22 October 2025

Matt Goodwin has written a devastating critique of tertiary education entitled, ‘Bad Education’. He is particularly concerned about the constraints put upon freedom of speech and academic freedom. He is quick to expose hypocrisy in our universities.

He reports that by the early years of this decade, 27% of all non-EU students studying at UK universities came from China. It represents an increase of 186% on 2011. In 2023, Civitas discovered that 117 out of 140 universities (84%)  have significant ties with China.

He calls to mind the University of Cambridge which has scrutinised its historical involvement in slavery and has sought to remove memorials and statues marking benefactors who benefitted from the slave trade. Goodwin contrasts this with the university’s relationship with China.

The University of Cambridge has accepted tens of millions of pounds in research grants from Chinese corporations and has a very large Chinese student population which Goodwin  alleges will be ‘sons and daughters of China’s ruling communist elite’.

‘A university that seeks to cleanse itself of supposed Western racism and intolerance is simultaneously embracing funding from an openly authoritarian state that is oppressing ethnic minorities and undermining democratic freedoms.’    he argues.

Like the benefactors of slavery who built up the University of Cambridge, the present day decision-makers at the University are making money from a ruthless and oppressive government. The woke ideology is sacrificed on the altar of financial necessity and the pursuit of the truth halted by political expediency.