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Academics must not be “silenced”, the university watchdog chief has said, as he warns vice-chancellors that they must protect free speech.
Lord Wharton, chairman of the Office for Students (OfS), said scholars must be able to put forward their views - even if they are contentious - without fear of intimidation.
It is his first intervention since Professor Kathleen Stock resigned from the University of Sussex amid a row with transgender activists.
Writing for The Telegraph, he said: “Academics cannot be expected to engage fully with their disciplines if they fear complaints which could effectively end their careers. They must be protected to ask difficult questions.”
He warned vice-chancellors that they must meet their obligations to uphold free speech on campus, adding new legislation will not only strengthen the legal duties of universities but also increase the regulator’s powers to address any transgressions.
Under proposed changes to the law, universities will be given a new legal duty to actively promote free speech on campus, and this will become a new condition of registration with the OfS.
This would mean that any institutions which fail to uphold free speech could be investigated and fined, or sanctioned, by the regulator. Other proposed changes will ensure student unions, as well as universities, are subject to the duties to promote free speech.