A student has hit out at his university after claiming to be the subject of a disciplinary procedure for branding veganism “stupid”.
Robert Ivinson spoke to GB News about reports suggesting the University of Exeter threatened to expel him after he was overhead criticising veganism and gender fluidity.
He told Andrew Pierce and Carole Malone that the “campus night patrol” arrived at his dorm to confront him.
“They stuck their boot in the door”, he added.
Robert Ivinson hit out at Exeter University
GETTY / GB NEWS
“I said ‘I can say what I want in the privacy of my room’.
“It was quite jarring. The woman was very nice to me all the way up until she got me into the room and sat me down and then flipped entirely.
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“She just started reading off these accusations to me. I had no idea what I was liable for until I went into the meeting.
“They wouldn’t tell me. They said ‘you’ll be told at the meeting’ and as they read these things off, I couldn’t process some of them. Some of them were just weird sentences that I don’t say and I wouldn’t say.”
Ivinson said he is concerned about the direction free speech is taking in Britain, and he wants to live in a society where all perspectives are heard because he “likes talking” to people from across the political spectrum.
“What I don’t like is discourse getting shut down and then people not being able to exchange views on these things that are very important, part of this ongoing sort of societal dialogue that we have about who we are and where we’re going to go.”
Robert Ivinson says discourse is being 'shut down'
GB NEWS
He told the Mail on Sunday the incident took place when he was in his first year of studies in 2018 and that a university representative arrived at his door to raise concerns brought about by a neighbour.
He told them it was “like the Stasi had come to my door”.
“The first thing they read out was that I had said veganism is wrong. I couldn’t believe it – I thought I was mishearing them”, he said
“I asked them to repeat it three or four times because I didn’t believe I was sitting there for saying that veganism is wrong.”
“It hurts me that in this country freedom of speech can now mean so little. It’s shocking that a Russell Group university can act this way.”
While he is said to have apologised to officials for the disturbance, he maintained his right to speak freely in his own room.
University of Exeter has been contacted for comment.