Smith: OfS ‘shouldn’t back off’ from free speech issues

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”.

After the judgment was handed down, Sussex vice-chancellor Sasha Roseneil said she would seek a meeting with the education secretary to discuss the “implications for the higher education sector”. At the conference, Smith agreed to meet with the university about the case after an audience member pressed her on this. 

In a wide-ranging speech at the London event, the minister also discussed the connection between populism and higher education. 

“Populism has been linked here and in other parts of the world to a deeper frustration in society, and you can see that in the lives of many young people today, far beyond universities and colleges,” she said. 

“To have – as we do – a million young people not in any kind of education, training or work is intolerable, particularly when set against our shortages of skilled workers.”

For universities, she continued, “part of the answer is to support higher-level learning for people who are crying out for the courses that will help to get them into good work at all stages of their lives”. This includes launching modules under the incoming lifelong learning entitlement, she said. 

She added that “rising” populism and misinformation “cast doubt on facts”. 

“Universities exist in opposition to that dangerous thinking,” she continued. “You embody the importance of seeking knowledge for its own sake, prizing facts over assumptions and the supreme value of collaboration over division. 

“That’s why it is so important that we continue to affirm the principle of academic freedom [and] the expression of ideas without outside interference.”

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com