The U.K. government is to bring in new regulations it says will protect free speech on college campuses—with fines and other sanctions threatened for institutions that fail to ensure open debate.
The plans, first reported in The Times and confirmed to Newsweek by a spokesperson for the British Department for Education (DfE), focus on the role of a new universities regulator called the Office for Students (OfS), which will begin operations next year.
Jo Johnson, Britain's universities minister—and brother of foreign secretary and Brexit campaigner, Boris Johnson—told the newspaper that "our universities must open minds, not close them."
The plans mean that any institution registered with the OfS will be required to support and protect freedom of speech, meaning potential fines or deregistration in extreme cases for colleges that fail to fulfil this duty.
Anybody who feels they have been wronged by a university over this issue will be able to challenge the institution. The regulator will also have the power to name universities publicly that have failed to fulfil their duty.
Details on exactly what a failure to protect freedom of speech would look like are thin at present.
The Times reports that universities will be encouraged "to challenge the culture of so-called safe spaces and to answer for the behaviour of student unions that 'no platform' controversial speakers."
Newsweek understands that universities will retain autonomy over who comes to speak at their institution, but could have to answer for any decisions taken in this regard if they are deemed to breach the freedom of speech duty.
The practice of "no platforming," where speakers with views deemed to be harmful are barred from speaking, has become controversial in recent years, with critics claiming it is being used to stifle open debate and healthy disagreement.
One controversial case was that of the feminist writer Germaine Greer, whom campaigners tried to ban from speaking at Cardiff University in 2015, alleging that she held "transphobic" views. Greer was not, in the event, no platformed.
"[Greer] has every right, if invited, to give views on difficult and awkward subjects," Johnson said. "No-platforming and safe spaces shouldn't be used to shut down legitimate free speech."
"Our young people and students need to accept the legitimacy of healthy vigorous debate in which people can disagree with one another. That's how ideas get tested, prejudices exposed and society advances. Universities mustn't be places in which free speech is stifled," Johnson said.
"Freedom of speech is a fundamentally British value which is undermined by a reluctance of institutions to embrace healthy vigorous debate," he added.
Newsweek contacted The National Union of Students (NUS), which represents many British students and students' unions, but it was still preparing a response at the time of publication.
Conversely, British universities have in recent years also accused the government of restricting free speech. In 2015, a joint statement from the univerisities unions UCU and NASUWT criticised new legislation that handed teachers a duty to report any behaviour or views they consider "extreme," as part of an anti-extremism strategy called Prevent.
"Political discussion, whether we agree with it or not, should not be shut down or classed as extreme simply because it runs counter to the government's own agenda," the statement said at the time.
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