The government is proposing changes to how student union charities are regulated, as part of plans to promote free speech in universities.

Currently student unions (SUs) are regulated by the Charity Commission as charities.

But as part of plans around free speech in higher education, the government is looking to bring elements of student union regulation under a beefed up Office for Students (OfS), which regulates higher education.

The plans have been flagged up in the government’s policy document Higher education: free speech and academic freedom.

Under the plans charitable student unions “would remain charities and governed by charity law…. but with the OfS as the principal regulator in relation to free speech”.

It adds: “The Charities Act 2011 provides for exempted charities to be primarily regulated on charity law purposes by a regulator that is not the Charity Commission, although the Charity Commission retains some regulatory functions.”

Changes to the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the Charity Commission and the OfS “could extend its scope” to bring in students unions as well.

This sees the government back concerns raised by the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights two years ago, that looked at the legal framework around freedom of speech and universities.

The government’s latest plan details how the Committee’s 2018 report “raised concerns that the Charity Commission’s approach in regulating its charities ‘does not adequately reflect the important role SUs play in educating students through activism and debate’”.

“Therefore, the report recommended extending the remit of the OfS to include the regulation of SUs. At the time the OfS had only recently been established and the government did not consider it appropriate to legislate to change its remit; we now think that, in light of the issues outlined in this paper, this is a recommendation we can support.”

In launching the plans education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “I am deeply worried about the chilling effect on campuses of unacceptable silencing and censoring. That is why we must strengthen free speech in higher education, by bolstering the existing legal duties and ensuring strong, robust action is taken if these are breached.”

However, the National Union of Students is concerned that the new proposals are unnecessary and diverting attention away from the need to improve financial and digital support for students.

NUS vice president Hillary Gyebi-Ababio said: “There is no evidence of a freedom of expression crisis on campus, and students’ unions are constantly taking positive steps to help facilitate the thousands of events that take place each year.

“At a time when students are facing untold hardship the government would be much better advised to focus on providing the practical support that students desperately need, through maintenance grants, no detriment policies and funding to eradicate digital poverty.”

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