Nearly 200 speakers or events were rejected by English universities last year, more than double the figure from the year before, but 99 per cent of requests were approved.
Susan Lapworth, the interim chief executive of the Office for Students, highlighted the rise in rejections and said she would be “concerned” if it indicates that “lawful views are being stifled” and that the regulator would intervene if universities were not meeting their free speech obligations.
Data are collected and published by the OfS as part of its monitoring of universities’ compliance with the government’s Prevent strategy, which aims to stop people becoming involved in terrorism or extremism.
