University is fined £585,000 for failing to uphold free speech after feminist professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out of work by trans activists
A university has been fined £585,000 for its failure to uphold free speech after feminist professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out over her belief in biological sex.
A university has been fined £585,000 for its failure to uphold free speech after feminist professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out over her belief in biological sex.
The University of Sussex was handed the penalty by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), which criticised its policy statement on Trans and Non-Binary equality.
It comes after Prof Stock, 53, had been cancelled and forced to leave the university in 2021 as she was accused of transphobia.
Her offences included stating in 2020 that the claim "transwomen are women" is fiction, not literally true and spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex in order to protect them.
The OfS said Sussexs 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 fine issued is the largest ever given to a University, though Sussex has vowed to challenge the OfS findings legally, Vice-Chancellor Prof Sasha Roseneil told the BBC.
It described the judgment as an unreasonably absolutist definition of free speech, in a strongly worded statement, warning the ruling left institutions facing opposing and irreconcilable duties which rendered them powerless to prevent abusive, bullying and harassing speech.
The OfS was given the power in January to issue fines where freedom of speech was not upheld at a university.
Kathleen Stock pictured at the Oxford Union where trans activists also protested her giving a talk
Prof Stock was hounded out of the University of Sussex in the face of protests led by trans activists
Trans activists celebrate after feminist professor Kathleen Stock quits her University of Sussex job after bullying and harassment campaign over her calls to protect female-only spaces
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson supported the ruling saying free speech and academic freedom were non-negotiables in universities.
She explained: 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.
Arif Ahmed, the OfS director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, said the decision to fine the university had followed a thorough investigation.
He said it found the existing policy meant staff feared disciplinary action and Prof Stock had changed the way she taught her course as a result.
Mr Ahmed added the OfS was concerned that a chilling effect may have caused many more students and academics at the university to self-censor.
The regulator said the Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy Statement issued by the University of Sussex was considered in the context of existing legal duties on freedom of speech as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
Four elements of the policy were found to be concerning in the OfS report.
Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union in 2023. In May 2023 Stock faced a rally led by angry trans activists as she gave a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society
Protestors pictured at a gathering in Library Square at the University of Sussex to protest against Prof Stock
These included a requirement for course materials to positively represent trans people and trans lives and an assertion that transphobic propaganda… [would] not be tolerated.
Another aspect of the policy highlighted that transphobic abuse would be a serious disciplinary offence for staff and students.
The OfS also took a general look at the management and governance of the university around freedom of speech.
Since being hounded from the university in 2021, Prof Stock has been continually pilloried over her views amid claims she is transphobic and trans-exclusionary for opposing gender self-identification and saying biological sex is real.
Professor Stock faced protests on the campus after publishing a book on gender identity, an experience she told the BBC was like a surreal anxiety dream. She resigned her position at the university in 2021.
In May 2023 she faced a rally led by angry trans activists as she gave a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society.
Hundreds of demonstrators chanted and played loud music to try to drown out the academic - while inside the chamber her address was crashed by anti-royal trans activist Riz Possnett, who glued themselves to the floor as others ranted about no more dead trans kids.
Posters put up in the tunnel from Falmer station to the University of Sussexs campus said she makes trans students unsafe and were not paying £9,250 a year for transphobia
Protestors gathered in Library Square at Sussex University to rally against Professor Kathleen Stock before she quit her job
Sussexs Professor Roseneil has blamed the culture wars and libertarian free speech absolutism for the OfS judgement.
She said: The OfSs findings mean that it is now virtually impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or bullying on our campuses.
It means universities cannot protect groups subject to harmful propaganda or determine that stereotyped assumptions should not be relied upon in the university curriculum.
The OfS is effectively decreeing libertarian free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle for UK universities. In our view, the OfS is perpetuating the culture wars.
She criticised the way the three-and-a-half year investigation was conducted, saying nobody employed by the university was interviewed.
The circumstances around Professor Stocks departure from the University of Sussex are deeply regrettable, she said. Sussex has consistently and publicly defended her right to pursue her academic work and to express her gender critical beliefs.
Academic freedom and freedom of speech are the foundational elements of a university, and the university is committed to ensuring that diversity in all its forms, particularly diversity of thought and identity, are able to flourish at Sussex.