Fining Kathleen Stock's university does not protect free speech
Specifically, the OfS criticised the university's Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy Statement, which it said had created a 'chilling effect' for staff and students who felt unable to voice gender-critical opinions.
Some are heralding this news as a free-speech victory: a public recognition of the disgraceful treatment of Stock by the university is indeed welcome, as even now many fail to see why the whole debacle was so damning for free speech on campus and personally distressing for her.
This kind of external intervention by a regulator is needed, some argue, and they welcome the new powers the OfS might enjoy following the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act.
I am not cheering, though, despite being a free-speech absolutist. Sussex was my alma mater, and believe me, the problem with censorious behaviour long predates the Stock affair. The trans issue was just starting to crop up on campus in my second year; friends of mine were being ostracised from the leftie pools we all swam in for being perplexed with the demand that 'trans women were women'.
By the end of my time there, Judith Butler may as well have been handing out the handshakes at our graduation ceremony. Among both staff and students there were political biases that were hard to challenge for fear of being stigmatised.
The OfS claim that censorship was a top-down imposition by policies is at best generous, at worst inaccurate – the problem with free speech on campus runs much deeper. It's for this reason that fines and legal wrangling is not the solution for those of us who care about fighting censorship.
Free speech has long been in crisis on campus. You could crack that nut with fines and legislation, court rulings and government finger-wagging. But state supervision of universities is not going to solve the campus censorship crisis, nor is it something true freedom lovers should be comfortable with.
Take the response from Sussex University's vice-chancellor Professor Sasha Roseneil, who has managed to turn the ruling into a fight about minority rights. 'We will strongly contest these findings and have grave concerns about the implications of its decisions for students and staff, especially those from minoritised groups', she wrote in an article for Politics Home.
The university's response to the ruling was to argue that it will now be all but 'impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or bullying on campuses'. Such histrionic blindness to the issue at hand shows how deep the rot goes when it comes to campus censorship.
Things are changing – and not thanks to ministers or regulators. Instead, what has opened up a chink of light for discussion about free speech on campus is individuals sticking their neck on the line.
The trans issue has been the most influential in both escalating and challenging a culture of conformity on campus. Ever since women like Stock, or Jo Phoenix, went public, it has shone a spotlight on the inadequacy of our universities when it comes to defending free expression.
Free speech can't be imposed; it has to be the foundation of a university from which everything else follows. We need to win the battle of ideas on campus – that means more students involved in fighting for free speech by holding public discussions and standing up for their peers to disagree with them on contentious issues.
It means staff rediscovering their mettle and refusing to be bullied by administrative bodies waving policy documents. And finally, change will also have to come from outside the campus walls, where the censorious cry of 'you can't say that' just doesn't wash anymore.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Fox News
a day ago
- Fox News
Higher ed's cultural, moral ‘rot' requires a ‘powerful response,' says ex-Trump official
Former Trump education official Kenneth Marcus weighs in on the Trump administration's crackdown on higher education on 'Fox Report.'


Bloomberg
a day ago
- Bloomberg
Harvard Nemesis Wants Trump's College Crusade to Reach Every Campus
Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist who has been influential in the White House's efforts to reshape higher education, now wants to expand the campaign well beyond the elite schools that have borne the brunt of the pressure. Rufo says the Education Department is considering a proposal that would ensure all US universities that receive federal funding — the vast majority — adopt many of the same conditions that Columbia University agreed to in a deal this week. He sees the plan, which he first outlined with the Manhattan Institute this month, as a way to swiftly broaden President Donald Trump's higher-education agenda.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
$200M Columbia payout a ‘blueprint' for Trump to squeeze Harvard and other Gaza protest schools: report
The Trump administration views the recent $200 million deal with Columbia University as a 'blueprint' for how it can squeeze Harvard and other top colleges over claims they have failed to tackle antisemitism on campus, according to a report. Columbia agreed to pay the Trump administration a $200 million settlement in exchange for access to federal funding that was cut over claims the Ivy League school failed to combat antisemitism, the university announced Wednesday. The college laid off nearly 180 staffers in May after funds were cut. It comes as President Donald Trump's White House has for months attempted to bend Harvard and other academic institutions to ideologically driven demands. The deal with Columbia has paved the way for negotiations with other top schools, including Cornell, Brown, Duke and Northwestern, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an unnamed White House official. In Harvard's case, the school has fought back in a lawsuit arguing that the government has illegally cut $2.6 billion of its federal funding. The Trump administration hopes to make an example of the country's oldest academic institution. 'The White House hopes to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Harvard, in a deal that would make Columbia's $200 million payment look like peanuts,' the Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the talks. The Independent has contacted Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Duke, Northwestern and the White House for comment. The Trump administration pulled research funding from Columbia over what it described as the university's failure to deal with antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023. Columbia then agreed to a series of demands laid out by the administration, including overhauling the university's student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism. Wednesday's agreement, which does not include any admission of wrongdoing, codifies those reforms while preserving the university's autonomy, acting University President Claire Shipman said. But the deal has divided academics and university leaders. 'This cannot be a template for the government's approach to American higher education,' Ted Mitchell, president of the university lobbying group American Council on Education, told the Journal. Mitchell said it was 'chilling' that Columbia's fine came without typical due process when investigating antisemitism claims. 'We're in a world now where the government can say to all these schools, 'Hey, we're serious, you're going to have to pay the piper to get along with the most powerful organization in the world,'' Michael Roth, president of Connecticut's Wesleyan University told the outlet. 'Which is the federal government.' Elsewhere, Harvard's former president Lawrence Summers lauded the deal as 'an excellent template' for other universities in a post on X. 'This may be the best day higher education has had in the last year,' he wrote, arguing that the deal 'preserved academic freedom.'