Oxford 'can't police campus extremists'

Government pressure on universities to "police" campus extremists must be resisted, Oxford University chief John Hood believes.

In his annual "Oration" published today and marking the start of autumn term, the vice-chancellor said academics had to be vigilant about any threat to their freedoms and right to free speech - including from ministers attempting to quell Islamist terrorism.

Dr Hood said there was an "increasing drumbeat in our public life about university campuses as potential breeding and recruitment grounds for the political extremism that has its twisted roots in a distorted form of Islam".

He added: "Well-founded or not, this perception may prove to have profound and challenging implications for academic freedom and of the way it is exercised in the years ahead."

Dr Hood said increasing understanding of Islam in the West was a "major priority" that Oxford University was well placed to facilitate.

But he stressed: "It is vital, therefore, that public policy, designed to address the undeniably real security worries about terrorism, does not undermine that very scholarly endeavour which can help to build and propagate knowledge and understanding in society." His remarks follow calls from ministers for lecturers to play their part in tackling extremism on campus by reporting suspicious activity to the police.

The University and College Union voted to oppose the plans earlier this year, claiming that the policy would create a "quasi secret service".

In a wide-ranging speech, Dr Hood warned that even though Oxford, along with Cambridge. has the largest endowment income of any British university, finances are "severely stretched".

He stopped short of demanding universities be allowed to charge unlimited fees when Parliament reviews the current £3,000 annual limit in 2009.

But Dr Hood gave a strong hint this would have to happen in order for his university to compete with its American Ivy League rivals.

"Any increases in the cap on fees must be carefully phased through time, with the ultimate objectives of recognising the different institutional costs of quality in a widely differentiated sector, and of sharpening institutional competition," he said.