The National Secular Society (NSS) is preparing to seek a judicial review of the student regulator’s “systemic failure” to uphold freedom of speech – with the aim of “protecting” public money from being given to theological colleges.
If successful, Bible and theological colleges could be left unable to access public funding.
The NSS says the Office for Students (OfS) is in breach of laws on academic freedom and freedom of speech, on the basis that theological colleges are not eligible for public funding or government student loans because of their theological doctrine.
Stephen Evans (photo: secularism.org.uk)
According to the NSS, 12 Bible or theological colleges received £80 million-plus through the Student Loans Company and £1million in funding from the OfS since 2018. The NSS reported those colleges to the OfS but the regulator has allegedly failed to respond.
Three colleges have been named in a pre-action letter recently sent by the NSS to the OfS: Moorlands College in Dorset, Regents Theological College, Malvern, and Christ the Redeemer College in Harrow.
The NSS’s action follows years of criticism of the OfS’s funding of Bible colleges. In April 2023, it gave evidence to a House of Lords Committee saying that the requirements for staff and students to abide by the governing documents and sign a statement of faith “are diametrically opposed to the principles of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom”. The organisation said these colleges should be deregistered and should never have been registered with the OfS.
NSS director Stephen Evans told en: “If institutions are built around enforcing a confessional worldview rather than academic freedom … they shouldn’t be registered by the OfS or receive public funds. The governing documents of some Bible colleges are completely antithetical to free speech.”
He added that the NSS has “no interest in penalising religious belief … The purpose is to ensure the regulator does its job to actively protect and promote lawful free speech and academic freedom … and, in doing so, protects public money.” An OfS spokesperson said: “Due to the prospect of legal action, we’re not able to comment.”
Michelle Nunn, principal of Regents Theological College, which is an Elim Pentecostal training centre, told The Guardian: “[The college] seeks to operate in accordance with UK equality and freedom of speech legislation and the Office for Students regulations. Students are admitted based on academic criteria and choose to study with us because our programmes align with their academic and vocational interests.”
Separately, the OfS fined the University of Sussex £585,000 in March 2025 for serious free speech and governance breaches relating to its internal “trans” policy. That decision is the subject of a judicial review, the outcome of which is expected imminently.
