Students can make provocative remarks if they do not break law, watchdog says

Arif Ahmed of OfS says universities that infringe rights to expression will face fines under new system

University staff and students can make provocative statements on subjects such as Israel and Gaza as long as they do not break laws on incitement or harassment, under proposals by the government’s campus free speech tsar.

Arif Ahmed, the newly appointed director for academic freedom of speech at the Office for Students (OfS), said universities and colleges in England that infringed the rights to expression of individuals would face fines under the new complaints process.