Universities scramble to review free speech policies

A ruling by the higher education regulator for England on freedom of speech breaches at the University of Sussex has sparked anxiety in the sector as vice-chancellors scramble to review their policies to avoid potential violations.

- Sally Weale

Two weeks after the Office for Students (OfS) delivered its bombshell judgment and record £585,000 fine, many university leaders are still not clear what it means in practice.

The OfS concluded that Sussex had "failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom" in the case of Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor who resigned after being targeted by protests over her views on gender identification and transgender rights.

One of the few vice-chancellors willing to speak out condemned the OfS ruling as "a lesson in authoritarianism, with threats of more to come".

Prof David Green, the University of Worcester vice-chancellor and chief executive, said: "Using coercive powers of the state risks terrifying university leaders into a culture of compliance, which is the very opposite of the democratic and free culture for which we should be working."

Many university leaders have turned to lawyers, in some cases spending tens of thousands of pounds, to review not just transgender and non-binary equality policy, which was at the heart of the Sussex case, but a range of university documents and policies.

"I wouldn't say that they were in a state of panic," said one lawyer who did not want to be named, "but I think there is genuine anxiety they don't know what they need to do to get this right."