Jo Phoenix, the professor at the heart of UK academia’s gender wars, has issued a fresh call for the Westminster government to implement England’s campus free speech legislation, in the wake of a report into her exit from The Open University, which she condemned as a “whitewash”, reports the Times Higher Education (THE).
Prof Jo Phoenix, who established the OU’s Gender Critical Research Network (GCRN), recently won her unfair dismissal claim against the institution. The OU’s failure to protect Prof Phoenix from harassment from colleagues and trans activists was, the panel’s ruling found, motivated by “fear of being seen to support gender-critical beliefs” and “fear of the pro gender identity section” of the university.
As confirmed by the evidence of one of the OU’s witnesses, Prof Ian Fribbance, “there was more of a gender affirmative [rather than gender critical] culture in the OU”. Specifically in relation to Prof Phoenix’s Social Policy and Criminology (SPC) Department, the panel also determined that “there was a majority of [gender] affirmative supporters”, and that “those who were neutral in the Department would be more likely to take their steer” from senior members of staff who were “on the gender affirmative side”.
Upholding almost 20 of Prof Phoenix’s claims, the tribunal, chaired by employment judge Jennifer Young, said:
We do not consider that the [university] had a proper reason for allowing the harassment to continue without publicly taking action to prohibit it.
Upholding academic freedom did not prevent the [university] from taking action to prohibit the harassment.
We find that the [university] did not provide [Prof Phoenix] protection particularly in the form of asking staff and students not to launch campaigns to deplatform the GCRN, or make calls to remove support for [her] gender-critical research, or use social media to label [her] transphobic or TERF.
Why did the OU remain so passive throughout Prof Phoenix’s ordeal? In one damning passage, the ruling notes:
It was clear from Professor Fribbance’s evidence on the public VC statements the OU was focused and concerned with the students and trying to placate them, and Professor Wilson [the OU’s former Dean of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion] admitted that potentially there was a culture of fear about drawing attention to [Prof Phoenix] and her research… We find that the [OU] felt pressured by the loud voices speaking up for gender identity culture within the OU to publicly appease the students and staff.
Following this public embarrassment, the OU commissioned an independent review to be carried out by Dame Nicola Dandridge.
The resulting report was published last week, and according to Prof Phoenix, who now works at the University of Reading, it “misses the point” of her tribunal victory.
“As far as I’m concerned, the report does nothing,” she told the THE. “It is just a whitewash. The recommendations are unimplementable in a way that would actually get to the heart of what the problem is.”
She added: “The report has framed the problem as a problem of academic freedom. And it never was. It was a problem with bullying. And so, in that sense, this report is neither here nor there.”
Dame Nicola’s report recommended that the university should establish “agreed standards of behaviour” that should be “aligned with the OU’s values” and implemented through mandatory training.
But Prof Phoenix said that mandating policies “in line with the OU’s values” could place restrictions on research that did not align with the institution’s principles.
Consequently, “the OU have proved yet again why they desperately need – why we desperately need – the Labour government to implement the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. Universities need to stop marking their own homework,” Prof Phoenix said.
In July, the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, issued a statement to the House of Commons saying she intended to stop commencement of this Act “in order to consider options, including its repeal”.
It was fitting that the Labour government would declare war on free speech in a written statement, posted quietly to the House of Commons website on a Friday – a good day for bad news, as any journalist will tell you – and unaccompanied by any opportunity for parliamentary debate.
This was a very carefully crafted Act designed to secure academic freedom and address the free speech crisis in our universities. Having received cross-party support during the last Parliament, its most important clauses were due to come into force on 1st August.
The legislation would have imposed a legal duty on universities in England to uphold and promote free speech and it would have extended that duty to student unions. It would also have secured the freedom of academic staff to question and test received wisdom and put forward new ideas and controversial opinions.
However, because Rishi Sunak called an election before the Act had been fully implemented, this Government has seized its chance to derail it.
The FSU has now formally commenced legal proceedings against the government following its decision to stop this vital piece of legislation coming into force.
Thanks to the generous support of our members and supporters we filed a claim against the Education Secretary on 5th September. Our lawyers have put a powerful legal argument before the High Court. You can read our ‘Statement of Facts and Grounds’ here.
Make no mistake: these proceedings are extremely important. As Akua Reindorf KC, the UK’s leading equality barrister, puts it, “this is not about petty ‘culture wars’; it’s about people’s lives, livelihoods and fundamental human rights”.
