Jacqui Smith has said the Office for Students (OfS) should continue to look at free speech matters despite a judge’s ruling that the regulator acted beyond its powers when investigating the University of Sussex.
The skills minister said she could “see the reasoning” behind the regulator’s decision to investigate the institution over its handling of academic Kathleen Stock’s departure.
The OfS fined the university £585,000 for breaching its free speech obligations, but this was later overturned by a High Court judge, who said the regulator had misunderstood the meaning of “freedom of speech within the law”.
Asked about the OfS’ investigation at the Higher Education Policy Institute’s conference on 11 June, Smith said “there were problems with the amount of time it took and the handling of the process, but I think the lessons that it identified were important”.
“On that basis, notwithstanding recognising the legal decision, I think it’s important that that doesn’t say to the OfS that they should back off,” she continued, particularly when it comes to “ensuring that there is full understanding for universities about the approach that needs to be taken on both academic freedom and freedom of speech”.
