University of Cambridge spinout sparks freedom of speech revolution

Duaa Jamal Karim, the founder of the company, Actsure, said the platform would “hold the hands” of compliance officers navigating the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. The legislation, most of which came into force last year, requires universities to protect lawful freedom of speech for staff, students and visiting speakers. The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS) can investigate breaches and impose fines if those duties are not met.

Sector bodies have raised questions about how to interpret the guidance underpinning the Act, especially where it appears to clash with other duties, such as those relating to safeguarding or the right to protest. Some institutions have expressed concerns that the legislation may lead universities to self-censor, or spend huge sums on legal fees to avoid breaching the guidance.

Actsure emerged from research by Duaa, who is a trainee barrister and member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn as well as a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, where she studies how policy shapes governance and decision-making in education.

“The message to universities on free speech has basically been: ‘This is your problem, now deal with it,’” she said. “The regulatory advice is extremely long, with more than 50 scenario-based examples, and very confusing, even for someone with policy and legal training. I found myself thinking, if I need a Cambridge PhD just to understand this, how is a university governance officer expected to cope?”

Duaa distilled the guidance into a step-by-step process involving more user-friendly language. She then approached Cambridge Enterprise – the university’s commercialisation and innovation arm – and obtained funding to turn her work into a digital platform.

Actsure allows staff to log and monitor individual events or complaints and check their compliance with both internal policies, such as codes of conduct, and the regulatory advice. Each entry generates a secure, time-stamped audit trail that can be reviewed internally or in the event of an OfS investigation.

The system mirrors three stages set out in the regulator’s own framework. Users are first asked to assess whether speech is lawful, using built-in explanations of relevant legislation, and then walked through reasonable steps their university should take to secure lawful free speech. Finally, any restrictions are tested to ensure that they align with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Duaa stressed that Actsure would not make final choices on behalf of university staff. “It’s a hand-holding system, not a decision-maker,” she said. “Responsibility still lies with the university, but this gives them a clear way of demonstrating that they have made all reasonable efforts to comply under the Act.”

The platform can also give institutions a broader picture of gaps and trends in their processes. It also offers separate training modules based on the “Communities of Inquiry” project at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, which has developed systematic approaches to support freedom of expression and constructive debate on sensitive topics. Universities can log any facilitated discussions and mediation processes alongside formal casework.

Actsure has been developed with input from an advisory board of academics in law, public policy and higher education governance and is already being tested by several institutions. Full roll-out is expected in March, and universities can register interest through the company website.

The platform will be introduced publicly at a free speech event in Westminster on Wednesday, 11 February, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Intergenerational Inquiry, chaired by the MP Paul Kohler.

Universities will pay a single annual fee for a licence, which Karim said was priced to remain manageable under typical university compliance budgets, and would represent a fraction of what institutions often spend on external legal advice, even for individual free-speech assessments.

“Freedom of speech and academic freedom are vital in universities,” she added. “The aim here isn’t just compliance, it’s preventing complicated legislation from pushing institutions into self-limiting, and ensuring campuses remain places of constructive critical thinking and open debate.”