Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive of Independent Higher Education (IHE), said:
“The Government's decision today to pause and review the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 is a clear and welcome statement of its intent to streamline regulation and to support both autonomous higher education providers and the regulator itself to focus on their core missions.
"Free Speech and Academic Freedom are core principles of higher education, but their full expression can only truly emerge in institutions with the right leadership and culture. They cannot simply be legislated for or enforced on pain of regulatory penalty without producing the opposite and chilling effect. Any future role for the regulator in protecting these precious values must be very carefully calibrated and must properly account for the far more diverse sector, with its different models of study, which exists in the 21st century.”