Joe Biden has been told to step in and take charge over the handling of higher education institutions such as Harvard amid a surge in wokery.

Parents have demanded more control over their children’s education as they feel “disturbed” by universities “starting to move off the rails ideologically”.

Harvard in particular has recently sparked headlines after some members of its student body signed an open letter blaming Israel for the attacks launched by Hamas on October 7.

The prestigious US university also launched diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) courses earlier this year to a furore of criticism and concern over the institution becoming “woke”.

Speaking to GB News, Margaret Thatcher’s former aide Nile Gardiner suggested the octogenarian president take command of the situation developing at the US’s top universities.

“There has to be fundamental reform within elite US universities,” Gardiner said when asked about whether Harvard could be cured of wokery, “and it may take decades to bring these universities back to what they used to be - institutions of higher learning - but nothing will change until donors and graduates stand up to what is happening.

“Major donors have to withhold funds unless things change. There has to be leadership at the very highest level including from the president of the United States on the direction universities are taking.

“Joe Biden is somebody who himself has surrendered to the woke far-left, just look at his own administration which closely mirrors a lot of what’s going on in Harvard.

<img data-id="fixed-image" src="https://www.gbnews.com/media-library/demonstrators-take-their-emergency-rally-stand-with-palestinians-under-siege-in-gaza-out-of-harvard-university-and-onto-the-s.jpg?id=50294060&width=980" alt="Demonstrators take their " emergency="" rally:="" stand="" with="" palestinians="" under="" siege="" in="" gaza"="" out="" of="" harvard="" university="" and="" onto="" the="" streets="" square"="" width="100%" height="auto">Demonstrators take their "Emergency Rally: Stand with Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza" out of Harvard University and onto the streets of Harvard SquareREUTERS

“So there are deep-seated problems not only with US higher education but also with the typical establishment and the ruling elites.

“Places like Harvard operate as factories providing the future generation of leaders and it's all going in the wrong direction.

“Institutions like Harvard and Yale are usually very conservative places. If you go back to a century ago what you see is a steady move to the left especially in the past few decades.

“These institutions are very influential in America and so the rot we are seeing in places like Harvard is very destructive of the future of the United States.”

'Major donors have to withhold funds unless things change,' Gardiner said

Following the signing of the letter protesting against the Israeli-Hamas war, a group of CEOs, led by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, announced they would not hire Harvard students who put their name on the letter.

The CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management said he has been approached by “a number of CEOs”, adding: “One should not be able to hide behind a corporate shield when issuing statements supporting the actions of terrorists, who, we now learn, have beheaded babies, among other inconceivably despicable acts.”

Also speaking to GB News on the subject of Harvard, Veteran GOP Media Strategist Adam Goodman said universities were no longer “bastions of free speech”.

“Parents and their kids want more involvement, more control, a lot of them,” Goodman said.

“And they feel that these school systems and higher education systems are starting to move off the rails ideologically in a way that disturbs them, because no longer are they bastions of free speech and openness. They become zones of intolerance.”