In the Office for Students’ Strategy for 2022-25, one of the 11 goals is ensuring “providers secure free speech within the law free speech for students, staff and visiting speakers”.
This is an unsurprising (re)statement of government legislative intent. Year 1 of this free speech objective is set out in the OfS Business plan 2022-23, which commits to investigating and sanctioning providers falling short of upholding free speech (and publication of the outcomes of such), all of which are within its existing regulatory powers ahead of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill being passed.
