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An English university is fined with a record of £ 585,000 on the allegations that it failed to support free speech and academic freedom, in a historic decision in the debate on students’ rights on campus.
England’s Higher Education Regulator found “significant and serious violations” of free speech and governance issues at the University of Sussex, according to a draft of the first press release by Financial Times.
The press release office, which will be published on Wednesday, said the policies intended to prevent the abuse or harassment of certain groups on the campus had created “a cold effect” that could cause staff and students of “self-censorship”.
The decision comes after US Vice President JD Vance lectured last month Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, for the need to defend free speech during a meeting at the Oval office. Elon Musk, technology billionaire and President Donald Trump’s adviser and donor, has also claimed that Britain is impeding free expression.
The Report of OFS marks the end of an investigation that began more than three years ago. She was created by the case of Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy who said she was forced to leave the University in 2021 from a three-year campaign of harassment and character killing.
The stock was at the center of a line on gender identification and transgender rights and claimed to have a “toxic” environment at the university, “the policy of trans equality and binary” was criticized by the regulator.
Some students were damaged by the involvement of shares with the LGB alliance, an advocacy organization that opposes “the idea that gender, the way you feel or dress is more important than biological sex.”
After she was named OBE to the 2021 New Year’s honors, the shares were accused of using her status for “further gender printing” in an open letter signed by hundreds of philosophers protesting against the price.
Stock told FT in 2021 that students, external activists and even some of her colleagues accused her of transfobs and fasted that she was fired. The shares refused to comment on the findings of the OFS.
The decision 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 protection of free speech.
The university, ranked 26th in common by 104 institutions in the UK in the World University of Higher Education Times 2024, has reacted with anger. Sasha Roseneil, the university’s deputy, said the regulator had decreed “the absolutism of free speech as the basic principle” for universities.
Roseneil claimed that the regulator had “refused to speak to us” and that the imposed fine was “completely disproportionate”. She said the university had defended the right of shares to pursue its academic work and to express its “legal beliefs”.
She added that the ruling did it now “practically impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or harassment, to protect groups subject to harmful propaganda, or determine that stereotype assumptions should not rely on the university curriculum.”
The university regulatory decision to punish Sussex comes after the previous conservative government adopted the Higher Education Act (Freedom of Speech) 2023 to strengthen laws on freedom of expression.
However, in January Labor said he would not present much of the planned measures of the conservatives, arguing that the law was already strong.
OFs revealed that Sussex’s policy statement on “trans and non -binary equality” failed to support the principles of governance of freedom of speech and academic freedom, creating a “cold effect” on campus.
He also said the university failed to have “effective and adequate management and governance agreements”.
The investigation of the ofs focused on university compliance with regulations rather than the particular issue of shares. However, she found “no evidence to suggest that Professor Stock’s speech during her university employment was illegal.” The work of the academic included 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, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim or other abuse.
At the center of the investigation of the OFS was Arif Ahmed, the first director of the regulator for freedom of speech and academic freedom, appointed in 2023 and praised by the Conservatives for his strong stance on the matter.
“Arif is a professor of philosophy who wrote passionately in protecting free speech in the media,” said Claire Coutinho, then Minister of Education at the time. “He has stayed firm in the face of efforts to close his speech events.”
Ahmed, who was left under the post, said in a statement that the fine imposed on Sussex was “significantly sent down” because this was the first case of its kind, adding that the OfS had decided to publish its findings to enable other universities to match their free speech tasks.
The Department of Education said it would not comment on “leaks”.
