Respectful dialogue research integrated into first free-speech compliance platform
SOAS research on free speech led by Professor Alison Scott-Baumann, College of Law, has been integrated into the UK’s first automated free-speech compliance system for universities, developed at the University of Cambridge.
Actsure has integrated Communities of Inquiry (Cofi) as a training programme into its platform to facilitate cultural empowerment. Cofi is a structured way to embed open, critical, and respectful dialogue across campuses, which Professor Scott-Baumann developed during an AHRC-funded research project at SOAS.
The government announced this week that a new freedom of speech complaints system will be in place from the next academic year, which means that the Office for Students can issue significant fines if universities fail to protect freedom of speech. This adds further pressure on universities to ensure new rules are correctly implemented. Actsure will help tackle this issue by supporting universities both in evidencing compliance and in facilitating better group discussions about complex issues, thereby actively promoting freer expression.
If we cannot communicate, we cannot think, and many complex topics are currently vetoed, with individuals and groups self-censoring.
Professor Scott-Baumann explained: “If we cannot communicate, we cannot think, and many complex topics are currently vetoed, with individuals and groups self-censoring. In order to facilitate discussion and constructive disagreement, this approach supports group participants in formulating their own limits and chosen focus for discussing complex and controversial issues.”
Actsure was founded by Duaa Jamal Karim at Cambridge amid concerns that institutions are struggling to interpret new freedom of speech rules, most of which came into force last year. Sector bodies have raised questions about how to understand and implement the guidance underpinning the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 - effective from August 2025, especially where it appears to clash with other duties, such as those relating to safeguarding or the right to protest. Universities are required to protect lawful freedom of speech for staff, students and visiting speakers, where the regulator - the Office for Students - can investigate breaches and impose fines if those duties are not met.
The message to universities on free speech has basically been: ‘This is your responsibility, now deal with it'...
Duaa said: “The message to universities on free speech has basically been: ‘This is your responsibility, now deal with it.' The regulatory advice is extremely long, with more than 50 scenario-based examples, and very confusing, even for someone with policy and legal training.”
Since its incorporation in 2021 into the AHRC-funded project, Cofi has supported structured discussion of a wide range of topics, including those involving disagreement, sensitivity, or institutional constraints. These have included questions relating to academic freedom, institutional bias, curriculum debates, gender, transgenderism and the Church of England, Israel/Palestine, leadership, migration, and the operation of counter-extremism policy within educational settings.
Actsure was officially launched at Portcullis Housein February alongside the new book How to Develop Free Speech on Campus: International Controversies and Communities of Inquiry, edited by Professor Scott Baumann and Hasan Pandor. This launch was the first of three panels on free speech and academic freedom being organised by SOAS ICOP through the APPG The Intergenerational Inquiry (TIGI). SOAS ICOP provides the secretariat for this All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).
Since APPG TIGI and APPG Communities of Inquiry were launched in November 2024 and July 2022, respectively, 15 members of SOAS staff have participated across 11 events. In addition to connecting researchers to Westminster, since 2021, through SOAS ICOP, SOAS researchers have participated in events hosted at SOAS 45 times.
