A law lecturer who was sacked by the Open University after expressing gender-critical beliefs has been handed a payout from the institution.
Dr Almut Gadow was dismissed for gross misconduct in November 2022 after she criticised changes to the curriculum based on gender identity in an online forum.
She claimed the university was introducing requirements to “indoctrinate students in gender identity theory”.
The lecturer, who taught law at the university for almost a decade, claimed she had raised concerns about new teaching requirements, including making students use offenders’ preferred pronouns.
She took the university to an employment tribunal alleging she was “harassed, discriminated against, and unfairly dismissed because I reject gender ideology and believe in academic freedom”.
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The Open University has now settled with Dr Gadow before a hearing was scheduled to take place later this month, The Telegraph has learnt.
A spokesman for the Open University said: “We can confirm that a settlement has been reached with Dr Gadow.” It would not comment on whether it admitted liability.
About-turn for university
The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, including the financial sum awarded to Dr Gadow.
It amounts to an about-turn for the university, which previously told The Telegraph it would “vigorously defend” itself before a judge.
The institution also accused the academic of making “spurious allegations” about the circumstances surrounding her dismissal and said it looked forward to presenting its own version of events at an employment tribunal.
In a statement, Dr Gadow accused the university of agreeing “to pay me an undisclosable amount of money to avoid a public airing of the facts”.
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“After long claiming it could not wait for the truth to come out in court, that it would fight this case ‘vigorously’ and ‘robustly’ all the way, the OU [Open University] – while making no admission as to liability – has resolved the matter by way of payment of an undisclosable sum of money.
“Why, the OU faithful will be asking, has the university decided to pay me an undisclosable amount of money to avoid a public airing of the facts, if what I said was not true?”
In a statement provided to Times Higher Education in 2023, the Open University said: “Since being dismissed, Almut Gadow has made a series of offensive and spurious allegations online which we reject in the strongest of terms. We welcome the opportunity the tribunal hearing provides to present our evidence about the facts of this case”.
‘Incorporate its ideologies’
Dr Gadow had alleged that the university’s equality, diversion and inclusion (EDI) department announced plans to “incorporate its political ideologies” across the curriculum in the 2021-22 academic year.
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She claimed she voiced concerns that a criminal lawyer’s role “is to present facts” and that “sex is a relevant fact for offences involving perpetrators’ and/or victims’ bodies”.
The academic also argued that “no offender should be allowed to dictate the language of his case in a way which masks relevant facts”.
Dr Gadow said she was told that her posts on the online staff forum amounted to “serious insubordination” because she had been told it was not the place for such discussions.
She was informed by the university that her persistence in posting comments on issues relating to gender identity, paedophilia, and sex offending amounted to “serious bullying and harassment”.
The content of several of her posts was a breach of the university’s transgender staff policy because they may “create an environment in the forum that isn’t inclusive, trans-friendly, or respectful”, Dr Gadow was also told.
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In a statement following the settlement from the Open University, Dr Gadow claimed her experience illustrated that EDI policies at universities often place undue pressure on staff and teaching.
“Much needs to be corrected in this area, where EDIdeology dictates the content of OU teaching at the expense of academic freedom. My case has highlighted the extent to which EDI-fied and ‘liberated’ curricula violate not only the university’s obligations to uphold academic freedom but the human rights of its members,” she said.
‘Satisfactory outcome’
The academic raised more than £100,000 to fight the university at a tribunal, with support from the Free Speech Union (FSU).
Dr Bryn Harris, chief legal counsel for the FSU, said: “The Free Speech Union is delighted that Almut Gadow has secured a satisfactory outcome in her claim against the Open University.
“Her case centred on some of the most important issues concerning academic freedom. While those issues were not tried in the employment tribunal, we take this outcome as a welcome sign that the Open University and other English universities realise that our law will not tolerate attempts to silence academics.
“Little can be said about the settlement reached by the parties, and this will remain the case until the Government fulfils its promise to commence the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which limits the power of universities to gag academics who have been harassed because of their beliefs.”
Other professors have previously criticised the Open University over its treatment of gender-critical academics.
Prof Jo Phoenix, a professor of criminology, won a landmark unfair dismissal claim against the university last year. The academic was found by an employment tribunal to have suffered victimisation, harassment and direct discrimination.
It came after colleagues at the Open University had labelled her as transphobic after she made her gender-critical beliefs public, with one comparing her to “a racist uncle at the Christmas table”.
The employment tribunal found that a comment by Prof Louise Westmarland, head of discipline in social policy and criminology at the Open University, amounted to harassment. The judge said that Prof Westmarland “was effectively telling the claimant off for having expressed gender-critical beliefs”.
Stricter rules loom
Prof Phoenix was one of 54 academics to sign a letter in 2018 raising concerns about the introduction of self-identification for trans people who wished to undergo gender reassignment.
She also set up the Gender Critical Network at the Open University, prompting 368 of her colleagues to sign an open letter calling for the institution to distance itself from the “transphobic” group.
Universities will soon be subject to stricter rules around upholding free speech after the Government announced it would revive Tory legislation aimed at protecting academics from so-called cancel culture.
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announced last month she would reinstate the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act later this year, after she shelved the legislation last summer in one of her first acts in office.
It comes despite Labour sources previously describing the Act as a “Tory hate-speech charter”.
The legislation will see the introduction of a new complaints scheme for academics and visiting speakers who claim to have had their free speech stifled on campus. Universities will face punishments, including fines, if they are found to have failed academics.
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