{"id":2366,"date":"2025-07-07T16:56:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2366"},"modified":"2025-07-07T16:56:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:56:25","slug":"the-times-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2366","title":{"rendered":"The Times Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Times interviewed Wyn Evans, who spoke of the difficulties faced by young scholars in the article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes young scholars can find access to research grants hindered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a number of ongoing Employment Tribunals in which young scholars are arguing that the blocking or rewriting of research grants by Heads of Department is part of a wider picture of victimisation against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you apply for a grant, you will need the permission of your Head of Department. There are of course some good reasons for this. The Head of Department needs to ensure that space and facilities are available, so that the work in the grant (if awarded) can be feasibly done in the department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, this power can sometimes be abused. Unscrupulous Heads of Department can for example refuse to accept grants from individuals that they do not like, or make numerous unreasonable conditions, or refuse to permit certain lines of inquiry, or even insist that they are made co-investigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Wyn Evans said it was a little discussed aspect of free speech that young academics could find research ideas stifled by more senior figures in their departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While antisemitism and trans rights had more publicity, free speech issues were causing wider problems, he said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professor of astrophysics said: \u201cFreedom of speech often comes up in this context in universities, although it\u2019s not much discussed, that young academics can find promising avenues of exploration blocked by more senior figures in their department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith free speech, these bread and butter issues are much more likely to be what individual academics encounter. Of course on larger issues, we must have complete freedom to speak and to listen to others with whom we disagree. That\u2019s part of the ethos of any university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen a younger academic decides to apply for a grant, they will need permission from at least the head of department, and they will have to have their application examined carefully.  Some of it makes sense. But it can often happen that young academics, and this is particularly the case in the arts and humanities, find such grants blocked or hindered because of academic jealousy.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There needs to be much greater clarity on the powers of Heads of Department to reject or hold up grant applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although not often identified as such, this is a free speech issue. The principle of academic freedom means that each researcher should be free to follow the dictates of his or her own curiosity, without needing to placate a Head of Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Times interviewed Wyn Evans, who spoke of the difficulties faced by young scholars in the article. Sometimes young scholars can find access to research grants hindered. There are a number of ongoing Employment Tribunals in which young scholars are arguing that the blocking or rewriting of research grants by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}