The Crisis of Viewpoint Diversity at Canadian Universities
by Noah Carl, Daily Sceptic:
There’s substantial evidence that British and American academics skew far to the left, with many openly admitting that they’d discriminate against conservatives. Earlier this year, the Harvard Crimson found that that only 1.5% of Harvard faculty identify as ‘conservative’, compared to 82% who identify as ‘liberal’.
Preliminary evidence suggested this was also true in Canada. A new report confirms that Canadian academia has a massive left-wing skew, with repercussions for free speech and the very mission of higher education.
Christopher Dummitt and Zachary Patterson – two researchers from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute – surveyed around 1,000 Canadian academics, along with a representative sample of Canada’s population. Their main finding is shown in the chart below.
As you can see, academics skew much further left than the general public. Just over half of Canadians describe themselves as “somewhat left” or “very left”. But among academics, it’s more than 85%. The researchers also asked respondents who they vote for, and found that only 9% of academics support parties on the right, compared to 39% for the public at large.
What does this mean for free speech and open debate on campus? The academics were asked, ‘To what extent are you worried about losing your job, having your reputation damaged, facing major adversity or missing out on professional opportunities because of your opinions on diversity?’ Here are the results broken down by left-right beliefs.
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