If you sit on a university governing body, this guide cuts through the complexity to explain what the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 actually means for how your institution is governed, what you should be doing about it, and how the right tools can make that job easier.
What Is the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023?
At its core, the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 does one thing. It makes it harder for English universities to turn a blind eye to free speech concerns on their campuses. It received Royal Assent on 11 May 2023 and its main provisions came into force on 1 August 2025.
What Does the Act Require Universities to Do?
There are three core obligations, plus an important restriction on non-disclosure agreements that is already in force.
1. A Strengthened Free Speech Duty
Universities must take reasonably practicable steps to secure freedom of speech for staff, students, and visiting speakers. In practical terms, that means you cannot turn a speaker away simply because of their views, and you cannot use security costs as an unofficial mechanism for discouraging events from happening.
2. Protection of Academic Freedom
Academics must be free to question received wisdom, teach controversial subjects, and hold unpopular positions without fearing for their jobs or their careers. This is a distinct protection that sits alongside the broader free speech duty. It is specifically about what happens to staff, not just to speakers.
3. A Code of Practice on Free Speech
Every university must produce, publish, and genuinely comply with a written code of practice setting out how it will meet its free speech duties. This is not a document to file away and forget. The governing body is directly responsible for making sure the institution actually lives by it, and for ensuring that staff and students know it exists.
The NDA Restriction
Already in force since 1 August 2025 is a restriction on using non-disclosure agreements to silence misconduct complaints. If a university enters into an NDA with a staff member, student, or visiting speaker to suppress complaints about sexual abuse, harassment, misconduct, or bullying, that NDA is void. It is legally unenforceable from the moment it is signed. To be clear, this is not a blanket ban on all NDAs. It is a targeted rule aimed specifically at preventing institutions from buying silence on serious misconduct matters.
These are meaningful obligations. But knowing what is required and knowing who is responsible for delivering it are two different things.
Who Is Responsible for Compliance?
Here is the part that sometimes surprises people. This is not something that can be delegated entirely to the vice chancellor or the legal team. Compliance with the Act sits with the governing body. It is a board-level responsibility.
If you are a governor, here are the questions you should feel confident putting to your senior leadership team:
- Does our current code of practice actually meet the standard the Act requires, not just on paper, but in practice?
- When was it last reviewed, and did the governing body have meaningful input into that review?
- Who decides whether a visiting speaker can be turned away, and how is that decision documented?
- What is the process when a free speech complaint is raised internally?
- Can we demonstrate that staff and students are genuinely aware of the code?
- What training have the relevant staff received?
If any of those questions feel difficult to answer, that is useful information. The core duties are already in force. The question is no longer whether these obligations apply, but whether your institution can demonstrate it is meeting them. And as of September 2026, there is a regulator with a dedicated complaints process ready to investigate if it cannot.
How Does the Office for Students Enforce the Act?
Its enforcement role is being rolled out in three stages, each one raising the stakes.
Stage 1: Already in force from 1 August 2025
The OfS has published guidance, model codes of practice, and compliance checklists. Universities are already required to be complying with the strengthened free speech duty and the code of practice requirement.
Stage 2: The complaints scheme opens on 1 September 2026
From September 2026, staff and visiting speakers who feel their free speech rights have been restricted will be able to take their complaint directly to the OfS without going to court and without paying legal costs. The scheme covers the most serious grievances. Note that students are not able to use this scheme; their route for external complaints remains the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. The OfS can investigate complaints and, where it finds a breach, require the institution to pay compensation, allow an event to go ahead, or reinstate a dismissed academic.
Stage 3: Financial penalties and document monitoring from 1 April 2027
From April 2027, the OfS will be able to fine institutions that are not meeting their obligations. It will also start monitoring governing documents directly, including statutes, ordinances, and policies, to check they are consistent with the free speech duty. In the most serious cases, deregistration is on the table, which would mean losing the ability to award degrees and access public funding. It is worth noting that a High Court ruling in April 2026, in which the University of Sussex successfully overturned a record OfS fine, placed important limits on what counts as a governing document and raised questions about the scope of the regulator’s powers. The full implications of that judgment for future enforcement are still being worked through.
What Should Governing Bodies Be Doing Right Now?
The core duties are in force, the complaints scheme opens in September 2026, and document monitoring starts in April 2027. Here are six practical steps to take now, each one tied directly to the obligations and timelines above.
- Review the code of practice properly, not just check that one exists. Bring it to the board, test it against the new standard, and make sure it reflects how your institution actually operates.
- Document your speaker decision-making processes clearly. Who has authority to approve or decline a booking? How is that decision recorded? If the answer is unclear, it needs to be clarified before a complaint lands.
- Brief the governing body on what the OfS complaints scheme means in practice. From September 2026, any staff member or visiting speaker who feels their free speech was restricted can take that to the regulator. Your board should understand what that exposure looks like.
- Get legal advice on how your free speech duty interacts with your specific equality obligations. This is not a generic question with a standard answer. It depends on your institution’s circumstances.
- Check that training has happened for the staff who manage events, HR processes, and internal complaints. A code of practice is only as good as the people who are expected to follow it.
- Audit your governance infrastructure document storage, decision records, audit trails well before April 2027 when the OfS starts scrutinising governing documents directly.
It is good to have the right policies, but if your governance infrastructure cannot demonstrate that decisions were made, documented, and properly overseen, those policies will not protect you when the regulator comes asking. That is exactly where the right tools matter.
How Convene Board Portal Can Help
Good governance under the Act is not just about having the right intentions. It is about being able to show how your board operates. Convene Board Portal is a secure digital governance platform used by universities and higher education institutions across the sector, and it is built for exactly this kind of challenge.
One place for all your governance documents
From April 2027, the OfS will be looking at your governing documents directly. Convene gives you a centralised document library where codes of practice, policies, board papers, and guidance are stored securely, version-controlled, and easy to find. No more hunting through shared drives or digging up old email threads to find the right version of a policy. Role-based access means the right people always have what they need.
An audit trail
When the OfS complaints scheme opens in September 2026, you may need to account for decisions made months or even years earlier. Convene keeps a comprehensive record of who accessed documents, what decisions were recorded, how votes went, and what actions were assigned. If a regulator asks what your governing body decided about a particular speaker or event, and on what basis, Convene gives you the evidence to answer that question clearly and quickly.
Meeting preparation that actually works
Free speech compliance is going to be a regular item on your agenda for the foreseeable future. Convene makes it straightforward for clerks and secretaries to put meetings together quickly, including building agendas, attaching the right papers, and getting everything to governors ahead of time. That means your board arrives prepared to make decisions.
Governance that fits around your board
University governors are busy people based in different locations. Convene supports remote and hybrid meetings with integrated video conferencing, so your governing body can have the right conversations and make the right decisions without everyone needing to be in the same room.
Confidence when it counts
The OfS’s powers are growing, and they will continue to grow through 2026 and 2027. Governing bodies that can point to well-documented, well-organised oversight of their free speech obligations will be in a much stronger position than those relying on scattered records and informal processes. Convene gives you the infrastructure to govern with confidence, so that when questions are asked, you already have the answers.
Key Dates at a Glance
- 11 May 2023: Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act receives Royal Assent
- August 2023: Professor Arif Ahmed appointed as Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the OfS
- 24 July 2024: Labour government pauses implementation days before it was due to come into force
- 15 January 2025: Education Secretary sets out revised approach; statutory tort and students’ union duties scrapped
- 1 August 2025: Core free speech duties, code of practice requirement, NDA restriction, and OfS promotional duty come into force
- January 2026: Free Speech Union withdraws judicial review after the government commits to introducing the complaints scheme
- 1 September 2026: OfS free speech complaints scheme due to come into force
- 1 April 2027: OfS financial penalties and governing document monitoring due to come into force
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023?
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 is legislation that strengthens the legal duty on universities in England to protect free speech and academic freedom. Its core provisions came into force on 1 August 2025.
What can the Office for Students do if a university breaches the Act?
From September 2026, the OfS can investigate free speech complaints and require universities to pay compensation, reinstate academics, or allow events to proceed. From April 2027, it can impose financial penalties and, in the most serious cases, deregister institutions entirely.
When does the OfS start monitoring university governing documents?
From 1 April 2027, the OfS will monitor governing documents, including statutes, ordinances, and policies, to ensure they are consistent with the free speech duty. A High Court ruling in April 2026, in which the University of Sussex successfully overturned an OfS fine, raised questions about the definition of governing documents and the scope of the regulator’s powers. The implications of that ruling are still being considered.
How does Convene Board Portal help with free speech compliance?
Convene provides a centralised document library, a detailed audit trail, efficient meeting preparation tools, and hybrid meeting support, giving governing bodies the organised governance infrastructure they need to meet their obligations under the Act and demonstrate compliance to the OfS.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information provided reflects publicly available sources including the Office for Students, the House of Commons Library, and legislation.gov.uk, current as of May 2026. University governing bodies should seek independent legal advice on their specific obligations under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. The implementation timeline and regulatory landscape remain subject to parliamentary, judicial, and regulatory developments.
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