

Earlier this year, the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, was ‘no-platformed’ shortly before her speech at the University of Oxford due to her role in the Windrush scandal.

Pro-life students censored

The results of this survey confirm what pro-life students have been experiencing for a number of  years. In what appears to have become a pattern at universities across the UK, many pro-life groups have been hindered in their ability to speak freely and enjoy the same benefits as other student societies.

In the last three years, student representative bodies at Aberdeen University, Glasgow University, Nottingham University and Strathclyde University have all tried to prevent student pro-life groups from being affiliated with their university and benefiting from the same privileges available to any other student group. In each of these cases, the student unions had to reverse their decision after the groups threatened legal proceedings against them.

In 2019, in the first case of its kind, a midwifery student at Nottingham University was suspended and faced possible expulsion from her course after a lecturer raised concerns about her role in the University’s pro-life group. Only after beginning legal action was the University’s decision overturned.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “The results of this survey are hardly surprising. We have witnessed serious censorship directed at pro-life students already. In many cases they are simply refused affiliation with their university on purely ideological grounds, and in one case a student was almost removed from her course for believing that the lives of unborn children, as well as their mothers, are worthy of protection.”

“Student pro-lifers have seen where censorship leads. First students fear clashing with their university, then they fear for their jobs, then, as we have seen, some universities even try to deny entry to a student’s chosen profession because they are pro-life. The concerns that many students have about censorship and being treated differently by universities are real; pro-life students have been experiencing this for years.

“We are calling on universities around the country to take urgent action to ensure that they are creating an environment where students are not marginalised for taking a pro-life position on life issues.”

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Help fight major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.

Dear reader,

Despite the Leadbeater assisted-suicide Bill passing its Third Reading on 20 June, it scraped through by just 23 votes (314-291) after enjoying a 55-vote majority at Second Reading. Had 12 more MPs switched sides, the Bill would be dead. It now limps into the Lords with a wafer-thin majority, where peers can amend, delay or reject it outright.

THE CHALLENGE

Dignity in Dying, My Death My Decision and Humanists UK have poured millions into pushing assisted suicide and will fight hard to stop the Lords overturning the Bill.

At the same time, the Antoniazzi abortion-up-to-birth amendment, passed by MPs in June, also heads to the Lords. If it becomes law, it would no longer be illegal for women to perform their own abortions for any reason – including sex-selective purposes – and at any point up to and during birth.

We will be up against the UK’s largest abortion providers, BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes), who are expected to push for even more extreme changes to our abortion laws in the Lords.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Thousands of vulnerable lives are now at stake. Battling these two threats is the biggest and most expensive effort in our history, and has drained our limited resources. To fight effectively on both fronts, we aim to raise £200,000 by midnight this Sunday (13 July 2025).

Every donation, large or small, will help protect lives, and UK taxpayers can add 25p to every £1 through Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Will you make a donation now to help protect vulnerable lives from these major threats?

URGENT
APPEAL
to protect vulnerable lives

Help stop three major anti-life threats.

Help fight major assisted suicide and abortion up to birth threats.