Nine Things We Wouldn't Have Discovered If Universities Were Exempt From FOI

9 Stories We Would Never Have Uncovered If Universities Were Exempt From FOI

If Jo Johnson's recently unveiled university reforms go ahead as planned, higher education institutions will no longer be required to respond to Freedom of Information requests.

The Conservative government believes that if private companies aren't subject to FOIs, universities shouldn't be either.

There's been a huge outcry over the proposals, with Mark Leach, editor in chief of Wonkhe, saying taking away the ability to FOI universities will "lower trust in the sector".

Dr Alice Bell, writer and campaigner with a strong interest in the politics of science, told HuffPost UK universities shouldn't even need FOI requests.

"Any decent university, indeed any organisation who takes education and science seriously, should be open as a matter of course," she said. "When I see a uni being FOIed, let alone trying to refuse FOIs, I just think their public engagement strategy has failed.

"In a way, universities shouldn't need Freedom of Information requests."

We've learnt a lot about universities thanks to FOIs, and without it, these nine stories may never have been uncovered...

Links Between Universities And The Arms Trade

Things we learnt with university FOIs

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