Two recent stories to emerge from Cardiff University could serve as a troubling parable for all that’s going wrong in British higher education. Either that, or as a parody.

In the latest proof of the growing divide between Europe and America over the control of online content, the Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission has warned that the EU’s Digital Services Act risks excessively restricting freedom of expression.

The US Supreme Court just missed a crucial opportunity to rule on campus censorship via "bias response teams", which monitor students for supposedly 'offensive' speech. In a sharp dissent, Justice Thomas warned that the Court urgently needs to resolve this legal chaos before students' First Amendment rights are eroded further.

Wokingham Borough Council is the latest taxpayer-funded body to tighten its workplace speech code, advising staff to avoid the term ‘hard-working families’ on the grounds that it could offend the unemployed.

The UK government has announced a new working group tasked with defining ‘Islamophobia’, a move Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner described as a “crucial step” in tackling what she called an “unacceptable rise” in anti-Muslim hate crime.

The Open University (OU) has settled the academic freedom case brought by FSU member and former law lecturer, Dr Almut Gadow.

An Indonesian punk band wrote a song exposing police corruption. Then six cybercrime officers came knocking. The result? A forced apology, a lost job, and a song that’s now an anthem for dissent.

Speaking to Fox News after his meeting with Vice President JD Vance, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer dismissed concerns that his government was cracking down on free expression.

A university lecturer has lost a racial discrimination claim after arguing that criticism of the tone of his emails amounted to a “racist micro-aggression”.

Award-winning Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson is taking legal action against Essex Police after officers visited her home in November following a complaint over a social media post.

The College of Policing is considering a rebrand for NCHIs amid growing criticism. But the issue isn’t the name—it’s the impact. These records can appear on enhanced DBS checks, affecting careers, despite no crime being committed.

The Government’s controversial disinformation team is developing a secretive AI programme to trawl through social media looking for “concerning” posts it deems problematic so it can take “action”.

Pro-trans charity Stonewall claims Trump’s foreign aid freeze may force it to cut up to 50% of its workforce. But is the real problem a collapse in UK support, as institutions grow wary of its intolerance of dissent and disputed take on equality law?

The UK’s online safety watchdog has urged social media companies to go “above and beyond” their legal obligations under the Online Safety Act by censoring “misogynistic” and “hypermasculine” content – even when it is entirely lawful.