This is all very depressing. From the Times:
The university watchdog has apologised for a string of errors in its decision to impose a record fine of £585,000 on the University of Sussex, which was later overturned.
The High Court ruled in April that the Office for Students (OfS) had acted with bias in its handling of the case of Professor Kathleen Stock who left Sussex in 2021, claiming she had been hounded out over her views on transgender issues.
A claim fully justified by the evidence.
The OfS published a report on “lessons learned” after an internal review found that leadership had been blinkered at the time it imposed the penalty last year. The university successfully brought a judicial review against the penalty.
The OfS, the regulator for universities in England, has now pledged to maintain respectful relationships with universities in future and use alternative forms of intervention before turning to enforcement action, such as fines.
It said on Thursday: “The OfS made mistakes in the Sussex case, which we regret. The actions we are announcing today show our continuing commitment to learning the lessons from this case with humility and honesty.
‘We ask students, the institutions we regulate and everyone with an interest in the world-class higher education the English sector offers to work with us in the same constructive spirit and hold us to account where we fall short.”
It’s all a bit pathetic. They made a couragous decision in light of the appalling treatment of Kathleen Stock by Sussex University, and are now whimpering with guilt like a Chinese official, shaved head bowed in shame, after a struggle session in front of a crowd of Red Guards.
And the Sussex vice-chancellor is very smug:
Professor Sasha Roseneil, Sussex’s vice-chancellor, told The Guardian she welcomed the OfS’s acknowledgement of its mistakes but was concerned that its plans for reform “fell short” in a number of areas.
She said: “[The report] reveals deep cultural problems within the OfS in relation to freedom of expression and internal challenge, and it is heartening to see the new leadership setting different expectations for the organisation, expectations that are more appropriate for a public institution, trusted to regulate one of the most important sectors in a democratic society.”
Freedom of expression? What about Kathleen Stock’s freedom of expression? – hounded out by trans zealots for expressing gender-critical views, from a university supposedly dedicated to a free exchange of ideas.
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