Academic freedom

Minister’s assurances not ‘watertight guarantees’ that regular academic activities fall outside law’s purview

Researchers face prospect that they might not find more work in academia if they leave city

The David Miller and Kathleen Stock cases underline the growing threat to human rights, say Alison Assiter and Miriam David

Home Office staff were due to hear from prominent scholar as part of series to mark Black History Month    

Move bolsters fears of political attacks on US higher education and prompts AAUP to consider boycott

Many press on with classes, despite hiding from the Taliban

Constitutional lawyer says Australian case will help frame courts’ approach to academic freedom issues

Peter Ridd judgment may encourage universities to hide behind ‘confidentiality’ veil, transparency advocate warns

Union calls for university management to take a ‘clear and strong stance against transphobia’

Push to remove statue ‘can be seen as final stage of mainlandising’ Hong Kong’s campuses

‘I don’t know if we are going to be successful, but we are certainly going to make a lot of noise,’ says academic resisting government

From party faithful imposed as leaders to scholars sent into ‘civilian death’, institutions face a range of grave threats, argues editor of new collection

Sociologist criticised by MPs says that he plans to appeal against termination

Beverley Gage leaves Brady-Johnson programme after president insists $250 million funder can pick its advisory board members

New Cambridge guidance will help academics avoid collaborations that pose a threat to security or academic freedom, says Stephen Toope

While right-leaning scholars are most likely to feel silenced in the West, in the developing world, left-wingers are more likely to self-censor

A new consortium will embody the spread of liberal arts beyond the West, say Bryan Penprase and Thomas Schneider 

University leaders would not exercise freedom even if the state did not have them under its thumb, says Maszlee Malik

Valentina Azarova declines to take human rights position, but CAUT suspends censure and claims academic freedom win

College’s defenders say its demise will dilute free expression, but education minister says its original critics opposed it for the same reason

But Royal Holloway principal warns against ‘frivolous and vexatious claims’ under planned legislation

Inspectors tell Ministry of Education to ‘study deeply and systematically about Xi Jinping’s thoughts on education’

Former Tennessee researcher wins first court trial of Trump-era crackdown, while Biden stance remains unclear

Ministers ‘negligent’ over failure to issue visas to scholars and activists who worked with British-based academics

Louise Richardson ‘embarrassed to confess we educated’ Michael Gove given his Brexit comments on experts

Three-quarters of cases brought against faculty found to have ended with penalties, yet with unclear implications

Twenty years of progress hangs in the balance, says Rahmatullah Katawazai

Lisa Tilley cites impact on staff and students of ‘proximity’ to former department head’s ‘far-right followers’, plus ‘sickening environment’

Management blamed for ‘constraining of voice’ that corrals public interventions into academics’ disciplinary areas

Global HE community urged to help rescue scholars and students as outlook is potentially ‘disastrous’, particularly for women

A recently formed group and an attendant conference hope to bring greater attention to issues being faced in India

But about-turn leaves gaps and lingering fears about challenging political power

Long-standing challenge on research disclosures grows more urgent with rising China tensions and anti-Asian discrimination

Former foreign students recount memorable experiences in world’s most isolated country, including being openly spied on by their hosts

While the dangers can be extreme in autocracies and war zones, nowhere is immune

Some academics depart China amid allegations of overly strict Covid rules and narrowing space for academic freedom

Female scholars twice as likely to feel constrained as male colleagues, poll shows 

At partisan moment, governing regents pursue new processes allowing for firing of tenured faculty

Amid silence from universities and protests from Democrats, Biden prosecutors seek new trial for Anming Hu

University insists historian Garrett Felber was let go for failing to communicate effectively with department chair

State media defend China’s call to remove two speakers from summit

Academics are ‘groping along blindly’ in a fierce debate over whether certain phrases or subjects are still legal

Campaigners at Boğaziçi University say their victory could inspire others – but also fear a harsher crackdown under a new appointee

Ex-pollster who leads Policy Institute at King’s sees public support for universities enduring despite culture wars angst

Sister-in-law of Azerbaijan’s autocratic president sits on board of centre set up to study country after brokering a £10 million donation

It is 2041. Knee-jerk politics is conspicuous by its absence and students are willing to actually hear each other. But is this odd spectacle a premonition or just a dream, wonders Jonathan Zimmerman

We increasingly need to protect not only our freedom of speech as scholars but also our freedom of thought, says Keith Burnett

England’s free speech bill should outlaw gag orders that stifle revelations of bad practice, says an anonymous author 

Editors of Journal of Controversial Ideas hope to puncture ‘cancel culture’, but other scholars warn researchers ‘can’t stop being an accountable moral agent’

Years of restrictions have stymied scholars’ work on topics such as the Algerian war of independence, and a new law could cement this lack of access

Latin America Summit hears that hostile political climate and lack of research funding in Brazil are preventing the return of scholars overseas

Opposition says it will vote against bill at second reading and urges Tories to join them

Academics feel responsibility to speak publicly on issues such as press freedom and ‘fake news’ 

Online ban is ‘unprecedented’ in scale and likely involved cooperation from multiple parties, expert says

Recent detentions may put a dampener on field research and outreach, even if borders reopen

Scholars say that the new institute, whose remit describes the genocide as ‘baseless’, will lack credibility

After FBI admissions in Tennessee case, Arizona-led survey aims to see how badly US was hurt by Trump enforcement

In unprecedented comments ahead of federal elections in September, Anja Karliczek applauds university that shuttered its institute

Weeks of protests end in victory for 1619 Project creator and advocates of academic freedom and racial awareness

Australian report warns that students and academics alike are learning to stay silent