With free speech act revised, will Arif Ahmed find his voice?

Searching for clues as to how Arif Ahmed has spent his 20 or so months as director for freedom of speech and academic freedom on the Office for Students (OfS) website yields slim pickings.

Aside from his set piece interventions – a speech at King’s College London early into the role, the launch of a consultation into a complaints scheme now trapped in stasis – the gifts ledger records that Ahmed received some books, including one entitled Falsely Accused of Islamophobia: My Struggle Against Academic Cancellation, which he donated to charity. His expenses show a smattering of claims for rail fares and hotels. His salary: £105,000 a year.

There is no suggestion that Ahmed has not been working since August 2023, when he was announced as the inaugural holder of the post, created by Parliament in response to the so-called campus culture wars. Indeed, minutes show his diligent attendance at all the recent OfS board meetings.

But, owing to a quirk that saw his office created and filled before the majority of work he was meant to be doing was put on hold by the new Labour government, Ahmed has thus far been stifled. This could now change, given education secretary Bridget Phillipson brought an end to the “pause” last week, deciding to enact some of the contentious Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act.

However, throughout his time in office, most agree that Ahmed has kept a low profile, especially for someone who made his name as a leader of free speech battles at the University of Cambridge, where he was professor of philosophy.

Aside from one letter to vice-chancellors, he remained on the sidelines as the Israel-Hamas conflict prompted new debates on what it is and isn’t acceptable to say on a campus. The act is also not the only weapon in Ahmed’s arsenal either, as universities are already subject to existing laws and OfS powers on free speech and some may have expected him to be more vocal, even while waiting for the new rules. 

Even some of his more natural allies in the various free speech groups made up of academics who support the legislation stressed that they hear little from him, with Ahmed apparently keen to keep his distance to avoid any potential accusations of bias.

These campaigners are still positive about Ahmed’s potential in the role, however. “He has so far performed a complex role admirably – he is both clever and very reasonable and is bringing a balanced approach to his job. I would expect him to carry on exactly the same,” said William Mackesy, the founder of a group called Alumni for Free Speech.

For Bryn Harris, chief legal counsel at the Free Speech Union, Ahmed has “behaved like an exemplary public servant”.

“Everything he has said has signalled a very clean and accurate understanding of freedom of speech in the law,” he said.

Stopping the legislation had put Ahmed in a difficult position, said Harris, and frustrated the role that Parliament had wanted him to do. The changes under Phillipson may still attempt to “clip the wings” of her free speech director, he added.

Campaigners fear the most hotly debated change, the removal of the statutory tort that would have allowed those who felt their free speech rights had been impinged by universities to ultimately take their case to the courts, removes some of the weight behind Ahmed’s position and any OfS interventions.

While Ahmed has retained the ability to fine universities found not to be following free speech duties, his complaints scheme – which was within days of being launched when the act was paused – will be watered down and only consider the most serious grievances, with students now unable to use it.

The fact that it will return to Parliament to agree such reforms means more delays and uncertainty, said Abhishek Saha, a professor of mathematics at Queen Mary University of London and another of the academics who have been vocal in the debate over the act’s future.

“It means that those of minority views – who have been hounded, cancelled, fired for expression of lawful academic speech – will continue to have no recourse until the entire process is concluded,” he added, saying that he saw the proposed changes as unnecessary as the previous version of the act already allowed the OfS to dismiss complaints considered “frivolous or vexatious”.

But as and when it does launch the scheme will still hand Ahmed quite a lot of power, said Smita Jamdar, partner and head of education at the law firm Shakespeare Martineau. She felt it was OfS decisions that would have more impact on an individual institution and more resonance across the sector than anything in the small claims court.

A key question, according to Jamdar, will be how Ahmed responds to recent developments and whether he thinks his previous plan can work in the way the government wants it to or if needs to mould it to suit the change of tone, and the new focus on only the most serious cases. His previous approach suggested that universities could not set restraints on behaviour, conduct and speech other than that expressly permitted by law, which led to alarm in some quarters. 

Phillipson has already suggested that guidance issued to universities on free speech be revised to strike a better balance with other duties such as protection from harassment and this could put the government at odds with Ahmed’s long-held position.

But ministers will be wary of being too interventionist, Jamdar said, especially given the precedent it could set for future governments to get involved in the issue.

Phillipson herself expressed somewhat qualified support for Ahmed in her House of Commons address; expressing full confidence in him while at the same time placing his role in the wider context of political appointments at the regulator which was, pre-election, chaired by a Conservative peer, James Wharton.

Ahmed has never been party political, but the philosopher is not considered an obvious ally of a Labour government. Any battles he has so far had have been conducted in private. Developments may soon force him into a more public stance.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com