Free speech – a guide for students

Universities and colleges must maintain and publish a free speech code of practice and you should be able to see this on the university or college website.

This should explain the values that underpin the institution's approach to free speech and cover these areas: 

Meetings and other activities

The code should explain how students should organise speaker events or other activities on the premises of the university or college.

The code should make it clear what students need to do. The starting point should always be that speaker events will go ahead. The university or college may regulate the time, manner or place of the event, for instance if there is a concern about physical safety.

The process should take no longer than needed to follow and not ask for information that is too difficult to supply. It should identify a single point of contact who can answer questions about the process.

Conduct

The code should set out how students should behave in the classroom, online, and at meetings and events.

Conduct should reflect the principles that everyone has a right to free speech within the law and that students should be exposed to a wide range of views.

Premises and security costs

Universities and colleges should explain in their code how they decide to use premises for meetings and events.

They should not pass on the security cost of using the premises, except in exceptional circumstances. The viewpoints being expressed at an event are not relevant to these circumstances.

Publishing and communication

The code should be published prominently. As good practice it should be:

• visible on the university or college website
• easily accessible to students without the need for a password or a security check.

As good practice, universities and colleges should also draft a clear and simple statement that introduces the code and that clarifies how to access it.

They should communicate this to students at least once each calendar year.

The statement should also be included in:

• the university or college prospectus
• student handbooks.