Mark Collard

The Office for Students’ new free-speech complaints scheme gives academics a free-to-use route for challenging restrictions on lawful speech and #academicfreedom. For the first time, eligible complainants can ask the regulator to determine whether a university has breached its statutory #freespeech duties. Where a complaint is justified or partly justified, the OfS can recommend meaningful redress, including restoration of an invitation to speak, reinstatement of a research programme, changes to university policies and financial payments to complainants. CAF has created a new Casework Support page designed to help ensure that cases reaching the OfS are as clearly framed and carefully prepared as possible. It includes practical guidance on getting a complaint right, why identifying the relevant issues from the earliest internal university stage matters, and how CAF can help. afcomm.org.uk/afcomm-org-uk-… There’s also a quick interactive checker that takes you through no more than nine questions about your circumstances, explains why each matters, and gives an initial indication of whether the OfS scheme may apply and when it may be worth contacting CAF. For those who want to understand the law beneath the scheme, our legal guide explains the statutory duties underpinning it. If you think your freedom of speech or academic freedom is being restricted, email CAF at manager@afcomm.org.uk And please do spread the word. There will be academics across the country who do not yet know that the landscape changed this week, including some at institutions where the new complaints scheme may not receive quite the prominence any of us would like.