Universities can no longer enforce blanket bans on student protests following new Office for Students (OfS) guidance.
This aims to make it harder for universities to penalise students and staff for expressions other than unlawful speech or harassment. These expressions can include critiquing university policies and calling out harassment. This is the first of its kind to explicitly declare how universities in the UK should deal with inflammatory disputes.
The Office for Students, which issued the guidance, is a government agency acting as an independent regulator of higher education in England. The guidance comes following an increase in student protests related to the conflict in Gaza. It also links to the recent backlash against academics with gender-critical opinions such as former University of Sussex professor Kathleen Stock.
The guidance advises universities not to apply prolonged bans on protest encampments involving the Israel-Gaza conflict. It also requires unis to block “frequent, vociferous and intrusive” protests if they intimidate Jewish students.
What do the regulations say?
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Specifically, the guidance states that institutions must take reasonably practicable steps to secure lawful speech. These steps include:
- Supporting constructive dialogue on contentious subjects.
- Amending or terminating agreements with foreign states or institutions enabling censorship on English campuses.
- Not punishing students or staff for lawful expression of a viewpoint, including expression that is critical of the institution.
- Not requiring applicants for academic jobs or promotions to show commitment to a viewpoint.
The guidance also expects staff and students to use social media legally in a personal capacity, without regard to any impact on institutional reputation. Students can also use social media to chastise any staff members whose speech or activities interferes with their teaching.
In addition, the guidance advises universities to refuse places to international students whose funding requires them to follow foreign government policies. This will potentially threaten state-sponsored students from several Asian and Middle Eastern countries.
The OfS say its guidelines are to support universities in navigating their duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. This act will pass on 1st August.
What has the reaction been?
However, some experts have criticised the guidance for not addressing the complexity of balancing free speech with the existence of activities with “chilling effects” on students and staff.
Julian Sladdin, a specialist in higher education regulation, says the guidance provides “much-needed clarity” for providers but leaves others unclear. He continued in an interview with The Guardian: “The difficulty which remains in practical terms is the fact that institutions are still subject to dealing day-to-day with extremely complex and often polarising issues on campus and where the bounds of what may be lawful free speech are constantly being tested. These matters do not appear to be sufficiently addressed by the guidance at present.”
Professor Bobby Duffy, the director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, has also made a statement on the guidance. He said: “The reality is it’s really tough to have completely clear regulations and laws in this space, which means that the testing of thresholds will be key in particular cases.
“We need to recognise that this is not a neutral space but is linked to more general ‘culture war’ divisions in society as a whole – which means that people will be motivated to use regulatory and legal routes to make a point – the process itself can be used to divide. There’s no way around that but we do need to be aware of it.”
A spokesperson for Universities UK also added: “We strongly agree that universities must be places where free speech is protected and promoted. These guidelines cover complex issues, and we are pleased to see that the OfS has taken onboard some of the feedback from the previous version. We will continue to work constructively with the OfS and with government as these changes are introduced, and will make sure universities are appropriately supported to comply with them.”
One in five academics feel they can’t discuss ‘challenging’ ideas to students
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The OfS also published a survey of academics about their opinions on the current state of free speech in universities. According to the survey, 21 per cent do not feel free to discuss “challenging” ideas in their teaching. This includes 19 per cent who identify as leftwing and 32 per cent who identify as rightwing.
Arif Ahmed, the OfS director for freedom of speech, said: “It’s important to remember that universities can regulate speech where appropriate.
“No university needs to allow shouting during an exam, or for a math’s lecturer to devote their lectures to their own political opinions rather than the subject at hand.
“Equally, they can and should take steps to address harassing speech on campus. Antisemitic harassment, for example, should not be tolerated on any campus and we fully expect universities to take robust steps to tackle it.”
BBC Radio 4 also questioned Arif Ahmed about how students from marginalised groups will be protected in the wake of these guidelines. He responded: “It is minorities, and it is those who are often oppressed the most who benefit the most from an atmosphere of freedom of speech in general, because when you are at the weakest point in society, it’s words [that are] perhaps the only thing you can have. And the freedom to organise and speak out is essentially what in the long run will protect minorities.”
Overall, it is unclear how individual students will react to the new regulations, but it is expected that these changes will have a significant impact on how they are able to express themselves.
