A university has been fined £585,000 for failing to uphold free speech after a professor was branded ‘transphobic’ and hounded out by students for her views on sex and gender. Feminist author and esteemed Professor Kathleen Stock OBE, 53, felt ‘cancelled’ and forced to leave the University of Sussex in 2021 as she was targeted and abused on campus for her biological sex stance.

Her so-called offences included stating in 2020 that “the claim ‘transwomen are women’ is fiction, not literally true” and “spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex in order to protect them”. Now the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), has fined the university £585,000 for failing to uphold freedom of speech.

And the OfS slammed the university’s policy statement on trans and non-binary equality, saying its requirement to “positively represent trans people” and an assertion “transphobic propaganda [would] not be tolerated” could have a “chilling effect” – by causing staff and students to “self-censor”.

The report concluded that Prof Stock “felt unable to teach certain topics” as a result of the university’s policy.

The OfS was given the power in January to issue fines where freedom of speech was not upheld at a university.

Hitting back, the University of Sussex’s vice-chancellor Prof Sasha Roseneil says they plan to legally challenge the damning OfS findings and the whopping fine – the largest ever given to a UK University – which she branded “Kafka-esque.”

They brand the judgment an “unreasonably absolutist definition of free speech”, warning it left institutions facing “opposing and irreconcilable duties” leaving them “powerless to prevent abusive, bullying and harassing speech.”

Yet Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson supported the OfS, insisting free speech and academic freedom were “non-negotiables” in universities.

She stressed: “If you go to university you must be prepared to have your views challenged, hear contrary opinions and be exposed to uncomfortable truths.

“We are giving the OfS stronger powers on freedom of speech so students and academics are not muzzled by the chilling effect demonstrated in this case.”

While Arif Ahmed, the OfS director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, said the decision to fine the university did follow a thorough investigation.

He said it found the existing policy meant staff feared disciplinary action and Prof Stock had changed the way she taught her course as a result.

Mr Ahmed added the OfS was “concerned that a chilling effect may have caused many more students and academics at the university to self-censor”.

The regulator said University of Sussex’s Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy Statement was considered in the context of existing legal duties on freedom of speech as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.

The maximum fine for the University of Sussex could have been £3,253,024 after the institution was found to have breached two of conditions of registration – but it was reduced to £585,000, the OfS said.

And in a briefing with the media following the publication of the investigation into freedom of speech, Prof Ahmed warned other universities could be slapped with huge fines too, adding: “Clearly, future cases will not be the first case of their kind, so there will be a potential for higher fines in the future.”

The free speech tsar added: “I think universities should be looking at their policies and thinking carefully about what they need to do to comply with the law and to comply with regulatory requirements.”

On the discounted fine of £585,000, which has been imposed on the University of Sussex, Prof Ahmed told the media: “Part of the reason for the discount was because this is the first case of its kind.

“We also thought carefully about things that Sussex had done, the changes that had taken place in their policies and so on.”

The OfS felt a number of elements of the university’s policy were “concerning” – including a requirement for course materials to “positively represent trans people and trans lives” and an assertion that “transphobic propaganda… [would] not be tolerated”.

Another aspect of the policy highlighted that “transphobic abuse” would be a serious disciplinary offence for staff and students.

The OfS also took a general look at the management and governance of the university around freedom of speech.

Professor Stock faced protests on the campus after publishing a book on gender identity, an experience she told the BBC was like a “surreal anxiety dream”.

Posters were put up on the campus calling for her to be sacked, and students turned up with placards at an open day.

Prof Stock – awarded an OBE for services to education – resigned her position at the university in 2021 and vehemently rejected unfounded slurs that she was transphobic.

In May 2023 she faced a rally led by angry trans activists as she gave a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society.

Sussex’s Professor Roseneil has blamed “libertarian free speech absolutism” for the damning OfS judgement.

The university said the policy at the heart of the investigation had been adapted from a template and has since been changed.

She said: “The OfS’s findings mean it is now virtually impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or bullying on our campuses.

“It means universities cannot protect groups subject to harmful propaganda or determine that stereotyped assumptions should not be relied upon in the university curriculum.

“The OfS is effectively decreeing libertarian free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle for UK universities. In our view, the OfS is perpetuating the culture wars.”

She added: “The circumstances around Professor Stock’s departure from the University of Sussex are deeply regrettable. Sussex has consistently and publicly defended her right to pursue her academic work and to express her gender critical beliefs.”

But in a Politics Home article, she claimed the “Kafka-esque” investigation only spoke to Prof Stock and was “desk-based”, and she added that the OfS had refused to hold “any substantive meeting” with the university.

However in response Prof Ahmed said: “We did engage with the university.

“We spoke with them a few times, much of the engagement was in writing, but we did engage repeatedly and at length with the university.”

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK (UUK), said: “It’s absolutely essential that universities uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom, and they are legally bound to do so. Universities must also create an environment where all people can work and learn together.

“This judgment, however, raises concerns about how universities can, in practice, discharge freedom of speech and academic freedom duties alongside other important legal obligations, for example under legislation to prevent harassment and hate speech.

“We will therefore be writing to the OfS to ask for clarity as the judgment appears to find that it is a ‘failure to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom’ if a university has policies to prevent ‘abusive, bullying and harassing’ material or speech.”