Should the state punish universities?

After the struggle to implement some free speech legislation in English universities, we ask: Can the state change the culture in universities through legislation? Join in the debate on Sunday 19 October at the Battle of Ideas.

Long the epicentre of ‘woke ideology’, the university sector has not been a stranger to censorship over the past couple of years. From mistreatment of gender-critical academics to many students and staff reporting unease with expressing their opinions on controversial topics, free-speech campaigners have been critical of universities for a long time.

Since he took office, the Trump administration has been waging all-out war on universities. There have been clampdowns on DEI, funding cuts, and even revoking Harvard’s ability to certify visas for foreign students, all as part of his overarching assault on ‘the elites’. The free-speech organisation FIRE has argued that this interference with universities represents government overreach and an assault on freedom of speech and freedom of association. Many, who have previously criticised universities for clamping down on freedom and free speech, argue that the Trump administration has gone too far.

But what is a government’s role in state-funded institutions? In Britain, University of Sussex was recently fined of £585,000 for failing to uphold the freedom of speech rights of their staff with reference to their policies on gender identity. Following the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, many free speech campaigners have welcomed new guidance from the Office for Students ensuring the power to hold universities to account on issues of free speech. Given universities are publicly funded and should not be above the law but also that they have also long been at the centre of advocacy for censorship, are new powers, such as to issue heavy fines, just a long overdue swing of the pendulum?

Others argue that such punitive measures put undue pressure on universities, signifying government overreach and risking the independence of the university, setting a precedent for further interference. Then there are those who say that the problem with free speech on campus runs much deeper, and that legal means should not be the solution for those who care about fighting censorship. For those interested in building a culture of free speech, these measures might be counter-productive.

Are government interventions into universities a necessary measure, or do they risk threatening institutional independence and academic freedom? Can the law fix the problems in our universities?