Report calls for free speech in academia

Universities did not protect gender-critical academics from harassment, a Government-commissioned review has determined. Eleanor Busby reports

- Eleanor Busby reports

UNIVERSITIES have failed to protect academics who hold gender-critical views from harassment, a Government-commissioned report has found.

A review led by Alice Sullivan, a professor of sociology at University College London (UCL), said free speech and academic freedom have come “under attack” at UK universities by those who believe “treating sex as an important category ‘denies the existence’ of trans people”.

The report - on barriers to research on sex and gender identity - has called for staff and students who take part in freedom-restricting harassment to face “consequences commensurate with the seriousness of the offence”.

Universities should critically review their policies and practices to remove “partisan policies and messaging on questions of sex and gender”, it added.

The review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender was commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) under the former Conservative government in February 2024. It came after high-profile cases of academics who faced harassment relating to their gender-critical views garnered media attention in recent years.

In March, the Office for Students (OfS) issued a fine of £585,000 to the University of Sussex for failing to uphold freedom of speech.