Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive of Independent Higher Education (IHE), said:
“The free pursuit of knowledge through intellectual inquiry and scientific discovery is the essence of higher education. But it will only ever be secured through acts of leadership and culture, not an Act of Parliament that leaves everyone looking nervously over their shoulder.
“IHE’s members and other higher education providers needed clear and relevant guidance well before their new legal duties commenced. Time to develop, amend and approve what could be fiendishly complex codes of practice based on their unique higher education offer. While the final guidance on freedom of speech issued by the Office for Students today is undoubtedly a major improvement on the original draft, it has been delivered too late.
“Unfortunately, it also still fails the test of grasping the diversity and complexity of modern higher education provision – comfortable reminiscing on the cut and thrust of debate in an Oxbridge college set, but silent on the ever more common settings of online learning or a professional workplace where the students are also staff.
“The Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom and his team have clearly worked hard and done their best to provide the nuance and clarity that was missing from this misconceived legislation, but a solipsistic simplism lingers at its heart.
“I'm sure that both the OfS and the OIA will strive to apply these new rules in a sensitive and proportionate way that avoids tying up the same people who should be focused on facilitating learning in a suffocating reel of red tape. We look forward to helping them do so.”