English universities ¡®unprepared¡¯ as new free speech rules loom

Campaigners say they are ready to call English universities out on breaches of a new free speech law coming into force this week, amid concerns institutions are ill-prepared for the changes.

Parts of the controversial Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act come into effect on 1 August, requiring universities to go further in ensuring academic freedom and freedom of speech is secured and promoted on campuses.

The new rules, originally due in 2024, were delayed for a year by the Labour government but this pause has done little to clarify how they will apply in practice.

The Office for Students (OfS)?was accused of leaving institutions scant time to prepare when it published guidelines on securing free speech a month ago, while the regulator is yet to address other parts of the legislation, such as a new duty to promote free speech.

Arif Ahmed, director for freedom of speech and academic freedom at the OfS, has stressed that the regulator understands some aspects will ¡°take time to develop and to do properly¡±.

But free speech campaigners told Times Higher Education they have already begun preparing letters to send to universities they see as in breach of their new obligations.

¡°Too many universities currently have over-broad policies that end up restricting legally protected views,¡± Abhishek Saha, founder member of the London Universities¡¯ Council for Academic Freedom, said.?

¡°Universities are not at all well prepared,¡± agreed Edward Skidelsky, director of the Committee for Academic Freedom. ¡°Most of them have big EDI departments whose raison d¡¯etre is churning out policies and proposals of the sort that will now be against the law. It will take a while to rein them in.¡±

Those with concerns will not yet be able to use the new complaints system that will be overseen by the OfS, because it is not one of the provisions being enacted. The scheme hasn¡¯t been given a start date by the government as it still needs to be put in front of parliament to agree changes that will remove students¡¯ ability to access it.

Even so, navigating the new guidelines is unlikely to be easy for university leaders, who will have to balance the new obligations with their equity and diversity policies.?Many institutions have conducted reviews of their existing policies ahead of the changes.

¡°Most of them are building on something, they¡¯re not starting from scratch,¡± said Smita Jamdar, partner and head of education at law firm Shakespeare Martineau. However, she said, a lot of the policies affected by the new rules require approval at council level or institutional consultation.

And, although universities have had to abide by free speech laws since 1986, the new guidelines are more prescriptive than their previous obligations.

Previously universities ¡°could have made a decision about what was reasonably practicable in the context of their institutions, and if people were unhappy with it, they would have to go to court and the court would have to disagree,¡± Jamdar said.

¡°Now we have a regulator who has very clearly set out in a lot of detail what they expect institutions to do, so it¡¯s a totally different world that institutions are finding themselves in.¡±

Ken Sloan, vice-chancellor of Harper Adams University, said his?institution had?taken a long look at?its policies ahead of the 1 August deadline.

¡°We are also enhancing the visibility of our freedom of speech and respect commitments across the campus, over and above what we do already,¡± said Adams, who chairs the mission group Guild HE.

¡°Ultimately universities and higher education institutions thrive when they are an environment where different perspectives and opinions can be shared, even where they create fundamental moments of disagreement,¡± he continued.

¡°They also thrive where individuals feel a sense of belonging, feel safe, and feel respected. We are approaching this duty looking through these interlocking lenses and will continue to ensure that they underpin the experiences of our students and employees.¡±

However, shifting the culture on campuses ¡°is not something you can do by writing a policy on it,¡± Jamdar highlighted. ¡°That...is the bit that¡¯s going to take a long time, and it is possibly the thing that would be better addressed through the new duty to promote the importance of freedom of speech, on which the OfS has so far issued no guidance whatsoever but is also coming into force.¡±

An OfS spokesperson said:?¡°Universities and colleges have been preparing for these new duties and have been subject to freedom of speech requirements since the 1986 Education Act. We will continue to work constructively and, where appropriate, collaboratively with universities and colleges on these issues.?

¡°A planned complaints scheme and condition of registration are dependent on further legislation. We will continue to enforce current regulatory requirements in this area through our existing conditions of registration.¡±

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com