Bad Education

Reviews

Buy this book. You could save yourself, your parents or children a lot of money. If you want to know how our universities became woke madrassas, this is the book to read. But it isn’t just a litany of complaints. Matt Goodwin also has a concrete plan for turning them back into universities again. Essential reading for anyone who’s been wondering how Britain’s once great higher education sector became a dumpster fire. 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. ‘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.’ 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. 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. 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. If politics is downstream from culture, then culture is downstream from the campus. Goodwin's searing new book exposes the tragic transformation of our university system into little more than a sanitised, multi-billion-pound enterprise of monocultural managerialism. His brave and urgent critique lays bare the tragic corruption of young minds and offers a roadmap to reclaim true academic freedom, pluralism, and the radical pursuit of truth. Let us heed his call before it’s too late, and work to restore our universities as places of genuine intellectual diversity. For parents and future students, this book is essential reading—an eye-opening guide to understanding what’s at stake for the next generation and why we must act now. Matt Goodwin has pulled back the curtain to show how Britain’s universities have been captured by an illiberal ideology that has no serious interest in the traditional virtues of academic life. If you are interested in defending free speech and academic freedom on campus then you have to read this book! Expand reviews