UK universities – a new Dark Age?

I have just read Nigel Biggar’s latest book: The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars (Polity 2026). It is very disturbing. We all know that universities are heavily influenced by woke ideology, decolonisation, and EDI [Equality, Diversity and Inclusion], but I didn’t realise quite how bad it has become.

Universities and 'woke ideology'

The whole sorry story of Jason Arday and his overpromotion by Cambridge University exposed a serious problem in academia. I don’t really blame Arday so much as the people who promoted him and celebrated him even though they were aware of his extensive plagiarism and easily disprovable claims. Then there were the sinister legal letters threatening those who dared to question his credentials and reporting them to police for harassment. It was all bound to fall apart one day, and so it did, with devastating consequences for Arday and his family.

It emerged that a member of the interview panel which selected Arday had praised Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, and pro-Gaza student protests for helping “decolonise the curriculum from the ground up.” Another panel member has argued that education should teach students to “disrupt, refuse, and displace liberal democratic principles” and create a “new moral order” that challenges Western democracy. These people are professors. They are openly saying that they are opposed to the values which created the institutions they make their livings from. How did they get into such positions?