Tucked away at the bottom of page 37 of the Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto is a pledge to “strengthen academic freedom and free speech in universities”. This, and other vagaries about “cancel culture” having a “chilling effect” on free speech, were cited by the government last year when it introduced a new draft law – the higher education (freedom of speech) bill.

What does the bill do?

The bill is intended to expand the free speech duty, which already applies to universities and other higher education providers (HEPs). Under the current law, they are required to take “reasonably practicable” steps to ensure freedom of speech, “within the law” for their members, students, employees, and visiting speakers. The new law goes further, among other things requiring providers to actively “promote the importance of freedom of speech within the law”. It is not at all clear what this would entail in practice.