Today, the Office for Students launches a new complaints scheme, offering an important route to resolution for members of staff and visiting speakers whose free speech and academic freedom rights have been infringed.
The free-to-use scheme is open to past or present staff, visiting speakers, applicants for academic posts and non-student members. Students can continue to make free speech complaints through the established channel of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE), the independent body set up to review student complaints.
The OfS will judge complaints about registered universities, colleges, and the constituent institutions of collegiate universities, in a fair and timely manner and will make recommendations where complaints are upheld. This could include the reinstatement of a research programme or a re-invitation of a visiting speaker. The OfS would normally expect to publish the outcome of a complaint, including the name of the institution, the reasons for decisions, and any recommendations.
As well as publishing an online guide to the scheme, the OfS is holding a series of briefings to help staff at institutions and others understand how the scheme will work and who can complain.
From next April, new conditions of registration for providers will also mean that the OfS will be able to intervene if its finds institutions have breached their duties under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. The OfS will consult on proposals for these new requirements in the coming weeks, which will apply to all registered universities and colleges from April 2027.
Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the OfS, Arif Ahmed, said:
‘The fundamental purpose of higher education is the advancement of knowledge. Free speech and academic freedom are essential to that purpose. All staff and students are therefore entitled to teach, learn and research in a culture that values vigorous debate. Perhaps most importantly, this includes difficult, contentious or discomforting topics.
‘The complaints scheme that we are launching today will help to protect those basic rights. It marks a significant step towards ensuring that every institution in England benefits from the robust exchange of ideas that underpins a high quality education. It should also give academics confidence that their freedom to teach and research will be upheld.
‘Universities and colleges in England have a duty to take reasonably practicable steps to secure freedom of speech within the law. If staff and visiting speakers think that their speech rights have been violated, the scheme gives them a route to resolution. And it gives the OfS tools to intervene fairly and swiftly where an institution has made the wrong call.
‘We know that many universities and colleges have been working hard to prepare for the implementation of the scheme, and we’d like to thank them for their continued collaboration on this important issue.
‘We’ll soon be sharing proposals for new conditions of registration relating to freedom of speech, and we look forward to hearing their views on those, as well as those of students and other interested parties.’
Notes
- The Office for Students is the independent regulator for higher education in England. Our strategy for 2025 to 2030 seeks to ensure that students from all backgrounds benefit from high quality higher education, delivered by a diverse, sustainable sector that continues to improve.
- Read our guide to the free speech complaints scheme, which now includes additional material about how we will take decisions about adverse consequences and recommendations.
- Read the full freedom of speech complaints scheme rules.
- In August 2026, the OfS published updated regulatory guidance related to freedom of speech.