Professor Kathleen Stock resigned from the University of Sussex in 2021 after she faced death threats for voicing her gender-critical beliefs. Three and a half years on, the institution was this week slapped with a £585,000 (€700,000) fine for failing to uphold free speech and academic freedom.
This “landmark” ruling may appear to be the end of the road for this shameful case, which saw Stock’s reputation being wrongly dragged through the mud. But the university is not letting the matter end here and has already said it will launch a legal challenge.
University of Sussex Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil, said that England’s higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), was “effectively decreeing libertarian free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle for UK universities”—as if this were a bad thing. She also accused the body of “perpetuating the culture wars,” which the new Labour government insisted it would end.
In its ruling, the OfS said the university’s failure to safeguard free speech—especially in a ‘policy statement’ concerning ‘Trans and Non-Binary Equality’—meant that Stock “excluded lawful speech and content from the curriculum and her course materials.”
This meant that the diversity of lawful opinion and debate that academics could teach, and to which students were exposed, was reduced.
Importantly, it added that other academics may have “felt the need to do so,” too, and that a lack of free speech safeguards had a “chilling effect” on the university campus as a whole.
The university has complained in response that it could now be “powerless” to remove offensive but legal so-called ‘propaganda,’
or to discipline those who engage in abuse, harassment, or bullying, unless the propaganda or speech is unlawful.
Professor Roseneil also believes the OfS investigation was carried out unprofessionally.
Professor Stock will be writing on the fine shortly. Defenders of free speech must now keep a steady eye on the university’s attempt to challenge the ruling.