Clearer advice is needed on how to make campuses inclusive without falling foul of free speech regulations, the National Union of Students (NUS) has said. The body representing university students has expressed concern after the University of Sussex was fined £585,000 by the Office for Students (OfS) this week for failing to uphold free speech – the first case of its kind.
The higher education regulator launched an investigation back in 2021 when Professor Kathleen Stock left the university. She had faced protests after saying that biological sex was more important than gender identity.
According to the OfS, the university’s policy statement on trans and non-binary equality, including a requirement to “positively represent trans people”, might have lead to staff and students preventing themselves from voicing opposing views.
That has triggered not only the threat of a court showdown, after the university vowed to challenge the OfS’s findings, but also put universities across the UK on alert over further free speech-related fines – and leaving some fearing a catch-22 situation.
Universities in England are asking for clarity behind the scenes on how to protect their students from abuse and harassment because the regulator hasn’t spelt out what is acceptable.
The regulator told the BBC it would be writing to a handful of institutions to remind them of their duty to protect free speech. Arif Ahmed, from the OfS, warned the University of Sussex fine could have been as high as £3.7m and there was “potential for higher fines in the future”.
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