Universities should be mindful of sanctions imposed on the University of Sussex for its failure to uphold free speech, campaigners have warned. In a letter to The Times newspaper, more than two dozen free speech advocates welcomed the Office for Students’ (OfS) “clear and proportionate sanctions” over the university’s “serious failures to uphold the rights and liberties of staff”. Signatories to the letter include Lord Young of Acton, founder of the Free Speech Union, Julius Grower, Associate Professor of Law at Oxford University, and journalist and author Helen Joyce. ‘Censorship’The OfS recently fined Sussex University £585,000, ruling that the university’s transgender policy had given rise to a “chilling effect” on the expression of “certain lawful views” relating to biological reality. Welcoming the OfS’ findings, Stock explained that the university’s trans policy “set the tone” for everything that happened to her.

Source: The Times April 15, 2025 15:15 UTC