Your report on the scrapping of the previous government’s free speech law did not mention the severe restrictions on freedom of speech that have been happening across university campuses since 7 October when it comes to protesting against or even just discussing Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip (Labour halts Tory law on freedom of speech in English universities, 26 July).
These include cancelling academic events or requiring organisers to overcome unreasonable bureaucratic hurdles, investigations into the social media postings of staff and students, disciplinary proceedings against staff and students and, more recently, the use of costly legal proceedings to evict student encampments. The failure to acknowledge the suppression of freedom of expression in universities in relation to Palestinian rights is a terrible oversight that further compounds the problem and, ultimately, contributes to a wider erosion of freedom to dissent.
Nicola Pratt
Coventry
• I note from your report that Sir David Behan, who led the independent review of the Office for Students (OfS), has been appointed as the OfS’s new interim chair. It is to be hoped that this is a sign that the government is planning to take a careful look at this regulatory body. The review concludes that the OfS should sharpen its focus on “monitoring financial sustainability”. In other words, the OfS isn’t just about students. The name was always misleading. It’s surely time for an Office for Higher Education that takes a holistic view of our universities and encompasses the interests of everybody in the higher education sector, as well as its key functions and strategic importance.
David Head
Peterborough
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