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Refusing to teach British National Party members (Letters, THES, May 30) shows extreme intolerance and brings the very purpose of academia into question.

Our purpose is either to teach within the current political paradigm or it is to debate, criticise and challenge in search of truth. If our role is the latter, we must work with people of all political persuasions. That their opinions might challenge the current view in favour of multiculturalism and minority rights makes them especially worth debating with. If our purpose is the former, we are not far from 1930s Germany and may as well cease to think.

Ed Dutton
Department of divinity
University of Aberdeen