One of our country’s proudest achievements is our world-leading higher education sector, which expands horizons, fosters research breakthroughs and promotes rigorous academic enquiry. Our universities and higher education providers must be supported to continue in their transformative work.
In January, I set out for the House my commitment to protecting the rights of academic staff, external speakers and students to explore and express new ideas, and my intention to implement, amend and repeal elements of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 in order to make it workable. In that announcement, I also stated my intention to publish a policy paper that would set out my proposals in more detail.
I am therefore pleased to inform the House that the technical policy paper, “The future of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023”, has been published today. The paper details the future of each provision in the Act, with additional detail and information on the rationale for my decisions.
The policy paper will ensure that the sector has full clarity on the provisions I commenced on 28 April, which will come into force from 1 August 2025, and on the remaining provisions that will either be repealed or amended via primary legislation as soon as the Government have identified a suitable legislative vehicle. The paper also provides further reasoning on my decision to keep the overseas funding measures under review until later this year.
[HCWS741]