The High Court has reversed the Office for Students’ (OfS) decision to fine Sussex University over half a million pounds for supposedly suppressing free speech (ie, not stopping people from criticising a vocally transphobic academic). The verdict is damning and makes it very clear that the OfS was operating from a position of blatant bias and a desire to set a chilling precedent: the OfS had a “closed mind” and a predetermined strategy.
As the University put it in a statement:
The Court’s judgement is a comprehensive vindication of that position. It is a devastating indictment of the impartiality and competence of the OfS, implicating its operations, leadership, governance, and strategy. It raises important and urgent questions for the government as it plans to grant ever more powers to the regulator.
The High Court found that the OfS erred in law in respect of its jurisdiction, in its interpretation of the law, and its understanding of freedom of speech and academic freedom, and that its process was fatally flawed by bias in the form of predetermination.
It’s important to understand that this is not a case of the OfS making a mistake. The OfS did exactly what the Conservative government wanted it to do, under the guidance of its head who was put in place specifically to wage a culture war on higher education. Exactly the same thing has happened in the BBC and EHRC and NHS, which is why those organisations have become the enemy of multiple marginalised groups. The Tories’ Kemi Badenoch boasted about doing this, but the current Labour government has done nothing to undo any of it. If anything, they’ve been even worse than the Tories.