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An English university is set to be fined a record £585,000 over allegations it failed to uphold free speech and academic freedom, in a landmark ruling in the debate over student rights on campus.
England’s higher education regulator found “significant and serious breaches” of free speech and governance issues at the University of Sussex, according to a draft press release seen by the Financial Times.
The Office for Students press release, to be published on Wednesday, said policies intended to prevent abuse or harassment of certain groups on campus had created “a chilling effect” that might cause staff and students to “self-censor”.
The decision comes after US vice-president JD Vance last month lectured Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, on the need to defend free speech during an encounter in the Oval Office. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and adviser and donor to President Donald Trump, has also claimed that Britain is stifling free expression.
The OfS report marks the end of an inquiry that began more than three years ago. It was spawned by the case of Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor who said she was forced out of the university in 2021 by a three-year campaign of bullying and character assassination.
Stock was at the centre of a row on gender identification and transgender rights and claimed there was a “toxic” environment at the university, whose “trans and non-binary equality policy” was criticised by the regulator.
Some students had been aggrieved by Stock’s involvement with the LGB Alliance, an advocacy organisation that opposes “the idea that gender, the way you feel or dress, is more important than biological sex”.
After she was appointed OBE in the 2021 New Year honours list, Stock was accused of using her status to “further gender oppression” in an open letter signed by several hundred philosopher academics protesting against the award.
Stock told the FT in 2021 that students, outside activists and even some of her own colleagues accused her of transphobia and agitated for her to be fired. Stock declined to comment on the OfS findings.
The ruling by the OfS, which was established in 2017, will send a strong message to higher education institutions trying to balance the prevention of “hate speech” on campus and the defence of free speech.
The university, ranked joint 26th out of 104 UK institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024, has reacted furiously. Sasha Roseneil, the university’s vice-chancellor, said the regulator had decreed “free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle” for universities.
Roseneil claimed the regulator had “refused to speak to us” and that the fine imposed was “wholly disproportionate”. She said the university had defended Stock’s right to pursue her academic work and express her “lawful beliefs”.
She added that the ruling made it now “virtually impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or bullying, to protect groups subject to harmful propaganda, or to determine that stereotyped assumptions should not be relied upon in the university curriculum”.
The decision by the university regulator to punish Sussex comes after the previous Conservative government passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 to toughen laws around freedom of expression.
However, in January Labour said it would not introduce many of the Conservatives’ planned measures, arguing that the law was already sufficiently robust.
The OfS found that Sussex’s policy statement on “trans and non-binary equality” failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom governance principles, creating a “chilling effect” on campus.
It also said the university failed to have “effective and adequate management and governance arrangements in place”.
The OfS inquiry focused on the university’s compliance with regulations rather than Stock’s particular case. Still, it found “no evidence to suggest that Professor Stock’s speech during her employment at the university was unlawful”. The academic’s work covered issues of sex, gender and individual rights.
Sussex argues that universities are now exposed to regulatory risk if they have policies that protect staff and students from racist, homophobic, antisemitic, anti-Muslim or other abuse.
At the centre of the OfS inquiry was Arif Ahmed, the regulator’s first director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, appointed to the role in 2023 and lauded by the Conservatives for his robust stance on the issue.
“Arif is a professor of philosophy who has written passionately in the defence of free speech in the media,” Claire Coutinho, then-Tory education minister, said at the time. “He’s stood firm in the face of attempts to shut down his own speaking events.”
Ahmed, who has remained in post under Labour, said in a statement that the fine imposed on Sussex had been “significantly discounted” because this was the first case of its kind, adding that the OfS had decided to publish its findings to enable other universities to comply with their free speech duties.
The Department for Education said it would not comment on “leaks”.
