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

😂
I wonder which organisation produced the template? So many suspects🤔

After all the outrage from the Sussex VC about the unfairness of the fine, the BBC report states:
The policy at the heart of the investigation had been adapted from a template, according to the university, and had since been changed.

So they didn't actually write the policy that got them into so much trouble themselves, they just cut and pasted a template, and they have since ditched it?

Which sounds very like 'A template did it, and ran away'!

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said free speech and academic freedom were "non-negotiables" in universities.
"I have been clear that where those principles are not upheld, robust action will be taken," she said.
"If you go to university you must be prepared to have your views challenged, hear contrary opinions and be exposed to uncomfortable truths.
"We are giving the OfS stronger powers on freedom of speech so students and academics are not muzzled by the chilling effect demonstrated in this case."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn9vr4vjzgqo
On BBC front page. Thought I was hallucinating

The Universities are behaving the same as the NHS. Shame on them. Sheer hypocrisy.

Their VC is a Professor of Gender Studies so their attempt to conflate these things is entirely predictable.

I was just listening to The World Tonight on the radio and they reported this. It's 39 minutes (and a few seconds) in:

World Tonight

Branwen Jeffreys (BBC Education Correspondent) said that a fine of this size was unprecedented but she suspected that Sussex couldn't appeal.

As others have said, Sussex don't seem to have learned from their experiences. The report reminded me just how cowardly they were in protecting an employee who had done nothing illegal.

It was an utterly appalling debacle and for a long time afterwards I referenced it every time I was asked to give any kind of internal feedback about inclusivity or empowerment or gender or any kind of tangentially related topic.

That is one big chicken coming home to roost!

Surely heads should roll at the university. Particularly as they still don't seem to have grasped that GC beliefs are WORIADS, racism, anti semitism and homophobia are not.

Indeed.

But how bloody long is it going to take for them to realise that pissing off transactivists isn't what's going to cost them half a million quid.

C'mon universities, just say NO.

I just checked on the OfS website - this investigation was started in 2021, so this para from the FT:

The decision comes after US vice-president JD Vance last month lectured Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, on the need to defend free speech during an encounter in the Oval Office. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and adviser and donor to President Donald Trump, has also claimed that Britain is stifling free expression.

is so sneaky! It's chronologically accurate, it did come after Vance's speech, but it had nothing to do with it.

They could have said with equal accuracy:
'The decision comes after Tranmere Rovers sacked Nigel Adkins' or
'The decision comes after the Franco-Prussian war' or
'The decision comes just over a week after St Patrick's Day' or
'The decision comes after an investigation which started in 2021.'

But no, they had to drag Trump in, didn't they?🙄

The OfS found that Sussex’s policy statement on “trans and non-binary equality” failed to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom governance principles, creating a “chilling effect” on campus.

This is interesting, as a lot of (most?) universities will have very similar policies on trans “equality”. I wonder how many of them will take note of this? Of course, they’ll be too terrified to incur the rage of trans activists to row back on those policies. But they’re now sitting on a potentially very expensive time bomb.

ETA. And if this is a “significantly discounted” fine, it would be interesting to know what it would ordinarily have been. That’s quite a veiled warning to universities that they’ve made sure to issue by making that clear.

Perhaps they can pretend it identifies as a £200 fine and see what happens when they attempt to pay it.

Excellent news. The tide is definitely turning and the bullies, liars and deluded are finally having to face the consequences of their actions. It’s bloody brilliant watching their downfall, one by one.

Excellent news. Well done OfS for showing some teeth 💪

Sussex argues that universities are now exposed to regulatory risk if they have policies that protect staff and students from racist, homophobic, antisemitic, anti-Muslim or other abuse.

They need to keep up! Their failure to do so is what's landed them the fine!

to determine that stereotyped assumptions should not be relied upon in the university curriculum”.

Stereotyped assumptions? Like, that each sex has a person-type that matches it?

Oh.

Having said that, it's disturbing the level of legal fees Unis seem willing to rack up just to try and stop women saying biological sex is real and matters. Perhaps they are prone to magical thinking and denial of reality when it comes to finances as well as biology?

All credit to the Office of Students for recognizing the level of fine required to actually change things.

Hopeful that the final version of this leaked press release is widely reported in the press tomorrow and is as in the FT news.

At a time when universities are laying off staff in large numbers, being faced with possibly very large fines and substantial legal fees should - surely - give pause for thought. Especially if - as reported here - Arif Ahmed the Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students says (my emphasis) 'the fine imposed on Sussex had been “significantly discounted” because this was the first case of its kind, adding that the OfS had decided to publish its findings to enable other universities to comply with their free speech duties.'

That feels like a warning shot over the bows of universities who might follow on if they carry on as currently?

I note in the list of 'policies to prevent abuse, harassment and bullying' misogynistic bullying and /or sexual harassment is somehow absent despite it being known to be a pretty common form of abuse.

They certainly allowed a lot of bullying of KS for a Uni so keen to prevent bullying.

I know we should be used to institutions using weasel words that are the exact opposite of their actions by now but the bloody gall of the VC to act all outraged that they didn't get away with the bullying of Stock and claiming being held to account is somehow going to make bullying worse is quite something.

Looking forward to the next large fine....

Couldn't have happened to nicer people.

It's astonishing how universities seem to have collectively forgotten what the purpose of an actual university is in their pursuit of wokeness.

I've noticed something in two reports today, one on Coe and sex testing in women's athletics, and the other in this FT report:
in both cases, Trump was quoted - Vance in the FT - with little justification, as the issues of keeping males out of women's sports, and free speech in universities were not invented by Trump, both cases were running before his re-election.

So the news sources have to report these welcome GC victories, but they can't help themselves, they have to add a little dash of Trumpian guilt by association...😠

Bloody great news!