University of Sussex fined £585,000 by Office for Students

The graffiti was cleaned up, there were images on Twitter of estates workers scrubbing it off and students taunting them with ‘whose side are you on’? Of course, the university could have done more to expel these students …

The thing is, I’m pretty sure Roseneil feels that she has done a lot to, very gently, change the culture. But she has done it in a way that did not force some staff to confront their own bigotry against gender-critical women.

And the commitment to free speech is all very well but the problem with GCs using a free speech argument has always been that it’s actually not at the heart of the matter. Because ultimately, this is about women and their privacy, safety and dignity.

I’m sure that Sussex still has a trans inclusion policy that allows staff of either sex access to opposite-sex facilities. Most UK universities do. Who pays the price for that? Women. Roseneil, who sees herself as a champion of women’s rights (her early work was on feminist activism) cannot accept that she is enabling misogyny. So yes, perhaps she was always a tricky choice for the job. But would anybody else been able to forge half-decent working relations with the powerful queer lobby at Sussex? I doubt it. FFS, it’s Brighton!

If a senior cis het white male had waltzed in and sacked a bunch of people in 2022, which was also a period of very difficult industrial relations, the university might have stopped functioning.

This is a sector problem, it’s not just Sussex, as we well know … (OU, Oxford, Edinburgh, BIM and so on).

It’s not just students though. Look at the messages posted online by staff (referenced above). Look at how UCU behaved in failing to support Stock and coming out in support (IIRC) of those who targeted her. Look at how staff behaved at OU towards Jo Phoenix and others. And so on.

These are not kids, drunk on the Kool-Aid of teenage righteousness and idealism, they’re highly educated adults who - by definition - should fucking know how to think critically and the importance of respect for divergence of view. Instead they are the epitome of the statement “so open minded that their brains fell out”.

I hate what happened to Stock but this wasn’t the current VC’s doing

Even if it wasn’t, the current one had an easy “out” by blaming her predecessor. But she didn’t, she just dug in deeper so this is as much a mess of her making as anyone else’s.

As long as the Universities could demonstrate they took as much action as is within their power I doubt they would face any significant sanction.

Furthermore … their acceptance rate is now at approx 90%.
I’d say their decisions regarding Stock have impacted their ability to compete. It’s also the gayest Uni in UK which might not appeal to everyone.
A friend from DC school got a clearance offer from Sussex - she had only 2 a-levels and they were a C and a D. She declined and and doing a re- sit of all 3 a-levels.

not a fan of Sussex Uni, because of treatment of Stock. I do wonder how the sciences teach sex/gender/chrimoskmes??

It’s excellent news, delighted for Prof Stock

Totally agree that current VC's doubling down is symptom of an endemic problem at Sussex and academia overall and is extremely concerning. But let's not forget the hounding of Prof Stock occurred under Adam Tickell's leadership, who is now sitting pretty at Birmingham.

I feel a bit sorry for universities.
Young, idealistic students are tricky to deal with individually but when they decide to rally to their cause they are unstoppable regardless if common sense is not present.
The law around trans people is still an ever shifting sand atm.
Tra’s have time and money to tie their victims up in knots.

We could educate our teens before they get to university but of course they already know everything.

I really feel for Stock, she has been harassed out of her job and out of UK. I wanted to see her speak at Oxford Union but security was so strict, no outsiders could attend. The “students” protesting outside I swear they do even really know the issue.

How the protesters can not give a women’s studies professor the ability to teach is insane.

Women’s Studies! Is also been taken over by trans!

BTW the anti Stock graffiti was everywhere - Uni didn’t bother to clean it up.

100% would never allow my children to go to such a backward uni.

The irony of this is that instead of smearing and guilting which is often the intention, what happens is they are actually crediting Trump and Vance for the hard work of a bunch of leftie women. Not only that, but without realising it, far from shaming people into compliance and recruiting people to 'the cause', they manage to legitimise Trump and Vance and make them look like they've achieved something here.

The reality is that this case has had absoluetely nothing to do with either and its likely that outcomes would have been the same because our British systems of checks and balances were working all by themselves without US intervention.

Thanks to women like Kathleen Stock...

This is an example of the invisibility of women and men being credited for the work men have done:

Rule 7.
7. Women should always be grateful to men for everything.

This

It is the job of every head or deputy head of an institution to clear up the messes of their predecessors. Everyone who takes on that level of responsiblity (and pay) knows that there is a reasonable chance theres a stinker of an issue lurking that needs to be dealt with.

All the 'it didn't happen on her watch' is complete and utterly fucking irrelevant.

We are talking about her just needing to get on with the basics of her job. She doesn't need a pity party. She doesn't deserve one. Its part of the job description!

There has always been a reality, that until it starts to become costly to ignore women's rights and safeguarding, then this will persist.

But as insurance premiums for medical practice, legal bill rack up and huge fines are slapped out, it starts to become much more difficult to ignore women and safeguarding.

Funny that.

Its almost as if women are lesser and are thought of as worthless.

The VC gets paid the 300k to lead.
The instruction to review staff conduct policy organisations policy etc etc it all flowing from that leadership role.
If the culture is rotten its her job to fix it.

She has no need to defend anybodys mess. She could have opted to be a new broom.
And if she was hired in to run a defence for passed actions as an objective thats on her.

She /the Uni could accept that the finding was partly correct and partly incorrect. That some changes were needed and being implemented to ensure the Uni is seen to be protecting lawful speech while unlawful speech will be not allowed.

The Uni could accept but say they needed to seek clarification on how the Uni regulate between free speech and unlawful speech.

She is highly educated and experienced in management. She knew there was a problem which posed a reputational risk to her and also to the Uni and she took the job.

If she took the job without being given the backing to close down networks and remove staff she was foolish.

Her leadership page has a free speech blurb

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/about/who/leadership/vice-chancellor

But any decison to fight the full report findings without a we are changing too is saying that the old culture was fine. Thats her field of teaching and work life so if she did not understand that she was the wrong pick for the role.

This is a key element. If Phillipson follows through there could be significant impacts in the many Universities which are sexist.

Will she follow through? Very big reasons she has to there is no way Labour want to go into the net election vs Tories/Reform being the party that is on the side of bigoted academics.

A good decision. Free speech should prevail in universities. if that upsets some students they can go to their room and have a cry.

I'm not sure - it has existed since Jan 2018. The Conservatives then passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act in Dec 2023 which seems to have informed this ruling but sounds like the investigation started prior to that in 2022.

Roseneil claimed the regulator had “refused to speak to us” and that the fine imposed was “wholly disproportionate”. She said the university had defended Stock’s right to pursue her academic work and express her “lawful beliefs”.

That is a bare faced lie; they pulled out all the stops to facilitate bullying and harassing her.

They deserved this. They’ve made themselves look like idiots. No chance my DC will attend this university - seems to be full of sheep, in both the student and teaching cohorts.

It was set up in 2018.

They're the sector regulator. They've issued warnings before, but Stock's case was distinctive as this was (I think) the first time someone in a permanent academic post has been hounded out of their job by students and colleagues. Why it took four years to run this investigation is another question - though at least no one can say it was a rushed job.

EXCELLENT. Let’s hope it sends a message to other universities.

'An English university is set to be fined a record £585,000 over allegations it failed to uphold free speech and academic freedom . . . . .

Surely it isn't being fined 'over accusations', it's being fined for its actions.

They own what they did.

I have never heard of the Office for Students. How come it has taken them this long to rear their head. This shit has been getting steadily worse over the last decade.

Absolutely. It's hard to think of another VC in the sector who would make such an intemperate and wrong-headed statement - one that is completely at odds with the values that they are supposed to uphold.