At Belgian universities, many people are afraid to express their opinions if these do not fit into a certain framework says Professor Alain-Laurent Verbeke of Leuven University (KU Leuven). He believes open dialogue should become a key theme in the upcoming rector’s elections at both Ghent University (UGent) and at Leuven. ‘We are becoming polarised, also at university,’ the law professor says.
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Wokeism at university: ‘Many people have become afraid to express their opinions’
Colin Clapson
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Professor Alain-Laurent Verbeke was being quizzed about the feud between US President Donald Trump and Harvard University. Verbeke is a law professor at KU Leuven and, as an associate professor, has taught the course “Negotiation” at the Harvard Law School every year since 2007.
Like his fellow lecturers, he denounces Trump's political interference in Harvard's workings. He recently gave an extensive interview about this to VRT NEWS. Yet he himself has reservations about the impact that progressive views among students sometimes have on the university curriculum.
Radical-leftism at Harvard
"At Harvard, an intolerant radical-left-wing movement has emerged," Verbeke says. "Woke is great because it means being awake to the injustices that exist. But if you radicalise woke, you get the opposite."
And Prof Verbeke is not alone in thinking this, he says. "According to Harvard professor Steven Pinker, three quarters of the censorship and restriction on free speech - even in academia - comes from the radical-left. By the way, Trump is doing just the same, but from the other direction."
According to Prof Verbeke, this is also playing out at universities in Belgium, albeit to a lesser extent. "We have gone a bit too far at our universities in not allowing a ‘safe, non-safe space’. By that I mean that at university you should be able to disagree with each other in complete openness."
This is not always the case, says Prof Verbeke. ‘Many people are afraid to express their opinions if they don't fit into a certain framework, also at KU Leuven.’