A regulator penalized the school three years after a professor quit in response to what she said was a campaign of harassment over her views on transgender identity.
British authorities issued a record fine against one of the country’s universities on Wednesday for issues including failing to “uphold the freedom of speech and academic freedom” in a policy statement on transgender equality, an escalation in the debate over student and staff rights on campus.
The Office for Students, the regulator for higher education in England, imposed a penalty of 585,000 pounds, more than $755,000, on the University of Sussex. The fine followed an investigation into the university that began more than three years ago after Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, resigned saying that she had faced a campaign of harassment from students and activists over her views on gender identity.
The fine from the regulator, the Office for Students, comes amid fraught conversations about both trans rights and free speech on campuses in the United States and Britain, with many universities trying to balance the right of free expression with preventing hate speech.
Dr. Stock quit in 2021 after she was accused of being transphobic by students and activists for arguing that transgender women were not women. She said she faced a campaign of harassment, bullying and character assassination before quitting.
The university publicly defended Dr. Stock at the time. But on Wednesday, the Office for Students said the university’s policy statement on trans and nonbinary equality had created a “chilling effect” that could cause students and staff members to “self-censor.”
The regulator said this included requiring course materials to “positively represent trans people and trans lives.” It also penalized the school for failures in government and management processes.