Senate Resolution on Academic Liberties and the Universities of South Africa

On 2nd June, 1965, the Senate passed the following resolution which was sent to the Ambassador to the United Kingdom of the Republic of South Africa, and to the press:

“The Senate of the University of Leeds wishes to express to the Government of the Republic of South Africa its very deep concern at the Government’s actions in depriving the Universities of South Africa of their fundamental academic liberties.
It is recalled that in 1959 the extension of the University Education Act removed the freedom of the South African Universities to decide whom they might teach. Now, it is noted with deep concern that the Minister of Justice in the Republic has dismissed from their posts Professors of the Universities of the Witwatersrand and of Cape Town.
The Senate regards the rights of universities to decide who shall teach and who shall be taught as fundamental academic liberties and seeks to impress upon the South African Government that their actions must, inevitably, damage the cause of higher education in South Africa and the high reputation in which South African Universities are held in the Western World.
The Senate accordingly places on record its support of the formal protests made by staff and students of South African Universities and its hope that the South African Government will restore the academic freedom of the Universities in that country.”

[Published in Leeds African Studies Bulletin 3 (October 1965), pp. 2-3]