Newcastle to give special dispensation for distressing topics

The University of Newcastle has recently considered offering students extra time, exam re-sits, and deadline extensions for work involving ‘sensitive topics’ as this may have an impact on students’ final grades. It will include material taken from any subject, across any field, which includes violence, rape, misogyny, and racism.

‘Trigger warnings’ are already issued by many of the UK’s top universities such as LSE and Edinburgh, much like many universities in the US. They give the opportunity for students to know beforehand the topic of lectures and readings they may feel uncomfortable with and have established a safe environment for students to attend discussions.

Academics, such as Dennis Haynes, Director of campaign group Academics for Academic Freedom and education professor at Derby University, has criticised this academic proposition and has referred to it as “bureaucratic mollycoddling” as reported by The Sunday Times.

Students at University College London studying the module Archaeologies of Modern Conflict have also been given permission to leave lecture theatres if a topic they are focusing on is deemed ‘disturbing’ or ‘traumatic’ such as the Holocaust or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Sociology lecturer Pam Lowe at Aston University, Birmingham, recently wrote for the New Statesman suggesting that it was “important for staff to assist and support students while teaching and learning sensitive issues, but we should not be sanitising the curriculum for them.”

It is not yet clear what constitutes a ‘sensitive topic’. Universities in the US takes a very different approach to the matter, with many leading academics at top US universities suggesting that labelling work as difficult should be taken with a pinch of salt, as dealing with these issues is something the student chose to do when considering their subject.