Universities can teach conversation and debate to support free speech
Embedding civic and rhetorical education into university curriculums was one of the key recommendations in a SOAS-led report produced by the Influencing the Corridors of Power (ICOP) project with Actsure.
The recently published report, Democracy and Free Speech on Campus, builds on the findings of a 24-hour closed consultation held by SOAS ICOP at St George's House, Windsor Castle in 2024 as part of an occasional series on free speech. The consultation brought together students, senior academics, policy influencers and Vice Chancellors to discuss key themes impacting free speech on campus and propose pathways forward.
...students do seem to be in a conundrum when it comes to balancing freedom of speech with offence and feeling unsafe.
The report was published this year to incorporate legislative changes and new guidance from the Office for Students in summer 2025. It also explores the backdrop to these legislative developments and its human impact on students. The authors, Hasan Pandor, Professor Alison Scott Baumann and Duaa Jamal Karim write:
“...debates once informed by liberal pluralism have increasingly been refracted through the lenses of culture wars, populist backlash, and post-truth epistemologies. Compounding this challenging campus milieu is the growing loneliness and social dislocation of students. This is not simply about identity politics or offence; it is about the breakdown of belonging [...And] students do seem to be in a conundrum when it comes to balancing freedom of speech with offence and feeling unsafe.”
The report was timed with the launch in parliament of Actsure, the first higher education legal-tech platform that automates free speech compliance for UK universities. Actsure, which was developed by Cambridge Enterprise using University of Cambridge research to provide a procedural solution for legislative requirements, has also integrated a pedagogic solution to the free speech conundrum through SOAS research: Communities of Inquiry (Cofi).
Cofi evolved through a three-year AHRC-funded SOAS project, which developed a model trialled across UK universities and other eminent institutions to bring together individuals to discuss openly the challenges facing our universities, societies and country today: Cofi groups learn to manage contestation and disagreement such that they can then work on solutions together.
Further recommendations in the report include:
- Clarification between the interrelationship between statutory duties which include Freedom of Speech vs the Equality Act vs Prevent;
- Establishing a dedicated body within the Office for Students to test and evaluate the efficiency of speech-promoting initiatives and policy interventions;
- Supporting the development of university charters as expressions of legal commitment and social accountability;
- Ensuring that any regulatory or disciplinary action taken under the new Act reflects procedural fairness and proportionality in line with public law principles.
ICOP connects ongoing academic research with UK parliamentary decision-making to inform legislation; its evidence-based briefings and recommendations not only inform policy but also drive the policy changes our university community advocates.
SOAS ICOP also provides the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) The Intergenerational Inquiry (TIGI) chaired by Paul Kohler MP. The panels have discussed how universities can best navigate their free speech obligations. The final panel on 24 June will examine ‘How "Woke" Is EDI’? - registration is required.
