The University of Sussex, one of the leading temples of progressivism in academia, has been fined £585,000 for failing to safeguard free speech following the Kathleen Stock affair. Stock, a philosophy professor, was hounded out of Sussex in 2021 over her belief in biological sex. The Office for Students (OfS)’s investigation into the fallout from that debacle is damning: it criticised the university’s policy statement on trans and non-binary equality, saying its requirement to ‘positively represent trans people’ and an assertion that ‘transphobic propaganda [would] not be tolerated’ could lead staff and students to ‘self-censor’.
The message that the times have changed does not seem to have got through to the University of Sussex itself
Could this mark a turning point in the culture wars surrounding the corruption of our institutions of higher learning, pressured by trans activists to put their emotions and feelings above biological truth? On the face of it, it certainly looks as though the chilly winds of reality blowing across the Atlantic from Donald Trump’s America has penetrated at least one quango, the OfS.
However, the message that the times have changed does not yet seem to have got through to the University of Sussex. Vice-chancellor Professor Sasha Roseneil said the university would appeal against the fine. She accused the OfS of pursuing a ‘vindictive and unreasonable’ campaign against it and holding to an ‘absolutist definition’ of free speech. The university said that if the ruling was upheld in spite of its appeal, it would leave them ‘powerless to prevent bullying and harassment’.
It doesn’t seem to have occurred to the Sussex authorities that it was precisely their inability to prevent the bullying and harassment of Stock that brought the fine down on them.
Stock was forced out of her position at Sussex – well known even in academia for its leftist sympathies – by naked and hate-filled intimidation. Her crime? Writing a book in which she questioned whether fashionable social attitudes to trans and non-binary issues outweighed the biological reality of male and female sex. Sussex students put posters up around the university campus calling for her to be sacked for her views. Stock even considered employing private security guards to ensure her personal safety while she was on the university premises.
Disgracefully, the university did little, or nothing, to protect or defend their own staff member from the abuse. Eventually, the threats forced Stock to resign.
Encouragingly, the Education Secretary has voiced her support for the OfS’s decision. Bridget Phillipson said that academic freedom and free speech were ‘non negotiable’, that the government had taken powers to enforce such principles, and that ‘robust action’ would be taken against all those who did not uphold these standards. It’s about time.
My daughter was a student at Sussex while all this was going on. So horrified was she by the toxic atmosphere stoked by the trans fanatics that she preferred to stay off campus and pursue her studies remotely. She soon learned that only approved ‘progressive’ views were allowed in essays and projects, and that opinions that contradicted or challenged the ‘official line’ risked being marked down.
The OfS’s verdict is welcome – and long overdue. If this ruling is a straw in a changing wind, there may be some hope that the freedom and independence that should be the bedrock of all learning may be returning to our centres of higher education. But make no mistake: there is a long way to go to ensure free speech and liberty is properly restored on campus
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