Developing a strategic, coordinated and partnership-focused approach:

an institutional perspective

Christine AbbottUniversity Secretary & Director of OperationsBirmingham City University

22 June 2015

What are the leadership challenges ? How to address ?

• Proportionality• Partnership• Integrity (values)

Prevent Strategy June 2011

“ .. Support for all kinds of violent extremism is more prevalent not only among the young but among lower socio-economic and income groups.” (para 5.26)

“ Statistically, it is clear that in this country and overseas most terrorist offences are committed by people under the age of 30.” (para 10.5)

Birmingham City University

22,500 students BCU

UK HE SECTOR

UK YOUNG FULL TIME FIRST DEGREE

45% NS-SEC 4-7

33% NS-SEC 4-7

UK FULL TIME UG STUDENTS

44% BME

22% BME

ALL UK HE STUDENTS

40% BME

20% BME

ALL UK HE FULL TIME STUDENTS FROM THE WEST MIDLANDS

64%

Birmingham as a City *

• 12% of the population = ages 18 -25 • 39% of residents = NS -SEC groups 4 – 7 • 47% of residents = BME background • Ranks 12th in income deprivation (Leicester: 14th; Liverpool: 10th; Manchester: 13th)

[ * 2011 Statistics]

What level of leadership ?

• More of the same or radical new requirement?

• Duty of care issue or something different?

• Compliance issue or matter impacting on fundamental academic character?

Universities: part of the problem?

Prevent Strategy: “More than 30% of people convicted for Al Qa’ida-associated offences in the UK between 1999 and 2009 are known to have attended university or a higher education institution.” (para 10.61)

“In 2009, BIS identified about 40 English universities where there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus. BIS invited these universities to assess their ability to manage this risk. Not all of the institutions responded to the request.” (para 10.72)

Prevent duty Guidance: “due regard” ; “appropriate amount of weight”

“..the Strategy also means intervening to stop people moving from extremist (albeit legal) groups into terrorist-related activity” (para 8).

“simmering resentment to murderous intent” Rt Hon David Cameron MP, 19th June 2015.

Protecting vulnerable people

“ .. This area of Prevent is based on the premise that people being drawn into radicalisation and recruitment can be identified and then provided with support.” (Prevent Strategy para 9.4)

• “[Terrorists are] disturbingly normal people” * • “What limited data we have on individual terrorists … suggest that the outstanding characteristic is normality.” **

* Townshend, C: Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2002

** Crenshaw, M: The Causes of Terrorism, in Comparative Politics, Vol 13 no 4 (1981) p.390

Challenges: Relationships (1)

• Students/ Students Union- Use of Channel? - Relationships with Societies? External speakers? - Social media and blocking of websites - Targeting of specific groups• Staff - Management v. Academy

• “Chief of the problems Richardson has to get to grips with … is the extent to which the real business of the University … is being subordinated to its bureaucracy”

[The Spectator, 6 June 2015: “Degrees of bureaucracy – at Oxford and elsewhere, university administration is out of

control” Melanie McDonagh]

Challenges: Relationships (2)

• Staff - Management v. Academy - Duty of care: sensitive research - Importance of trust

• Governors • External bodies/ stakeholders/ partners

HEIs as inclusive communities

• The University of Bath: “A supportive culture: creating a welcoming, inclusive campus community that values the individual and supports the realisation of their potential.”

• UCL : “Promote tolerance, and secure positive and open relations through dialogue between different groups on campus in relation to religion, politics, gender, disability, age, ethnicity and sexuality.”

• Plymouth University: “Creative in celebrating and respecting difference in background, identity, ideas and beliefs and encouraging a creative and inclusive working and learning environment.”

Changing the narrative

• The Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (St Andrew’s)

• The Centre for Fascist, Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies (Teeside)

• Centre for Conflict Security and Terrorism (Nottingham)

• The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (King’s)

Universities : part of the solution not the problem

• 2010 Citizenship survey: those who benefit from HE are more likely to have friends of a different race or religion

• OECD stats: education can help students to “embrace values of social cohesion and diversity”

• “Degrees of value: How Universities benefit society” [UUK 2011]. Social Return on Investment: ... A healthier, more co-operative and more democratic nation: Research has shown that universities improve political engagement, foster interpersonal trust and improve health, benefitting the whole population, not just those who went to university. The report estimates the value of these outcomes alone is £1.31 billion.

The benefits of Higher Education ParticipationBIS Research Paper No 146, Nov 2013.

• Higher education is found to be the largest single determinant of democratisation within OECD countries • Gaining a degree appears to be a powerful antidote to

political cynicism – analysis of British cohort studies shows that HE appears to place a powerful brake on levels of cynicism amongst those in their early thirties and forties.

The way forward

Building Confidence:

- Transparency - Integrity - Partnership

Thank you