New university free speech complaints system to come into force this year

A new freedom of speech complaints system for England's universities will come into force for the next academic year, the government has said.

The new system will allow academics and other university staff to take their complaints directly to the Office for Students (OfS).

Then from April 2027, universities could face fines of £500,000 or 2% of their income if they are found to have failed to protect free speech.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said "freedom of speech is the foundation of every university's success" but there had been too many cases contributing to "an unacceptable culture of fear and stifling the pursuit of knowledge".

The new system will not be open to students, who will be able to continue to raise concerns with their university and then to an independent adjudicator.

A stronger law on freedom of speech on England's campuses came into force in August 2025, but the complaints system element has been delayed.

The Labour government has removed an initial proposal which would have allowed individuals to take legal action against universities in the civil courts.

The lack of a complaints system has left academics having to pursue other routes, such as employment tribunals.

The government will set out further details on the new complaints system later on Monday.

Initially, the OfS will be able to review how an incident has been handled, tell universities to change their processes around freedom of speech and direct universities to pay compensation to individuals affected.

Significant fines, including from 2% of a university's income, could mean penalties run into millions for some.

While income varies, a medium-to-large-sized university's annual income can start at around £500 million and rise into the billions for the most high profile institutions.

This raises the possibility of fines significantly higher than the £585,000 issued to the University of Sussex in March 2025 - mainly over a transgender and non-binary inclusion policy which the regulator said had a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech.

Sussex strongly disputed the claim it had not upheld freedom of speech and launched a challenge of the fine in the High Court, in a case involving some quite obscure arguments about the regulator's powers. The judgement in that case is expected within the next few weeks.

The Free Speech Union (FSU) said nearly one in 10 of the 5,700-plus cases it had fought over the past six years involved universities "failing to protect free speech".

Under these new provisions, the OfS would in theory have the power to remove the right to provide university level education, although that is likely to remain a threat rather than a reality.

The body which lobbies for the sector, Universities UK (UUK), said it was important the new powers were used "fairly, transparently and proportionately".

Professor Malcolm Press, Vice Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, urged a cautious approach. He said "protecting free speech while preventing harassment, hate speech, and radicalisation are complex tasks involving finely balanced decisions".

While universities have long had a duty to uphold freedom of speech, these stronger powers were initially proposed under the last Conservative government and are now gradually being introduced in an amended form.

Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said universities had "been left exposed to censorship with no clear route of redress".

"Research was silenced, controversial work was shelved and universities were able to dodge accountability," she said.

In 2024, Prof Jo Phoenix won an unfair dismissal case against the Open University over a failure to defend her gender-critical views.

Earlier this year, the leading music conservatoire Trinity Laban reached an out-of-court settlement with the jazz musician Martin Speake, after he criticised Black Lives Matter and critical race theory.

China's influence on freedom of speech, including academic research, has also been a concern, because of the financial importance of higher international tuition fees from Chinese students to universities.

The new system will not consider these historic cases.

Reform's Suella Braverman said a "culture of censorship" had taken hold on university campuses, and while the measures were overdue the fines should be greater to act as a real deterrant.

The Lib Dems' universities spokesman, Ian Sollom, said a complaints scheme and bigger fines were only as good as the regulator behind them, and the OfS needed to issue clear guidance.

The Green Party was approached for comment.