The Office for Students (OfS) is making changes. Under their Free Speech Director Arif Ahmed, they have given a salutary blast of cold air to universities on their handling of the new pro-Palestinian demonstrations. These protests coincided with the second anniversary of the Hamas surprise attack on Israel. They have raised alarms about actual harassment that they have already created, and fears of enhanced future forms, particularly targeting Jewish students.
In that same interview, on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast with Nick Robinson, Ahmed laid down an emphatic defense of freedom of speech. He noted that it can never be an excuse to threaten or target any community with violence or hatred. In the second memo, he stressed a need to protect all students, regardless of their perceived status, from harassment and bullying. This means providing safety for people with Jewish backgrounds.
The OfS is ready to act, Ahmed said. They will go after schools that fail to create a safe learning environment for their students. “If your business model involves unlawfully suppressing academic freedom and freedom of speech at the behest of a foreign dictatorship, then you need another business model,” he stated. The OfS has shown an appetite to wield its sanctioning powers. This means punishing institutions — even stripping them of their university status — when they don’t uphold their obligations.
The OfS’s commitment to enforcing these standards follows a significant penalty imposed on the University of Sussex earlier this year. The university was then fined £585,000 for failing to uphold free speech principles, an action Ahmed’s organization considered a crucial step.
Ahmed also discussed alarming behavior from foreign scholars who have come to the UK, reportedly threatening UK academics. He described how these people would slip in at night to whisper threats, stating, “We’re following you, we’re watching you.” This type of repression is part of an increasingly toxic academic climate, something that Ahmed is deeply critical of.
The protests which initiated this debate happened in cities and towns across the UK such as Edinburgh, Belfast, Sheffield, and of course London. To discourage their participation, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer went so far as to make a public appeal to students not to join these protests. He cautioned that such events can be manipulated by some as a “despicable excuse to attack British Jews,” especially in light of rising antisemitism in the UK.
“As Ahmed’s comments underscore, there is a fine line between protecting freedom of speech and protecting the safety of our educational environments. “You must allow people to express their views on really controversial topics, because alternatively, there will be no alternative to violence,” he articulated, warning against the consequences of failing to uphold this balance. He added, “And that will be the abyss that we end up falling into.”
In the past few months, universities have been put on notice regarding their obligation to safeguard students from harassment, including specifically antisemitic harassment. Ahmed put an emphasis on the grim repercussions action-less inaction may have on those institutions. “We can remove their titles to universities. We can fine them. We can eventually turn off the spigot of their access to public funding,” he claimed.
The interview featuring Arif Ahmed is available on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds, allowing a wider audience to engage with this critical discussion surrounding free speech and student safety in academic environments.
