Alumni For Free Speech (AFFS)

Our universities, once the great champions of free speech and academic freedom, are increasingly becoming their opponents. This is an evolving disaster for academics and students – and for our society as a whole. We don’t need to let this happen. But the defence of free speech requires the organised, passionate response it deserves, and current alumni have a vital role to play. This is why Alumni For Free Speech (AFFS) – https://affs.uk/ – has been set up. AFFS: • Acts as co-ordinators and spokespeople for alumni to act to secure free speech • Share information produced by BFSP (see below) about the requirements for protecting free speech, and campaigns for universities to adopt them • Makes free speech and governance failures painful, writing about how they have acted unlawfully, with publicity and pressure from alumni, and reporting failures to their regulators. See what we’ve been up to here: https://affs.uk/campaign-news This is a non-partisan, non-party political campaign: this is the reasonable against the unreasonable, and provides protections for everyone: left, right and centre. So, if you are a UK graduate, you can now do something: • Join AFFS – it is easy and free – numbers of members = traction. https://affs.uk/join • Follow us on Linked In and X (Twitter) @AFFSUK • Tell friends about us • Donate a little: a lot of people giving a little bit, especially if regularly, will make all the difference. https://affs.uk/donate Best Free Speech Practice (BFSP) We have also started a separate campaign, BFSP (www.bfsp.uk), which is developing a public source of information about what the free speech requirements actually are, and what they mean in practice. BFSP will rectify universities’ often shocking ignorance of the extent of their obligations. Our statements of the requirements will be useful for campaigners and academics. See them at: https://bfsp.uk/universities-higher-education