Around the world, academic freedom is under attack. Universities are being shut down in Turkey, professors are losing their jobs in China, and scholars in India are facing physical assaults. Meanwhile, Hungary and the U.S. are imposing legislative restrictions on what can be taught about race and gender.
A recent study by the University of California, Irvine, used a new dataset to look into why academic freedom is under threat. The study found that democratic societies protect the freedom to teach and learn, while threats come from religious influence in the government, armed conflicts, and militarism. The study also pointed out the positive and negative effects of both liberal and illiberal global institutions.
Declining freedom
These findings highlight the complex mix of factors that are shaping the state of academic freedom worldwide.
“Local struggles over academic freedom don’t occur in a vacuum; the global context matters. For example, today’s global wave of authoritarianism and populism is emboldening leaders in diverse countries to restrict academic freedom. Conversely, international institutions like NGOs or human rights treaties can help protect academic freedom through advocacy and normative pressure,” the researchers explain
“Until recently, however, we simply haven’t had the cross-national and longitudinal data needed to systematically study these global trends.”
Social forces
The Academic Freedom Index, part of the Varieties of Democracy dataset, was recently released, providing researchers with the first empirical documentation of social forces influencing large-scale patterns across countries and time. This publicly available resource assesses the level of academic freedom in 155 countries from 1960 to 2022.
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) team conducted regression analysis on the index, incorporating variables that capture both domestic conditions and connections to liberal and illiberal institutions. These factors include the ratification of human rights treaties and membership in scientific unions.
The overall findings indicate a general increase in academic freedom over the past 60 years, but significant reversals have occurred, particularly in the present era marked by a global rise in populism and authoritarianism. The analyses emphasize the influence of diverse global institutions in shaping the overarching trends in academic freedom, surpassing the impact of domestic factors.
Liberal norms
“The post-1945 era witnessed the establishment of liberal international institutions, such as the United Nations, which championed human rights norms and ultimately bolstered academic freedom globally,” the authors explain.
“Alongside these ascendant liberal institutions, one can find a variety of alternatives and competitors, such as Cold War communism, that imposed greater control over universities and scholars. These competitors undercut liberal academic freedom norms and ultimately eroded academic freedom everywhere.”
Their research reveals that countries strongly connected to liberal international institutions demonstrate a positive relationship with academic freedom. Conversely, engagement with illiberal international structures and organizations has the opposite effect. In simpler terms, different international setups can either support or limit academic freedom.
“Threats to academic freedom are hotly contested but poorly understood in contemporary society,” the authors conclude. “Our study pinpoints factors associated with restrictions on the pursuit of knowledge and opens the topic to systematic empirical analysis.”
