The silence from OfS over free speech is deafening

As does the Office for Students’ regulation of those duties (at least for SUs), along with its new complaints scheme.

But OfS’ response to its consultations on how it will regulate SUs, guidance on how to comply with the duties for SUs, and how its new complaints scheme will work has still not been published.

It’s completely unreasonable and unacceptable to expect SUs to comply with duties that OfS has failed thus far to answer, clarify or resolve the ongoing questions on.

In November 2022 for the government, Earl Howe said:

The Office for Students will publish guidance to help bodies under this Act understand their duties and apply them.

In December 2023 for the government, Baroness Baron committed as follows:

The publication of guidance for student unions is already covered by the Bill. Section 75 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 is amended by paragraph 9 of the Schedule to the Bill.

Section 75, as amended, will provide that the regulatory framework which the Office for Students is required to publish must in future ‘include guidance for students’ unions to which sections A5 and A6 apply on their duties under those sections’.

This must include ‘guidance for the purpose of helping to determine whether or not students’ unions are complying with their duties under sections A5 and A6’.

The guidance may in particular specify what the OfS considers that student unions need to do to comply with those duties under new Sections A5 and A6, and the factors which the OfS will take into account in determining whether a student union is complying with its duties.

It is worth noting that Section 75 requires consultation on the regulatory framework before its publication, and it must therefore be laid before Parliament, giving proper transparency.

At this point – without a confirmed regulatory framework or guidance in place, is OfS and/or the government seriously suggesting that students’ unions are going to be ready in 7 days’ time?

It’s also worth remembering that in its harassment consultation, OfS proposed the following in relation to universities:

Subject to the responses received to this consultation, we propose that any new ongoing condition would be published with our final decisions, and come into force on a date not less than three months from the date we publish our final decisions.

We have proposed this approach to allow sufficient time for all providers to properly consider, and make the changes they consider necessary to comply with, the new condition.

There’s plenty of SUs without staff or sabbs where the voluntary group of 17 year olds on the exec committee whose FE college has some HE learners and so the SU is caught by the act will be home for the summer.

Is OfS imagining that they’ll be convening a special meeting on Tuesday to do what, exactly – hold a student council meeting to pass a new bye-law?

I’m also yet to hear an explanation for why regulation of the huge intuition with lawyers and compliance units starts Sep 2025 whereas in comparison regulation of the SU whose block grant it’s probably just cut starts in a week:

Meanwhile, in that harassment and sexual misconduct consultation, OfS ruled out a slow implementation because it considered that the:

…evidence about the extent of harassment and sexual misconduct in higher education requires action to be taken as soon as possible to ensure that students are properly protected”.

It said it would make decisions about whether and how to implement its proposals later in 2023. It’s now almost August 2024.

Unless providers have a shed ton of Jan starts, that’s therefore yet another academic year where, in OfS’ own words, “students will not be properly protected”.