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Sources · Banning speakers at universities

This house would let universities ban speakers whose views students find hateful.

Fact bank v1 · 12 cards

  1. NPL-01Mostly false

    “Universities are banning speakers all the time.”

    Mostly false. In 2024/25, universities and colleges in England approved 95.9% of outside speakers and events. Another 3.2% went ahead with conditions, such as extra security. Only 380 (0.9%) were turned down, and 320 of those were for process reasons, such as a request coming in too late to check.

    These figures come from England's university regulator, the Office for Students. Of the 380 turned down, 35 were for health and safety, and 2 or fewer were linked to Prevent, the government's anti-terror duty. The numbers can't show events that were never planned because people expected trouble. Some call this 'quiet' no-platforming, and a 2022 study published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) argued it is more common than open bans.

    “In 2024/25, as the table above shows, 95.9% of external speakers and events at higher education providers were approved”
    House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Freedom of speech in universities (House of Commons Library Research Briefing CBP-9143, full report PDF)Government / parliament · 11 Jun 2026 ↗

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  2. NPL-02Mostly true

    “Famous no-platforming stories are blown out of proportion. Germaine Greer and Peter Tatchell still got to speak.”

    Mostly true. A UK Parliament committee looked into this in 2018. It found that Germaine Greer (Cardiff, 2015) and Peter Tatchell (Canterbury Christ Church, 2016) were not stopped from giving their talks. It said the media had suggested far more censorship than it found.

    The Joint Committee on Human Rights said both cases were students protesting peacefully or refusing to share a stage, which is free speech too. But it also found real problems, such as protests that stop people speaking and red tape that puts students off holding events. It said the effect of these is hard to measure. The phrase 'no-platforming' is used loosely: the National Union of Students' formal no-platform policy lists only six organisations.

    “we did not find the wholesale censorship of debate in universities which media coverage has suggested”
    Joint Committee on Human Rights, UK Parliament·Freedom of Speech in Universities, chapter 3: The scale of the problem (Joint Committee on Human Rights report, HC 589)Government / parliament · 27 Mar 2018 ↗

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  3. NPL-03Mostly false

    “Universities can ban any speaker they like, because nobody has a right to a platform.”

    Mostly false in the UK. Nobody has a right to be invited. But since 1986 the law has told universities to take reasonable steps to protect free speech within the law, including for visiting speakers. They should not refuse someone a room because of their beliefs or views.

    A student group does not have to invite a speaker just because that person wants to speak, a parliamentary committee said in 2018. The duty only covers lawful speech. Speech that breaks the law, such as inciting hatred or violence, harassment, or supporting a banned terror group, is not protected. In England, a stronger version of the duty from the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 has covered universities since 1 August 2025. In the US, the First Amendment mainly limits the government, so it binds public universities but usually not private ones.

    “freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the establishment and for visiting speakers”
    legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives, UK Government)·Education (No. 2) Act 1986, section 43: Freedom of speech in universities, polytechnics and collegesGovernment / parliament · 7 Nov 1986 ↗

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  4. NPL-04Mostly false

    “Under England's new free speech law, a speaker who gets no-platformed can sue the university.”

    Mostly false. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 included a right to sue, but it was never switched on, and the government plans to scrap it. Instead, since 1 September 2026, visiting speakers and university staff can complain to the regulator, the Office for Students.

    Other parts of the Act have applied since 1 August 2025. They make universities in England take reasonable steps to protect lawful free speech and have a code of practice. The government also shelved the free speech duties the Act put directly on students' unions, and plans to scrap them. Students cannot use the new complaints scheme; their complaints go to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator instead. From 1 April 2027, universities must also meet new free speech conditions to stay registered with the regulator.

    “the statutory tort, which would have allowed staff, students and external speakers to bring civil claims against higher education providers”
    House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Freedom of speech in universities (House of Commons Library Research Briefing CBP-9143)Government / parliament · 11 Jun 2026 ↗

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  5. NPL-05Mostly true

    “Protesters and red tape have stopped lawful speakers from being heard at UK universities.”

    Mostly true. A UK Parliament committee found in 2018 that this does happen, though it is not widespread. Examples included protests so disruptive that speakers could not be heard, and complicated rules that put students off inviting speakers.

    In November 2017, protesters stopped speakers at an Oxford pro-life event from being heard for around 40 minutes. In March 2018, masked protesters stormed a debate at King's College London. Events on both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate were disrupted too. The committee said it was unreasonable to make a speaker who promises to stay within the law hand in their speech in advance. It also said a group is free not to invite someone, and refusing to share a stage is not censorship.

    “It is clear that, although not widespread, all these problems do occur and they should not be tolerated”
    Joint Committee on Human Rights, UK Parliament·Freedom of Speech in Universities, chapter 4: Factors inhibiting freedom of speech (Joint Committee on Human Rights report, HC 589)Government / parliament · 27 Mar 2018 ↗
  6. NPL-06Mixed

    “Students are too scared to say what they really think at university.”

    Partly true. In a 2022 King's College London survey, 43% of students said they felt unable to share their views because they were scared of disagreeing with other students, up from 25% in 2019. But a similar share of the general public said the same about society. And in a survey published in 2026 by England's regulator, 76% of students said free speech was well protected on campus.

    The 2026 survey of 1,039 students was done by YouGov for the Office for Students. 14% did not think free speech was well protected. Topics students felt most uneasy talking about included immigration, race and racism, and sex and gender. The biggest barrier was fear of how other people would react, such as being judged or left out.

    “Most students (76%) believed free speech was well protected on campus, but some (14%) did not believe it was.”
    House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Freedom of speech in universities (House of Commons Library Research Briefing CBP-9143, full report PDF)Government / parliament · 11 Jun 2026 ↗
  7. NPL-07Mostly false

    “University staff are free to say what they think. The chilling effect is a myth.”

    Mostly false. In a 2024 YouGov survey of 1,234 university teaching and research staff in England, half (50%) said staff at their university could share views on some controversial topics but not others, and 9% said on none. About a fifth (21%) did not feel free to discuss difficult topics in their teaching.

    Of those who felt held back in their teaching, 82% feared what it could do to their careers. Fewer (16%) felt held back in their research, but 34% did not feel free in other places, such as speaking events or social media. These are people's feelings, not counts of actual punishments. A 2020 Policy Exchange report said 32% of right-leaning academics had stopped airing their views, compared with around 15% of others, but critics questioned its methods.

    “50% of respondents thought academics are free to express their views on some, but not all, controversial topics”
    House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Freedom of speech in universities (House of Commons Library Research Briefing CBP-9143, full report PDF)Government / parliament · 11 Jun 2026 ↗
  8. NPL-08True

    “Most students would rather their university protected them from discrimination than allowed unlimited free speech.”

    Confirmed: a 2022 poll for the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) found that most UK students thought that, when in doubt, their university should protect all students from discrimination rather than allow unlimited free speech.

    Student support for 'safe space' policies rose from 48% in 2016 to 62% in 2022. In the same poll, 38% of students said universities were becoming less tolerant of a wide range of views. Both sides use these results: one says students want protection, the other says students are growing less tolerant. A choice made 'when in doubt' is not the same as backing a ban on a particular speaker.

    “research has found most students would prioritise protection from discrimination over the allowance of unlimited free speech”
    House of Commons Library, UK Parliament·Freedom of speech in universities (House of Commons Library Research Briefing CBP-9143)Government / parliament · 11 Jun 2026 ↗

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  9. NPL-09Mostly true

    “Hearing hate speech again and again makes people more prejudiced.”

    Mostly true, but the evidence is limited. Three studies by researchers in Poland found that people who often heard hate speech were less bothered by it, and this went along with more prejudice against the groups it targeted. In a small experiment, people who were trained to get used to hate speech ended up more prejudiced against its victims than people who were not.

    The 2018 research used two national surveys (1,007 and 682 people) and one experiment with 76 people. Surveys can show a link but cannot prove that one thing causes the other, and the experiment was small. The studies looked at frequent, repeated exposure, not at hearing one talk on campus.

    “After desensitization training individuals were less sensitive to hate speech and more prejudiced toward hate speech victims than their counterparts in the control condition.”
    Aggressive Behavior (Wiley; abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Exposure to hate speech increases prejudice through desensitization (Aggressive Behavior, 2018)Government / parliament · 1 Mar 2018 ↗
  10. NPL-10Mixed

    “Hearing the other side's views makes people more open-minded and less extreme.”

    Mixed. In a 2018 US experiment, Republicans paid to follow a Twitter account sharing liberal posts for a month became more conservative, not less. Democrats who followed a conservative account became slightly more liberal, though that change could have been down to chance. But a 2021 Facebook experiment found that seeing news from the other side made people less negative about the other party.

    The Facebook study found no sign that this news changed people's actual political opinions. Both studies were about social media posts, not face-to-face talks or debates, which may work differently. So hearing the other side does not reliably change minds, and sometimes people dig in.

    “We find that Republicans who followed a liberal Twitter bot became substantially more conservative posttreatment.”
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Exposure to opposing views on social media can increase political polarization (PNAS, 2018)Government / parliament · 11 Sept 2018 ↗

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  11. NPL-11Mixed

    “The answer to hate speech is more speech: arguing back works better than banning.”

    Mixed. Some kinds of arguing back help a little. In a 2021 study of 1,350 Twitter users who had posted racist or anti-foreigner hate, replies that appealed to empathy led to slightly more deleted posts and slightly fewer new ones over 4 weeks. Jokes and warnings about consequences did not reliably work. Bans can work too: after Twitter removed 70,000 accounts spreading false information following 6 January 2021, false information spread less.

    These studies did not compare arguing back with banning directly. Both were about social media, not university talks. The Twitter ban study could not say exactly how big the effect was, because so much else happened at the same time. It also found that many other spreaders of false information left Twitter afterwards.

    “We find, however, no consistent effects for strategies using humor or warning of consequences.”
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (abstract via PubMed, US National Library of Medicine)·Empathy-based counterspeech can reduce racist hate speech in a social media field experiment (PNAS, 2021)Government / parliament · 14 Dec 2021 ↗

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  12. NPL-12Mostly false

    “John Stuart Mill said all speech should be allowed, no matter what.”

    Mostly false. In On Liberty (1859), Mill defended a very wide freedom to speak, even for views that are harmful or wrong. But he said speech that is about to cause harm, with no time to argue back, can be stopped. His example: saying corn dealers starve the poor is fine in a newspaper, but can be punished when said out loud to an angry mob outside a corn dealer's house.

    Mill thought open debate is the best way we have to find the truth. He also worried about pressure from public opinion, not just the law, which he called a kind of moral coercion. So both sides can use Mill. He protected a lot of offensive and harmful speech, but even he drew a line at speech likely to cause harm straight away.

    “Imminently dangerous speech, where there is no time for discussion before harm eventuates, may be restricted”
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy·Freedom of Speech (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, by Jeffrey W. Howard)Peer-reviewed research · 19 Jan 2024 ↗

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