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British authorities issued a record fine against one of the country\u2019s universities on Wednesday for issues including failing to \u201cuphold the freedom of speech and academic freedom\u201d in a policy statement on transgender equality, an escalation in the debate over student and staff rights on campus.<\/p>\n
The Office for Students, the regulator for higher education in England, imposed<\/a> a penalty of 585,000 pounds, more than $755,000, on the University of Sussex. The fine followed an investigation into the university that began more than three years ago after Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, resigned saying that she had faced a campaign of harassment from students and activists over her views on gender identity.<\/p>\n The fine from the regulator, the Office for Students, comes amid fraught conversations about both trans rights<\/a> and free speech on campuses in the United States and Britain, with many universities trying to balance the right of free expression with preventing hate speech.<\/p>\n Dr. Stock quit<\/a> in 2021 after she was accused of being transphobic by students and activists for arguing that transgender women were not women. She said<\/a> she faced a campaign of harassment, bullying and character assassination before quitting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The university publicly defended Dr. Stock at the time. But on Wednesday, the Office for Students said the university\u2019s policy statement<\/a> on trans and nonbinary equality had created a \u201cchilling effect\u201d that could cause students and staff members to \u201cself-censor.\u201d The regulator said this included requiring course materials to \u201cpositively represent trans people and trans lives.\u201d It also penalized the school for failures in government and management processes.<\/p>\n The university condemned the ruling, saying in a statement<\/a> that it would make it impossible to create \u201cpolicies to prevent abusive, bullying and harassing speech.\u201d Sasha Roseneil, the university\u2019s vice chancellor, promised to mount a legal challenge and said the regulator was mandating \u201clibertarian free-speech absolutism as the fundamental principle for U.K. universities\u201d and was \u201cperpetuating the culture wars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n President Trump made transgender issues<\/a> a campaign focus and in February effectively banned<\/a> trans athletes from competing in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports. The administration has also been accused of targeting universities<\/a> over their transgender policies.<\/p>\n The British government said in January<\/a> that it would implement a new law to bolster academic freedom on campuses, but scrapped a provision that would have allowed anyone who claimed that their free speech had been restricted to take legal action against a university.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday that the new measures were necessary to ensure that \u201cstudents and academics are not muzzled by the chilling effect demonstrated in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFree speech and academic freedom are non-negotiables in our universities, and I have been clear that where those principles are not upheld, robust action will be taken,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The fine imposed on the University of Sussex is the most significant demonstration yet of the regulator\u2019s mandate. \u201cIt is entirely appropriate for universities to pursue equality objectives,\u201d Arif Ahmed, the regulator\u2019s director of free speech and academic freedom, said in a statement. \u201cBut,\u201d he continued, \u201cthey must take care to do so without curtailing lawful speech and without creating the risk of indirect discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Ahmed, who was appointed under the previous Conservative government, called the investigation \u201cthorough\u201d and said it had found \u201csignificant and serious breaches\u201d of regulations.<\/p>\n The university disagreed. Dr. Roseneil called the findings \u201cegregious and concocted.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the method of the investigation was \u201ccompletely unacceptable,\u201d because the regulator had not spoken with any university employees and met only with Dr. Stock<\/a>. Dr. Roseneil also called the fine \u201cwholly disproportionate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The university framed the ruling as part of longstanding tensions between the higher education industry and the regulator. In 2023, a report by a committee in the House of Lords, the appointed upper chamber of Britain\u2019s Parliament, found<\/a> that the regulator\u2019s approach was \u201carbitrary, overly controlling and unnecessarily combative.\u201d In 2024, a government-commissioned review<\/a> found that it was seen as \u201cadversarial and overly legalistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Stock did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n