Academic freedom

Ex-HKU law professor receives longest sentence to date under controversial national security law

Ministers may have ‘little appetite’ to revisit contentious legislation, but is just letting it lie a viable option?

Minor branded ‘liberal indoctrination’ by Republican representative among 52 programmes being cut, with low enrolment blamed

Fossil fuel producer cracks down on dissenters as it hosts gathering of world leaders

New LSE vice-chancellor discusses ‘Wild West’ US, dealing with campus protests and the personal turmoil that led him to make the switch to London

Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has been giving a series of London lectures on ‘genocide in Gaza’ and international law

Universities’ instinct to ‘de-risk everything’ makes things worse for everybody, says academic émigré

‘Conflating knowledge systems with underlying disciplinary teaching’ is part of a ‘slippery slope’ for the academy

Academic freedom statute ‘widely misunderstood’, says New Zealand barrister

Attacks on academics and suppression of student protests may intensify under leader linked to human rights abuses

Laurent Vinatier, an adviser at the non-profit Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, sentenced to three years in prison

New partnership with armed forces could lead to further harassment of students and staff, activists claim

Increasing trend for policies that attempt to undermine or overhaul higher education in US and Europe being exported worldwide, Scholars at Risk warns

Gender-critical professor says Dandridge report is another sign that campus free speech legislation is needed

New institution with power to appoint its own vice-chancellor seen as a possible model for improving struggling sector

Leadership hopeful takes aim at universities in latest of series of controversial remarks at party’s conference

Policies must protect gender-critical beliefs as well as trans and non-binary staff, former OfS head says in wake of tribunal judgment

A wave of US institutions say they will no longer take stances on political or societal issues, but some are critical that keeping quiet is ‘tantamount to implicit support’

Report finds senior faculty who disagree with Beijing lose positions of authority while those who fall in line are rewarded

Geneticist Dennis Lo Yuk-ming confirmed as Rocky Tuan’s successor at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Survey by Norwegian Association of Researchers finds many believe their institution does too little to safeguard them from harassment

Outgoing Erasmus University Rotterdam president discusses the underappreciated value of the social sciences, managing student protests and the differences between Dutch and German higher education

Administrators’ tolerance for ‘unacceptable’ behaviour tempered by ‘politicised’ winds, witnesses suggest

Chinese embassy officials held a meeting with a leading Canadian university after two of its academics spoke at a Taiwanese-government sponsored event

Author says country should acknowledge forces to suppress academic expression, irrespective of their ideological roots 

New institution founded by conservative figures as an alternative to ‘censoriousness’ of established universities

Call for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ is scarcely better than the ‘stop arming Ukraine’ motion that led to resignations a year ago, says Christopher Phelps

Strategic silence of vice-chancellors within our national debate is a mistake when the quest for truth is so central to academia, argues Sir Geoff Mulgan

Firm whose lawyer helped initiate ACU saga handed job of finding leakers

Open letter urges Bridget Phillipson to think again as scholars allege culture in which alternative views are supressed

Politics professor had faced criticism for his posts during political unrest in the UK

Academic’s exit brings more uncomfortable headlines for institution that has already faced several legal disputes this year

Successive governments have a long history of suppressing freedom of speech, thought and association on campus, says C. Rashaad Shabab

Universities urged to continue work to tackle free speech concerns after being ‘handed reprieve’ by minister

The OfS needs only to tweak its guidance in light of the considerable free-speech duties by which universities are already bound, says James Murray

Academic who claims she was forced out of university for exposing silencing of gender-critical feminists says she is ‘extremely pleased’ by settlement

Bridget Phillpson’s decision to reconsider implementation will only hamper wider recognition of universities as a public good, says Abhishek Saha

Universities ‘not ready’ for imminent launch of complaints scheme, says legal expert

National Education Policy prioritises Indian knowledge, but many are against embedding certain historical documents into the curriculum

Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, who was harassed over pandemic commentaries, fears New Zealand’s universities still too slow to protect staff

University leaders U-turn on controversial decision to fire professor that sparked academic freedom row

Judge tells university to pay damages but rules there was no breach of Siouxsie Wiles’ academic freedom

US academics unwilling to share ‘socially costly’ views because they fear abuse, ostracisation and disciplinary action

Constitutional Court nullifies decree enabling Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to appoint rectors, but any respite is expected to be brief

Chapter of Sexual Misconduct in Academia was previously withdrawn after academic claimed he was identified

University says students and staff are not “immune” from local laws but academics say institution should do more to protect learners

More than 750 students and staff killed, injured or abducted in two years, says report

State secretary Sabine Döring dismissed after German Education Ministry investigated potential funding cut for academics supporting student protesters

Conduct review relies on footage taken inside the classroom without academic’s knowledge

Haidt vehicle ostensibly began as bid by left-leaning professors to limit their own extremes, but conservative power is more visibly – and audibly – driving its growth

Experience of Palestinian academics living in Israel like ‘being in the belly of the beast’ since 7 October, Brismes event hears

Months after Harvard Law Review rejected analysis of Gaza genocide allegation, Columbia’s version does the same

Reports mount of academics not having contracts renewed in apparent retaliation for anti-war protests, as observers highlight precarity as key factor in restricting free speech

About 99 per cent of events and speakers were still approved last year, a similar proportion to previous years

Several Chinese academics working overseas have disappeared or been detained on return to homeland as leaders expand national security laws

V-c’s offer to meet with encampment to review defence and security research called both an ‘empty deal’ and a ‘capitulation’

Universities are not ‘speaker’s corner’ and governments should not impose ‘diktats about what we do on campus’, New Zealand forum hears

Universities face a delicate balancing act between ‘mob veto’ and safety obligations, says free speech advocate

While administrators, faculty, students and police get main attention in protests, those paying the bills – especially in wealthier families – pursue more decisive roles

As politicians stage another public hearing to shame academia, university leaders display new level of resistance, joined by students at Harvard and California system