Higher Education
(Freedom of Speech) Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to:
● Fulfil the Government’s manifesto commitment to strengthen
academic freedom and free speech in universities in England.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
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● Ensuring that universities in England are places
where freedom of speech can thrive for all staff, students
and visiting speakers, contributing to a culture of open and
robust intellectual debate.
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● Ensuring that, for the first time, students’ unions
will have to take steps to secure lawful freedom of speech
for their members and others, including visiting speakers.
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● Ensuring that academic staff feel safe to question
and test received wisdom and put forward new ideas and
controversial or unpopular opinions without risking their
careers.
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● Creating routes for staff, students and visiting
speakers to seek redress if they suffer a loss as a result of
specified duties being breached.
The main elements of the Bill are:
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● Ensuring that freedom of speech and academic freedom
in higher education is supported to the fullest extent. This
legislation builds on existing freedom of speech duties on
higher education providers and addresses gaps in current
provision. For the first time duties will be imposed directly
on student unions, as well as constituent colleges.
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● Provisions include a new complaints scheme run by the
regulator, the Office for Students, free to access for
students, staff and visiting speakers who believe their
speech has been unlawfully restricted, overseen by a
dedicated Director of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom.
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● Introducing new freedom of speech and academic duties
on higher education providers, their constituent colleges and
students’ unions. The Office for Students, will have the
power to impose penalties for breaches.
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● Creating a new role for the Director for Freedom of
Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students. The
holder of this office will champion freedom of speech and
academic freedom on campus, and have responsibility for
investigations of infringements of freedom of speech duties
in higher education which may result in sanctions and
individual redress
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will, in the main, extend to England and Wales and
apply to England only.
Key facts
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● There is growing concern about a ‘chilling effect’ on
university campuses that means that not all students and
staff feel able to express themselves without fear of
repercussions. A number of studies, surveys and reports
highlight instances where freedom of speech and academic
freedom is being curtailed in the higher education sector.
The most notable are studies by Policy Exchange and the Joint
Committee on Human Rights.
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● Policy Exchange polling shows that a significant
number of current and retired academics choose to
self-censor. The survey shows that 32 per cent of those who
identify as ‘fairly right’ or ‘right’ have refrained from
airing views in teaching and research, with 15 per cent of
those identifying as ‘centre’ or ‘left’ also self- censoring.
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● There are a small number of high profile reported
incidents, both international and domestic, where staff or
students have been threatened with negative consequences,
including loss of privileges or dismissal, confirming that
the fear of repercussions is not always unfounded. Some of
these reports relate to those who do not currently have
routes of redress, for example, visiting speakers.
