Bad Education

Our universities increasingly resemble the pre-reformation Catholic Church, with academics as the new clerisy. They demand our submission to a corrupted faith and control access to the good life. But in Matthew Goodwin they have met their Martin Luther who has resigned from the church and, in this book, publishes his excoriating contemporary 95 Theses. An urgent call for reformation.

David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere

A forceful rebuttal of everything that has gone wrong with our education system. Matt Goodwin will not surrender our august cultural heritage to imbeciles, cowardly conformists, and lunatics. ‘Culture war’ is often cited dismissively. Sorry, this is war, period, and the side with both humility and self-respect is destined to win.

Lionel Shriver

‘More than anything else, argues Matthew Goodwin, the cultural left sympathies of staff, students and bureaucrats are killing the golden goose of higher education in the West. Intolerant activists and administrators control the parameters of debate and cancel dissenters while subtler currents of political discrimination induce self-censorship and progressive conformity, strangling political diversity. Only democratic intervention from outside the university can save a noble institution that has been at the centre of western civilisation. Deeply personal and impeccably researched, Bad Education seamlessly blends ‘lived experience’, human tragedies and generalisable data into a rich, tight, fast-paced read.’

Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics, University of Buckingham

Wow, how refreshing, an academic who has the courage to cry ‘the Academic Emperor’s got not clothes on’. Using his own ‘lived experience’ as a professor, Matt Goodwin pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of institutional rot at the heart of UK universities. This is not motivated by a destructive nihilism but a love for the ideals of open inquiry, the pursuit of knowledge and academic freedom. And how these values can be restored. It is driven by a genuine affection for all those young, idealistic students who arrive on campus full of intellectual curiosity and ambitions to learn and are routinely betrayed & remodelled by contemporary fads for everything from EDI to Critical Race Theory. Hurrah for a dose of truth.

Claire Fox, Baroness Fox of Buckley, Director of the Academy of Ideas

Matt Goodwin's critique of today's universities is fierce, but it is well buttressed by empirical data. Anyone who cares about these culturally and politically crucial institutions should take careful heed of what he has to say.

Nigel Biggar, CBE, Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology, University of Oxford, and Chair of The Free Speech Union

Worry about the oppressive culture of our universities has been growing for several years and has even led to occasional media attention when a prominent person is cancelled or an academic is forced to resign or is even sacked. Many, not least in academia, have averted their gaze, or only spoken of their fears in hushed tones. Matthew Goodwin is different: he shouts from the rooftops. This book should shake the complacency of all who dismiss fears about intellectual freedom as an artificial 'moral panic', especially politicians who have blocked legislation to protect free speech.

Robert Tombs, Professor of Modern European History, University of Cambridge