Wonkhe SUs · Weekly webinars · 25 September 2026
Understanding OfS' latest free speech consultation
SUs aren’t regulated directly on free speech – but by proxy they are, and there’s until 23 November to say something about it.
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We unpack the Office for Students’ consultation on E11 and E12, the two new free speech conditions of registration due to take effect in England on 1 April 2027, and why SUs end up in scope through their universities even though the direct duties on them never commenced. We cover what the Sussex judgment changed, why a risk-assessed event now counts as an “interference”, the first ever guidance on the “promote” duty, the danger of institutional neutrality creeping into SUs, and how to respond before the deadline.
What we cover
- The two new conditions of registration, E11 and E12, in force in England from 1 April 2027
- Regulated by proxy – why the direct duties on SUs never commenced, and how universities reach them anyway
- After Sussex – how OfS’ reach now extends into MOUs, block grant agreements, premises licences and speaker approval
- How speaker and event decisions are shared between SU and university, and what “disciplinary measures” could mean
- Why every intervention is an interference, and how to carry out a proportionality assessment
- Two complaints routes – OfS for staff and visiting speakers, the university and OIA for students
- Where the problem actually is – free speech in the NSS, and the medicine and dentistry gap
- Security costs, society affiliation and the block grant
- The promote duty and neutrality creep – why “institutional neutrality” makes no sense for a democratic SU
- Other pinch points – NDAs, club and society autonomy, franchised students, and activity off campus or online
- How to respond before the 23 November deadline, and the questions to put to your university
Things to read
- How (and why) to respond to OfS’ consultation on new conditions of registration for free speech
- SUs, free speech and protest on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Freedom of speech on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Consultation on new conditions of registration for free speech – OfS, September 2026
- How to carry out a free speech “proportionality assessment”
- The tone has changed on free speech, but the architecture hasn’t
- Students feel free to speak – unless they’re training to be doctors
- What SUs need to know about the Sussex free speech judgment
- What changes in regulatory culture might follow from the University of Sussex’s High Court victory over OfS?
- The absolutism is watered down in OfS’ amendments to its free speech guidance
- What SUs (in England) need to know about the Office for Students’ guidance on freedom of speech (v4)
- The essential (revised and updated) guide for SUs to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023
- What SUs can learn from new complaints about free speech
- Are OIA decisions on free speech compatible with OfS guidance?
- The freedom of speech guidance wasn’t written for student-on-student complaints
- When is it right to “interfere” in the free speech of student activists, officers or student groups?
- Should SUs and universities agree joint codes on free speech?
- Who should pay the price for keeping external speakers (and students) safe?
- We need to talk about Kalven
- Gaza, higher education, and the ethics of institutional neutrality
- Sabbs as trustees, codes of conduct, free speech and the St Andrews Rector case
- Tensions on campus and beyond – legal rights and regulatory risks for SUs
- New research on students and free speech: What SUs need to know
- Regulatory advice 24 – guidance related to freedom of speech, OfS, amended August 2026
- Free speech complaints scheme – OfS
- Casework note – free speech and student complaints, OIA, August 2026
- Wonkhe explainers for SUs – Free speech & protest