On the 11th of February 2026, the university’s official Instagram page (@universityofstirling) posted about a Q+A event with Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani female education activist, and the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize, which she won at 17 years old after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban on the way to her exams. Hours later, the post was deleted.
The event was posted about the day before it was due to happen, being advertised as “An Evening in Conversation with Malala Yousafzai”, on the 12th of February in the Main House of the Macrobert Arts Centre. Macrobert Arts Centre said in response to Brig enquiring about the event that they “are a completely separate organisation to the University of Stirling and as such, we don’t manage their events or social media presence so are not in a position to comment on this.”
Stirling’s Student Union was also contacted for comment, but claimed not to have “any background information” or a statement on the event. Additionally, the Student Services Hub claimed that they were unable to help with this enquiry, and referred Brig to Communications, Marketing and Recruitment. Brig contacted the email provided on the 18th of February about the event and has still received no response.
The university’s official Instagram page (@universityofstirling) was also contacted for comment and has been unresponsive. The account’s initial post was posted at 11:27 am on the 11th of February, describing the event as “an opportunity to hear directly from Malala about activism, global change, and why education remains one of the most powerful tools for shaping our future.” By 11:45 am, Brig had noticed that the post had been deleted. No cancellation was announced.
Despite only being up for 18 minutes, the post had at least 36 likes, as this screenshot was the last evidence of the post itself before it was deleted.
Students expressed excitement about attending, but were left confused after the post. “I wanted to go, but couldn’t find a time anywhere and then suddenly the post vanished”, says Kristina Wikensten, with Tess Bowen adding: “I’d sent the post to someone, and within the 30 minutes it took for them to open it, the post had been deleted”.
The university responded to emails about the event’s disappearance after we alerted them that we had a screenshot of the original post. In response, the university said: “This post was issued in error. Due to diaries, the event wasn’t able to go ahead on this occasion.”
They later added that whilst the event is postponed for now, they “remain hopeful it could take place in the future.”
Featured/Image Credits: Pics of Malala: @malala on TikTok
Screenshot of post: Kristina Wikensten
4th year Politics and Journalism student.
Secretary for Brig
The Herald Student Press Awards Columnist Of The Year 2024 (which sorry i’m still not over)
