Higher Education Regulatory Approach

Lord Verdirame Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate exactly outlines the balance that we need to strike. It is wholly reasonable that students engage in protest. In fact, I engaged in a fair amount of protest with my noble friend Lord Mann during my time as a student. However, it is wholly inappropriate, as the right reverend Prelate says, if that then prevents those with whom you disagree from operating. Where serious thought has been given to this, higher education institutions have managed to find that balance between the right to protest and the requirement that views with which you disagree should not, essentially, be cancelled from campuses.

If we can work on that, and if we can also ensure that we develop that culture that we were talking about earlier, and that ability to recognise that disagreement is an important part of the experience of being in higher education, then we will have made important progress.

[Lord Verdirame (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I refer to my interests in the register. I very much welcome the Government’s change of direction on this matter. It was reported only a few weeks ago that arms manufacturers were cancelling events at universities because of intimidation and harassment. If arms manufacturers feel compelled to cancel events in universities, one can only imagine what it must be like for a first-year undergraduate who has nonconformist views on questions such as the Middle East conflict or gender. I therefore welcome the Government’s change in direction, but I have concerns about the exclusion of student unions. Do the Government really consider that the objective of the Act can be met if student unions are not fully in scope, given that so much of the intimidation is done through student unions? Related to that, the Statement says:

“Student unions are neither equipped nor funded to navigate such a complex regulatory environment, and they are already regulated by the Charity Commission”.—[Official Report, Commons, 15/1/25; col. 380.]


The Charity Commission and charity law are complex regulatory environments. If they can navigate those, why can they not navigate a piece of legislation on free speech?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I think I have made the position with respect to student unions pretty clear. In my discussions with vice-chancellors, they recognise their responsibility under the legislation to work with student unions to make sure that the type of intimidation that the noble Lord and others have talked about does not happen. Once again, we have found a pragmatic approach to ensuring progress on this issue, and I think the balance is right.