Academic freedom

Calls for additional funding to help colleges police controversial events

Populist Doug Ford wants to expand mandate of province’s higher education regulator

Istanbul scholar Büşra Ersanli is one of 241 scholars to face legal action for signing a 2016 peace declaration

Scholars want an end to stifling university legislation, but differ on proposed approach

Public suspect researchers are performing ‘impact’ and hitting targets for the benefit of government regulators, not them, European academies argue

President unveils new target of attracting 350,000 foreign students despite ongoing concern over human rights abuses

Moral and cultural organisations such as universities must strive harder to rid the body politic of populist infection, in central Europe and elsewhere, says Tomáš Halík

As a Brit leading HKU, Peter Mathieson had no baggage. The University of Edinburgh’s new v-c tells Ellie Bothwell about academic freedom, internationalisation and being treated to taxi drivers’ views on students

Sixty-four staff from a university in south-west Turkey have been imprisoned over alleged links to a banned organisation

Gathering intellectual antagonists under the same roof contains the incendiary electricity of controversy and redirects it to generate sparks of new knowledge, says Carel Stolker

Detention is latest twist in Albert Schram’s turbulent tenure at Unitech

Criticism of ‘obsolete’ passages by Gallic political leaders has led to a ban on new students learning French

Former president of the Czech Academy of Sciences warns of online dirty tricks that may have cost him country’s presidency

Minister plans to simplify ‘dizzying variety’ of rules on freedom of expression

Objections to the suppression of ‘sensitive’ articles should not be based on outmoded claims about consumption, says Michel Hockx

It was at a Munich university that a group of students formed a non-violent movement to resist the Nazi regime. Their courageous idealism sets an example that, Kenneth Asch hopes, continues to flower on campuses

Plans to dismantle institutions including Istanbul University are part of efforts to exert more political control over academia, critics say

Imperial College London academic Abbas Edalat has been detained on security charges since mid-April 

Provost of Hungary’s Central European University tells conference that autonomy is in jeopardy across continent

Universities cannot become Gardens of Eden without losing their key purpose, writes Hanna Holborn Gray

Magdeburg university head reveals scale of threats he received after controversy over right-wing AfD speakers

Education committee chair Rob Halfon says ‘sanctions’ should be applied where numbers of disadvantaged students stall or decline

Politicians’ disparagement of historian’s research signals that alternative interpretations of the city state’s past will not be tolerated, says Linda Lim

Efforts to reclaim imperial history from so-called ‘politically correct’ professors have little to do with genuine academic debate, argue James McDougall and Kim Wagner

As Beijing and Canberra trade blows over foreign interference and academic freedom, leading analyst predicts things will get worse before they get better

Universities may close centres or be forced to register employees as foreign agents as a result of investigations, say experts

Michael Ignatieff says higher education will lose battle against authoritarianism if scholars’ rights are seen only as ‘a corporate privilege’

Excessive red tape, not snowflake students, has rightly been highlighted as the real threat to freedom of speech on campus, says Peter Baran

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan targets students who took part in an anti-war protest at an Istanbul university

Marketing professor accused of ‘distorting liberation war history’ and defaming ex-president in newspaper article

Experts question whether 60 universities granted special status will face budget cuts or be free from interference

Protesters say conference on Ottoman Empire had been aimed at ‘distorting the historical truth’ of the Armenian genocide

Espionage proposals trigger tit-for-tat claims by rival groups of academics

Sector leaders decry ‘censorship’, but outright ban on expressing political opinions is not mandatory for now

Lawyer for Clara Ponsati, the former Catalan education minister whose extradition is sought by Spain, says she will hand herself in

Allegations that ‘snowflake’ students are routinely restricting freedom of speech are overblown, says parliamentary inquiry

Psychologist Michal Kosinski’s work shows how digital footprints can predict a person’s sexual orientation, political views and more. Is it a danger or a warning about threats to privacy? John Morgan reports from California

Casualisation and treating academics like feckless children who can’t be trusted have also taken their toll, says Sarah Colvin

Head of Koç University says international researchers are applying to institution despite political landscape

Female students at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University in Yogyakarta must stop wearing full-face veils if they wish to graduate, rector warns

Former rector of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University is sentenced to four years on alleged terrorist charges

New outpost does not undermine commitment to remain in Budapest, institution insists

Women and ethnic minority learners more likely to prioritise inclusivity

Where you live and where your family comes from still determine your access to a university education, says London Metropolitan University vice-chancellor John Raftery

Accusations are a ‘cruel and empty provocation against dedicated scientist’, say sector leaders

The internet impedes human interactions, warps civilised discourse and aggravates misunderstandings, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto 

Free Speech University Rankings coordinator Tom Slater says academics are peddling myths and smears to downplay the shocking level of censorship on campus

Their emphasis on cultivating understanding makes universities natural homes for those at war with their societies, says Shahidha Bari

The evidence used to compile Spiked Online’s Free Speech Rankings is not to be trusted, says Carl Thompson

US universities’ public approval is best guaranteed by boldly defending non-partisan values such as tolerance and free speech, says Darren Linvill

New legislation will extend Israeli law to academic institutions in the West Bank

US Department of State ‘deeply concerned’ over lack of evidence against Serkan Gölge

Attending the criminal trial of a dissident scholar brings home the inhumanity of Turkey’s academic purge, says Masi Noor, and underlines the importance of showing solidarity

Brexit cheerleader criticises excessive regulation and downplays scuffle at student event

Taif University lifts consent rule for female students in wake of royal decree

Growing interest in the student mental health crisis is welcome, but it is overburdened hourly paid lecturers who are most at risk of stress in universities, says Sam Christie

Universities must do more to tackle the class privilege that is still rife in the ranks of academia, says Louise Morley

Groningen pulls out after concerns about academic freedom, costs and staffing 

New legislation would bring higher education institutions in the West Bank under Israeli law

Barring controversial speakers has a long heritage and the Office for Students should be very wary of cracking down on it, argues Evan Smith