Vice Chancellor Attacks "Politically Motivated" Investigation After University Gets Record Fine Over Free Speech Row
2 min read
The vice chancellor of Sussex University has accused the higher education regulator of "partisan scapegoating" after the university was fined over half a million pounds for failing to protect freedom of speech on campus.
Writing in The House on Tuesday night, Professor Sasha Roseneil said the Office for Students investigation into Sussex had been "flawed, politically motivated, and wasteful", adding that the university would "strongly contest" the findings.
On Tuesday, the OfS said that it had decided to fine Sussex University £585,000 for failing to uphold freedom of speech — the largest fine it has ever issued to a university.
The punishment relates to the case of Professor Kathleen Stock, who quit the university in 2021 after her views on gender issues led to accusations of transphobia and protests by some students.
The OfS in its conclusions said Stock's experience resulted in her changing the way she taught, and expressed concern that "a chilling effect may have caused many more students and academics at the university to self-censor".
In response, however, Roseneil described the OfS investigation as "Kafka-esque" and accused the regulator of not interviewing anyone apart from Stock and of refusing to hold "any substantive meeting" with the university during the process.
She said that, having been warned to "not speak publicly" during the investigation, she was now free to say that the OfS had "failed to win the sector’s trust or free itself of the culture wars agenda of the previous government."
"The suspicion must be that this was a partisan scapegoating," she wrote.
"The sadness is that this might have had a very different conclusion.
"Sussex will not be the last to face the challenge of a debate on gender, sex and identity that has become toxic. Universities across England are grappling with claims and counterclaims about academic freedom and freedom of speech regarding issues of equality, identity and inclusion. As the protests against the war in Gaza have shown, universities will continue to be a frontline for society’s most contentious issues.
" A supportive and thoughtful regulator might collaborate to identify and understand shared challenges and develop good practice on academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional culture in relation to equalities issues.
She added: "Levying a wholly disproportionate fine after a flawed, politically motivated, and wasteful investigation — when the higher education sector is in financial crisis — serves no one."
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
