Free Speech Fine Against Sussex Following Philosopher’s Resignation Overturned

About a year ago, the UK government’s Office for Students (OfS) (whose “free speech czar” is philosopher Arif Ahmed) levied a fine of £585,000 on the University of Sussex after investigating how the university handled the case of philosopher Kathleen Stock, who resigned after students protested her views and called for her to be fired. That fine has now been overturned by the UK’s high court, reports The Guardian. The court rejected claims that the university breached free speech regulations in a case involving its former professor Kathleen Stock. The ruling is a damaging blow to the credibility and management of the Office for Students as the court rejected the regulator’s lengthy investigation involving Stock’s resignation in 2021, which followed protests over her views on transgender rights and gender identity. While the investigation seemed prompted by those student protests, the official OfS criticism of Sussex ended up focusing mainly on the university’s trans and non-binary…