Universities are reviewing their transgender equality policies in the wake of a record fine handed to one institution after a feminist professor was hounded out of her job over her belief in biological sex.
The University of Sussex was fined £585,000 by the Office for Students (OfS), the regulator for higher education, following the incident involving Professor Kathleen Stock.
In particular, the OfS took exception at the university’s policy statement on ‘Trans and Non-Binary equality’ and said it had breached free speech.
Professor Stock, 53, said she had been ‘cancelled’ and was forced to leave the university in 2021 after she was accused of transphobia.
Her offences included stating in 2020 that ‘the claim ‘transwomen are women’ is fiction, not literally true’ and ‘spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex in order to protect them’.
The OfS said Sussex’s requirement to ‘positively represent trans people’ and an assertion that ‘transphobic propaganda [would] not be tolerated’ could have led staff and students to ‘self-censor’.
Now in the aftermath of the controversy, scores of universities have taken down or are in the process of reviewing their policies.
On its website, the University of Leeds has updated its policy statement on trans equality by stating it is ‘currently being reviewed in light of the ruling by the Office for Students of 26 March 2025.’
Universities are reviewing their transgender equality policies after Sussex University was handed a record fine over the handling of feminist professor Kathleen Stock, who was hounded out of her job by activists
Activists at the University of Sussex called for Professor Stock to leave her position
Professor Stock, 53, said she had been ‘cancelled’ and was forced to leave the university in 2021 after she was accused of transphobia
Meanwhile, the University of Essex has removed a link to its policy on supporting transgender and non-binary staff, while the University of Exeter is reviewing its guidance across trans and LGBTQ+ inclusion policies, The Times reports.
A spokesman told the paper that the university keeps ‘our policies and guidance under regular review as part of meeting our legal obligations and protecting freedom of speech within the law’.
The OfS said however it was ‘important to emphasise that none of this means providers can’t have policies which set out how they will protect students from harassment — indeed, our new harassment condition will require them to do so’.
MailOnline has reached out to Sussex, Leeds, Essex and Exeter Universities for comment.
As institutions now review their policies, Sussex University has vowed to legally challenge the OfS findings, Vice-Chancellor Prof Sasha Roseneil told the BBC.
It described the judgment as an ‘unreasonably absolutist definition of free speech’, in a strongly worded statement, warning the ruling left institutions facing ‘opposing and irreconcilable duties’ which rendered them ‘powerless to prevent abusive, bullying and harassing speech’.
The OfS was given the power in January to issue fines where freedom of speech was not upheld at a university.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson supported the ruling saying free speech and academic freedom were ‘non-negotiables’ in universities.
Leeds University said that it was reviewing its policy statement on trans equality in light of the recent OfS ruling
Under review: The University of Essex has removed a link to its policy on supporting transgender and non-binary staff
Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union in 2023. In May 2023 Stock faced a rally led by angry trans activists as she gave a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society
She explained: ‘If you go to university you must be prepared to have your views challenged, hear contrary opinions and be exposed to uncomfortable truths.
‘We are giving the OfS stronger powers on freedom of speech so students and academics are not muzzled by the chilling effect demonstrated in this case.’
Arif Ahmed, the OfS director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, said the decision to fine the university had followed a thorough investigation.
He said it found the existing policy meant staff feared disciplinary action and Prof Stock had changed the way she taught her course as a result.
Mr Ahmed added the OfS was ‘concerned that a chilling effect may have caused many more students and academics at the university to self-censor’.
The regulator said the Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy Statement issued by the University of Sussex was considered in the context of existing legal duties on freedom of speech as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
Four elements of the policy were found to be ‘concerning’ in the OfS report.
These included a requirement for course materials to ‘positively represent trans people and trans lives’ and an assertion that ‘transphobic propaganda… [would] not be tolerated’.
Protestors pictured at a gathering in Library Square at the University of Sussex to protest against Prof Stock
Another aspect of the policy highlighted that ‘transphobic abuse’ would be a serious disciplinary offence for staff and students.
The OfS also took a general look at the management and governance of the university around freedom of speech.
Since being hounded from the university in 2021, Professor Stock has been continually pilloried over her views amid claims she is ‘transphobic and trans-exclusionary’ for opposing gender self-identification and saying biological sex is real.
Professor Stock faced protests on the campus after publishing a book on gender identity, an experience she told the BBC was like a ‘surreal anxiety dream’. She resigned her position at the university in 2021.
In May 2023 she faced a rally led by angry trans activists as she gave a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society.
Hundreds of demonstrators chanted and played loud music to try to drown out the academic – while inside the chamber her address was crashed by anti-royal trans activist Riz Possnett, who glued theirself to the floor as others ranted about ‘no more dead trans kids’.
Sussex’s Professor Roseneil has blamed the ‘culture wars’ and ‘libertarian free speech absolutism’ for the OfS judgement.
She said: ‘The OfS’s findings mean that it is now virtually impossible for universities to prevent abuse, harassment or bullying on our campuses.
Posters put up in the tunnel from Falmer station to the University of Sussex’s campus said she ‘makes trans students unsafe’ and ‘we’re not paying £9,250 a year for transphobia’
Protestors gathered in Library Square at Sussex University to rally against Professor Kathleen Stock before she quit her job
‘It means universities cannot protect groups subject to harmful propaganda or determine that stereotyped assumptions should not be relied upon in the university curriculum.
‘The OfS is effectively decreeing libertarian free speech absolutism as the fundamental principle for UK universities. In our view, the OfS is perpetuating the culture wars.’
She criticised the way the three-and-a-half year investigation was conducted, saying nobody employed by the university was interviewed.
‘The circumstances around Professor Stock’s departure from the University of Sussex are deeply regrettable,’ she said. ‘Sussex has consistently and publicly defended her right to pursue her academic work and to express her gender critical beliefs.
‘Academic freedom and freedom of speech are the foundational elements of a university, and the university is committed to ensuring that diversity in all its forms, particularly diversity of thought and identity, are able to flourish at Sussex.’
