‘Universities cannot pretend its not their business’ — Prof Kwaku Azar on lecturers’ media clashes

Legal scholar Professor Stephen Kwaku Azar has urged universities to take a more active role in addressing the growing trend of lecturers engaging in heated confrontations on radio and television, warning that such behaviour threatens the integrity and public standing of higher education institutions.

In a Facebook post on November 16, 2025, Prof Azar criticised what he described as a national culture where ‘insults travel faster than ideas’, noting that political discourse has become increasingly shallow and dominated by noise rather than substance.

He said academics, by their training and mandate, are expected to elevate public debate not contribute to its decline.

“When lecturers abandon the values of clarity, evidence, and discipline and instead engage in ugly altercations on live television, universities cannot pretend it is ‘not our business. It is very much their business”, he stated.

Prof Azar listed ten reasons universities should be alarmed by such incidents, including reputational harm, erosion of public trust, and the politicisation of academic spaces.

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He added that the behaviour sets a poor example for students and exposes gaps in institutional governance and codes of conduct.

He warned that these confrontations deepen polarisation among faculty, discourage thoughtful scholars from appearing in the media, and signal a worrying loss of ‘moral and intellectual anchors’ in society.

According to him, if academics fail to demonstrate restraint and professionalism, the country risks further deterioration of public discourse.

While reaffirming the importance of academic freedom, Prof Azar argued that universities also have an obligation to insist on responsibility when their staff appear in the media, often with the institution’s name displayed under their titles.

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He said universities are therefore justified in setting expectations for civility, accuracy, and professionalism.

To address the issue, he proposed that institutions adopt a clear framework outlining standards for public engagement and consequences for breaches. Such a system, he said, would help protect both individual scholars and the credibility of the universities they represent.

Prof Azar concluded that the academy’s role is to raise the quality of national conversation, ‘not participate in our growing culture of insults’.

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