 This was not the first time Richardson had been involved in debates around free speech and the trend towards many university students aiming to bar unsavoury views from campuses.At the University of St. Andrews Richardson encouraged academics to share their views on the independence referendum  and in her first few months at Oxford University she voiced the view that higher education was not meant to be a comfortable experience and that students ought to engage with views they found objectionable.In October 2017, Richardson claimed that Oxford University was in need of reform, stating that the current system gives rise to "a waste of resources" and a "duplication of bureaucracy".