Free speech complaints scheme: student roundtables

We’re running two events to give students and student unions the opportunity to help shape a complaints scheme as part of our new approach to regulating freedom of speech.

We’re launching a free speech complaints scheme as part of our new approach to regulating freedom of speech. Students, staff and visiting speakers will be able to raise free speech complaints about universities, colleges or relevant students’ unions.

Feedback given during these two roundtable events will inform our early policy development on the new complaints scheme.

Who should attend

We are keen to hear from students and students’ unions on the issues they think we should consider in developing the free speech complaints scheme. We’re keen to include students from across the English higher education sector in the roundtables.

We’re running two events, one which any student can attend, and one which is for representatives of students’ unions and guilds:

  • Wednesday 25 October 0930 to 1100 — for students’ unions (fully booked)
  • Thursday 9 November 0930 to 1100 — for students

Please note: the Thursday 19 October event has been cancelled. The roundtable event for students scheduled for 26 October will now take place on 9 November.

How to register

The event for students’ unions on Wednesday 25 October is fully booked and registration has closed.

Registration is open for the all-students event on Thursday 9 November:

Register your interest in attending the event for students

We may need to limit numbers of attendees to keep the discussion manageable. After you have registered, we will contact you to confirm your place as soon as possible. Registration does not guarantee a place.

If you are not able to attend, we still want to hear from you. We expect to launch a public consultation on the new free speech complaints scheme towards the end of 2023, which will provide further opportunities for students, students’ unions, providers and other stakeholders to engage with us on these important issues.

Additional information

Privacy: read our privacy notice

Accessibility: the events will take place over MS Teams, which has a live transcriptions function. Contact our events team if you need to discuss accessibility before the event.

Recording: these events will not be recorded.

Contact us

If you have any questions about our events, please contact 

Last updated 12 October 2023
12 October 2023
19 October event cancelled and replaced by a new date of 26 October.

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