Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to:

● Fulfil the Government’s manifesto commitment to strengthen academic freedom and free speech in universities in England.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

● Ensuring that universities in England are places where freedom of speech can thrive for all staff, students and visiting speakers, contributing to a culture of open and robust intellectual debate.

● Ensuring that, for the first time, students’ unions will have to take steps to secure lawful freedom of speech for their members and others, including visiting speakers.

● Ensuring that academic staff feel safe to question and test received wisdom and put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions without risking their careers.

● Creating routes for staff, students and visiting speakers to seek redress if they suffer a loss as a result of specified duties being breached.

The main elements of the Bill are:

● Ensuring that freedom of speech and academic freedom in higher education is supported to the fullest extent. This legislation builds on existing freedom of speech duties on higher education providers and addresses gaps in current provision. For the first time duties will be imposed directly on student unions, as well as constituent colleges.

● Provisions include a new complaints scheme run by the regulator, the Office for

Students, free to access for students, staff and visiting speakers who believe their speech has been unlawfully restricted, overseen by a dedicated Director of

Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom.

● Introducing new freedom of speech and academic duties on higher education providers, their constituent colleges and students’ unions. The Office for

Students, will have the power to impose penalties for breaches.

● Creating a new role for the Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic

Freedom at the Office for Students. The holder of this office will champion freedom of speech and academic freedom on campus, and have responsibility for investigations of infringements of freedom of speech duties in higher education which may result in sanctions and individual redress.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will, in the main, extend to England and Wales and apply to England only.

Key facts

● There is growing concern about a ‘chilling effect’ on university campuses that means that not all students and staff feel able to express themselves without fear of repercussions. A number of studies, surveys and reports highlight instances where freedom of speech and academic freedom is being curtailed in the higher education sector. The most notable are studies by Policy Exchange and the Joint

Committee on Human Rights.

● Policy Exchange polling shows that a significant number of current and retired academics choose to self-censor. The survey shows that 32 per cent of those who identify as ‘fairly right’ or ‘right’ have refrained from airing views in teaching and research, with 15 per cent of those identifying as ‘centre’ or ‘left’ also selfcensoring.

● There are a small number of high profile reported incidents, both international and domestic, where staff or students have been threatened with negative consequences, including loss of privileges or dismissal, confirming that the fear of repercussions is not always unfounded. Some of these reports relate to those who do not currently have routes of redress, for example, visiting speakers.