Kathleen Stock’s former university has been fined £585,000 after it was found to have “failed to uphold” freedom of speech and academic freedom.
The Office for Students (OfS) found “a chilling effect arose” from the University of Sussex’s transgender policy that left staff and students feeling “self-censored” and unable to express “lawful views”.
The higher education regulator said an investigation found “significant and serious breaches” of free speech and governance issues at the institution.
The probe was prompted by the resignation of Prof Stock, an expert in analytic philosophy, from the University of Sussex in October 2021 after she faced death threats for her gender-critical beliefs.
But on Wednesday morning, the University of Sussex hit back, saying it will legally challenge the decision, which it claimed would “leave universities unable to have policies to prevent abusive, bullying and harassing speech and that will perpetuate the culture wars”.
Prof Stock is now a founding fellow at the University of Austin, a new “anti-cancel culture” university that welcomes academics treated like “thought criminals”.
She said at the time that she did not wish to return to a British university since they all have “people like those at Sussex, who’ve got a light in their eyes, who want social justice according to a very narrow conception that does not involve employing me”.
Source: Kathleen Stock’s former university fined record £585k for failing to uphold free speech