How to avoid a further erosion of Academic Freedom in Europe

Throughout the second half of the 20th century academic freedom has developed in many societies into a widely acknowledged and legally protected fundamental value of academia. This coincided with the recognition of academic freedom as a prerequisite for well-functioning open and democratic societies that adhere to the rule of law. An important condition for this role of academic freedom to be realized is that academics use it to acquire, generate and apply knowledge in ways that are essential for their societies. 

From that basic perspective it is worrying that recent studies undertaken for the European Parliament Academic Freedom Monitor show that academic freedom is under pressure in many EU Member States. While a generally agreed upon definition is lacking, the EP studies operationalized academic freedom by identifying three basic dimensions of academic freedom, and conditions under which academic freedom is to be exercised as optimally as possible. The basic dimensions are the freedom to research, the freedom to teach and learn, and the academic (and not general) freedom of expression and dissemination; the conditions for exercising academic freedom include institutional autonomy, involvement of academic staff and students in higher education governance, and academic labour conditions.  

Using this interpretation of academic freedom, the EP studies show that within the EU systemic and structural infringements of the basic dimensions of and conditions for academic freedom only take place in Hungary. Nonetheless, in the other EU Member States threats to academic freedom are increasingly identified and are argued to come from various sides at the same time. Overall, there are growing worries in the EU about undue interference from the government and politics in academic freedom, about actions and decisions by university leadership and management potentially violating academic freedom, about internal conflicts and tensions among academic staff and students pressuring academic freedom. Furthermore, attacks by civil society actors on individual academics or academic groups, especially through social media, have grown in most EU Member States, forming a serious threat to academic freedom. In addition, the impact of private sector actors on academic freedom remains an issue in many EU Member States, while an emerging worry is how governmental security policies might affect academic freedom. This coincides with worries about the threat to academic freedom of foreign interferences in academia in Europe.  

The identified threats to and violations of academic freedom appear in both traditional and new forms. The legal measures put in place to protect academic freedom were mostly introduced in a specific time frame and set of institutional conditions. Thus, while protections for traditional threats may be in place, they might not always be effective against these threats when circumstances change. Even more challenging is the situation concerning new threats. As an example, pressuring university leadership to silence critical voices in academia, or the growing role of social media in a variety of attacks on academics. As regards the latter, the EP studies particularly note that the situation becomes more serious when threats from politics, civil society groups, and private sector actors are intertwined. Such constellations may emerge across the whole political spectrum, and they can create considerable engagement on social media. Not only is legal protection of academics quite weak in such instances, but there is also a lack of valid knowledge on the consequences of these trends. 

The EP studies present a number of policy options for enhancing the awareness of academic freedom’s importance and improving its protection. These include strengthening the existing European legal framework for promoting and protecting academic freedom; setting up a European Platform for Academic Freedom; integrating academic freedom more effectively and consistently into the EU higher education, research, development, and innovation programmes; and establishing a European clearinghouse for the meta-analysis of existing academic freedom studies and data. For the successful further development and implementation of these policy options both at the European and national level, the input of the academic community is crucial.  

Obviously, academic freedom is not an absolute freedom, nor is it to be confused with the general freedom of expression, which is a basic human right that belongs to every citizen. There are legitimate limitations, both internally and externally, that include directives, regulations, and framework conditions for academic activities, such as the key role of peer review in determining the validity, significance, and originality of scientific work. Furthermore, academic freedom comes with various responsibilities and obligations. These include the responsibilities related to the customs of the university as an institution, as well as academic integrity and societies’ needs. The latter is related to initiatives to democratize academic research and higher education study programmes, which represent efforts aimed at increasing public access, participation, and understanding of scientific knowledge and academic processes. As indicated by the Council of Europe, democratization of science is aimed at making scientific information more accessible, for example, through open science, promoting scientific literacy, engaging diverse communities in scientific endeavours, and fostering public involvement in scientific decision-making. As such, democratization of science has the potential to enhance public trust in science and prevent a further erosion of academic freedom in Europe. Lessons learned in the use of science during the COVID-19 pandemic should be taken into account for realizing this potential. 

More information on the European Parliament Forum for Academic Freedom can be found here and EP Academic Freedom Monitor 2023 here.

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