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APPARENT BIAS/PREDETERMINATION

May 5th, 2026 by James Goudie KC

In R ( University of Sussex ) v Office for Students (2026) EWHC 984 ( Admin ), the Dr Kathleen Scott case,  Lieven J found that the OFS decision to sanction the University, for alleged breaches of its conditions of registration, was unlawful. This was on a number of judicial review grounds. They included apparent bias and/or predetermination. The broad conduct of the OFS demonstrated predetermination. There was compelling evidence that the OFS had approached its Investigation prompted by protests against Dr Stock with a CLOSED MIND. Senior Officials had set out to establish a breach. From the outset, the OFS adopted a strategy aimed at creatin a “ test case “ to send a strong single to the HE sector. This strategy depended on the University being found in breach, heavily fined, and publicly criticised.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Decision making and Contracts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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