New data from a global rights-tracking project shows the country had large declines in 2025 on 8 of the 9 civil and political rights it measures.
Articles on Academic freedom
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As the National Science Foundation starts giving out fewer grants, people worldwide will potentially lose out from potential research findings that could help improve their lives.
It’s no longer uncommon for scheduled university commencement speakers to have their invitations rescinded following backlash over their politics.
A new memo blocks graduate students from writing theses or dissertations on certain topics, raising questions about academic freedom and the purpose of higher education.
Students and campuses should investigate and learn more about zero-cost textbook programs, or adopting open educational resources.
The Trump administration is reportedly working on a revised version of the higher education proposal.
Students are returning for the start of the academic year. The do so amid highly-charged debates around racism and antisemitism in Australia.
This Brazilian film pits an academic against the forces
Right-leaning respondents were consistently more supportive of academic freedom.
Iranian universities have long been places of reform and political imagination – as well as targets of censorship and repression.
Restricting academic freedom is often thought of in terms of universities telling professors what they can and cannot do or teach. But that isn’t the only scenario.
Academic freedom grew strongly after World War II, with greater university funding, protections and autonomy, yet global data now shows a decline.
When scholarship is politically steered, the public loses access to evidence and the means to hold power to account.
A study titled “Defending and promoting academic freedom” that was conducted for a French higher education and research organisation discusses four areas for improvement of this crucial effort.
American colleges and universities have traditionally encouraged free speech. Recent dismissals of professors are eroding their commitment to this core mission.
Charlie Kirk is symbolic of how university campuses have become central to contemporary culture and politics.
While Columbia University can afford to pay the government $200 million in order to unfreeze federal grants and contracts it was awarded, many other universities and colleges could not.
Populist, right-wing governments often target universities as enemies of the state. The Trump administration is watching − and learning.
Visa revocations are becoming an increasingly weaponized part of the U.S. immigration system, and in education, international students are already vulnerable to uncertain futures.
The law against insulting the Thai monarchy has become a common tool for silencing Thai activists. Now, a foreign academic has been targeted.
Top contributors
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Deputy Executive Dean and Associate Dean (Academic), Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland
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Adjunct Professor, Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology, Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
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Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Derby
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Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, Michigan State University
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Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation
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Senior Lecturer, Curtin Law School, Curtin University
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Professor of Law, King's College London
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Trinity College
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Professor of Research, Foundations & Higher Education, Northern Arizona University
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Professor of Modern China Studies, Lund University
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Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Regina
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Associate Professor, Curtin Law School, Curtin University
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Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Canterbury
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Adjunct Associate Professor in History, University of New England
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SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Political Science, University of Guelph; Queen's University, Ontario