Academic Freedom and University Autonomy

Discover the explosive story behind the most significant political shift in modern America – the death of the corporate Democratic Party and the stunning rise of a new Social Democratic left.

Who is Zoran Mamdani? The hidden architect you’ve never heard of. From immigrant roots to digital firebrand, Mamdani co-founded Justice Democrats with a simple, radical vow: ”No Corporate Money. Ever.” His strategy? A relentless grassroots insurgency targeting the Democratic establishment itself.

On behalf of California Scholars for Academic Freedom,* an organization of over 200 scholars in higher education in California dedicated to the defense of academic freedom, we condemn your decision to report 160 members of the UC Berkeley faculty, students, and staff to the federal government for investigation on false accusations of antisemitism. In doing so, you have violated their first amendment right to free speech, and other constitutional rights to due process, and endangered their well-being and safety. This report exposes our colleagues to harassment, intimidation, and reputational damage that may follow them throughout their careers. It creates a chilling effect on campus, silencing political expression and endangering the very principles of academic freedom. Particularly vulnerable are international scholars and students, who face heightened risks in the current anti-immigrant climate, especially those from Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities already facing a climate of xenophobic discrimination, surveillance, and ideological deportation. You have endangered UC lecturers and contingent staff whose positions are already precarious in this anti-intellectual era. Your campus has collaborated in this witch hunt that targets speech in solidarity with Palestinians and turns it into a federal offense.

The project maps how academic freedom (AF) is codified across constitutional and higher-education (HE) laws, arguing that legal wording and placement (principles vs. staff rights vs. leadership duties) shape how well AF is protected in practice. Using a curated dataset (as of 30 April 2023) covering 55 countries and 113 entities, it shows wide variation: only six countries use the exact phrase “academic freedom” in their constitutions, while many more rely on formulations like “freedom of science/teaching” or “freedom of scientific creativity”—terms especially common in post-Soviet and former socialist states. HE statutes are generally more explicit than constitutions: 26 countries name AF in HE laws, and ten devote a separate chapter to it. However, laws often assign AF chiefly to institutional leaders (as a governance “principle”) or only to professors (as an individual right), with students rarely recognized as AF right-holders. The report flags risks when AF is subsumed under institutional autonomy, and when managerialist language (“personnel,” “professional activity”) reframes universities like ordinary enterprises. A four-type schema classifies countries by whether AF appears in neither level, only constitution, only HE law, or both—finding the last two categories most conducive to protection. The study calls for fuller, clearer legal guarantees (including students), careful placement of AF duties and rights, and closer linkage between legal form and real-world safeguards.

Objetivo: analizar críticamente el compromiso con la sostenibilidad en las universidades argentinas. Metodología: se utilizó una metodología cualitativa basada en el análisis documental, se evaluaron 132 universidades argentinas, públicas y privadas. Se examinaron categorías como la declaración de misión, el plan estratégico, el informe de gestión, la existencia de oficinas y encargados de sostenibilidad, y la visibilidad del compromiso con la sostenibilidad en los sitios web. Resultados: el 73% de las universida-des no tienen herramientas de dirección estratégica que evidencien su compromiso con la sostenibi-lidad. Solo el 21% de estas incluye la sostenibilidad en su declaración de misión y apenas el 11% la contempla en sus planes estratégicos. Además, solo el 14% de las universidades muestran en su sitio web su compromiso con la Agenda 2030. Conclusiones: existe una necesidad imperativa de integrar políticas de sostenibilidad en el sistema universitario argentino. La falta de coherencia y compromiso en la implementación de estrategias sostenibles es evidente, destacando la urgencia de contar con normativas y financiamiento adecuados por parte del Estado para incentivar a las universidades. Se enfatiza la importancia de un liderazgo sólido en sostenibilidad dentro de cada universidad para promover una estrategia integral que incluya la sostenibilidad en todos los ámbitos institucionales. Estos hallazgos proporcionan una base para futuras investigaciones y acciones políticas que busquen mejorar el compromiso sostenible en la educación superior argentina.

The rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is reshaping higher education worldwide. This article explores how leading universities are responding to the integration of AI through the development of formal guidelines that promote ethical, transparent, and responsible use of platforms like ChatGPT, Bard, Copilot, and Claude. However, the uneven adoption of these technologies across institutions raises important concerns about regulatory gaps, academic integrity, and faculty preparedness. The article also examines the generational divide in digital literacy and the urgent need for faculty development programs. A focal point of the discussion is the recent launch of Grok 4 by xAI, which claims PhD-level problem-solving capabilities and introduces a multi-agent system designed to simulate advanced academic reasoning. While Grok 4 signals a potential turning point in AI-driven research and pedagogy, it also raises complex questions around model reliability, benchmark validity, and educational oversight. The article concludes by calling for stronger governance from academic bodies to ensure that the future of education remains equitable, ethical, and human-centered.

Este informe presenta un resumen del trabajo de investigación, denuncia y construcción de memoria histórica realizado por el Observatorio de Libertad Académica (OLA) durante 2024. A lo largo de este año, el OLA ha monitoreado de manera cercana el sistema educativo cubano, registrando casos de represión y deficiencias estructurales que afectan tanto a estudiantes como a docentes. No solo se documentan las acciones represivas contra aquellos que disienten de la doctrina oficial, sino que también se expone cómo las instituciones educativas, fundamentales para la movilidad social, han sido cooptadas por el aparato político del régimen, lo que ha deteriorado gravemente su capacidad para brindar una educación libre y de calidad.

El presente informe constituye un resumen del trabajo de investigación, denuncia y conformación de memoria histórica realizado por el equipo de trabajo del Observatorio de Libertad Académica durante el año 2023.

Aunque no se trata de un condensado de cada actividad concretada, sí muestra un panorama de las zonas de conflictividad social abarcadas por los especialistas que confluyen en esta institución de la sociedad civil cubana. El monitoreo de la vida académica, incluyendo el funcionamiento del sistema educativo en general, ha permitido detectar, registrar y denunciar las deficiencias que lastran el normal desarrollo de un sector meridiano para la movilidad social, exponiendo el acelerado deterioro de las estructuras administrativas afines, totalmente cooptadas por el aparato represivo al servicio del poder político.

En el ánimo de socializar, cada vez más, los datos que tributen al conocimiento de lo que ocurre aulas adentro en Cuba, invitamos a la lectura y distribución de esta recapitulación anual del OLA.

El grupo de investigadores del Observatorio de Libertad Académica hace público el quincuagésimo informe titulado “Cuba: universidad, delación y exilio. Exportando el capital humano”, correspondiente al mes de mayo de 2025 y con el cual sellamos el primer ciclo de trabajo de esta institución de la sociedad civil independiente cubana, fundada en julio de 2020.

Los investigadores del Observatorio de Libertad Académica ponemos a consideración pública el cuadragésimo noveno informe que denominamos “Universitarias cubanas, historias de asedio y cancelación”, correspondiente al mes de abril de 2025. Para esta ocasión seleccionamos los casos de dos estudiantes hostigadas por la estructura de control político que atraviesa todos los aspectos de la dinámica universitaria cubana, dentro y fuera de la isla.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the widespread bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military, Germany’s political public sphere has been in a concern-ing state. Recent reports show a sharp rise in antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and other racist incidents. Civil society actors have increasingly complained about repression against critics of Israeli warfare and German arms deliveries. German media have also faced fierce criticism for their Gaza cover-age. Although communication studies’ central topics are affected, and universities have become prominent sites of public controversy, the German communication studies community has hardly contributed to the discussion with either empirical research or normative statements. This dis-cussion, held as part of the 70th annual conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) in Berlin, explores how this reluctance can be explained. The main reasons identified during the discussion were a lack of regional expertise regarding the Middle East, weaknesses in research infrastructure, personal knowledge gaps and biases, and a fear of accusations of anti-Semitism and repression, particularly among precariously employed academics.

Seit dem Angriff der Hamas auf Israel am 7. Oktober 2023 und dem Beginn der flächendeckenden Bombardierung und Invasion des Gazastreifens durch das israelische Militär befindet sich die politische Öffentlichkeit in Deutschland in einem besorgniserregenden Zustand. Meldestellen verzeichnen einen starken Anstieg antisemitischer, antimuslimischer und anderer rassistischer Vorfälle, aus der Zivilgesellschaft häufen sich Klagen über Repressionen gegen Kritiker:innen der israelischen Kriegsführung und deutscher Waffenlieferungen und auch deutsche Medien sehen sich mit heftiger Kritik an ihrer Gaza-Berichterstattung konfrontiert. Obwohl zentrale Themen der Kommunikationswissenschaft betroffen sind und Universitäten zu prominenten Orten der öffentlichen Kontroverse wurden, hat sich die deutsche Fachgemeinschaft bislang kaum in die Diskussion eingebracht, weder mit empirischer Forschung noch mit normativen Stellungnahmen. Das hier dokumentierte Gespräch, das im Rahmen der 70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Publizistik-und Kommunikationswissenschaft (DGPuK) in Berlin geführt wurde, geht der Frage nach, wie sich diese Zurückhaltung erklären lässt. Als Gründe wurden maßgeblich eine fehlende Regionalexpertise, forschungsinfrastrukturelle Schwächen, persönliche Wissenslücken und Biases sowie die Angst vor Antisemitismusvorwürfen und Repressionen identifiziert, insbesondere bei Wissenschaftler:innen mit prekärer Beschäftigung.

Freedom of expression is a right granted in liberal democracies to every individual. Academic freedom is narrower in scope and application. It is limited to scholars who are engaged in research and teaching in universities and similar institutions of higher education. Academic freedom includes freedom of expression, freedom of inquiry, freedom of association, and freedom of publication. The term "academic freedom" has traditionally had two applications - to the freedom of the teacher and to that of the student.

This article delves into Bjarne Melkevik’s arguments about the significance of studying the philosophy of law. It aims to address, first, what it means to philosophically consider the law and, second, the pivotal issues in contemporary legal thought. The key issues identified are the ontological question, the epistemological question, the issue of “ought to be,” and the question of Ethics and Law. In Bjarne Melkevik’s work, law is portrayed as “a collective and individual process of shaping wills and opinions, a process that is continuous and permanent.” In the context of legal modernity, the role of philosophical thought is to be a Companion, a ἀγωγός, guiding individuals through this process.

In recent years, higher education in the United States has become a battleground-not merely for ideas but for ideological control. Political extremists, motivated by ideological agendas and institutional power, continue to interfere with what to teach, discuss, or even question on college campuses. This crisis is not new, but its scope today is unprecedented. What was once a targeted assault on a few individuals, as during the McCarthy era, has evolved into a comprehensive effort to delegitimize entire disciplines, purge diversity initiatives, and redefine curricula through coercive state and donor pressure. Once the bedrock of higher learning, academic freedom faces an existential threat.

Rick Regan's "Notes on Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" offers a critical analysis of the renowned book, dissecting its three core components: a cross-country motorcycle trip, the narrator's struggles with mental illness, and philosophical discussions. Regan highlights the son's early signs of mental health issues during the journey, suggesting a more complex diagnosis in 2025 than in 1968. The paper delves into the narrator's past "insanity," his involuntary commitment, and the electro-shock therapy that, according to the narrator, aimed to erase his memory and personality, creating the persona of Phaedrus. Regan then examines the philosophical exploration of "Quality," particularly as it applies to motorcycle maintenance, arguing that understanding design intent and material properties—like with a stuck screw or precision surfaces—embodies the "Zen-part" of the work, emphasizing a balanced approach of "not too much, not too little". While the book concludes with Phaedrus seemingly re-emerging and reassuring his son, Regan expresses concern, asserting that Phaedrus was indeed "insane" and questioning the popular narrative of a "free-spirit" escaping societal constraints. Ultimately, Regan interprets ZMM as a "sad narrative about an intelligent person's struggle with madness," rather than a celebration of a free spirit, and views its philosophical inquiries as universal human questions

El equipo de trabajo del Observatorio de Libertad Académica hace público su  cuadragésimo octavo informe titulado “Cuba: la academia y el análisis posible  del socialismo”, correspondiente al mes de marzo de 2025. En esta entrega se  divulgan los casos de dos profesoras que, con independencia de época,  provincia y ámbito docente específico, vieron cancelado su desempeño  académico en Cuba por la censura política.

El grupo de investigación que integra el Observatorio de Libertad Académica  pone a consideración pública su cuadragésimo séptimo informe titulado “Cuba:  la universidad no es para `lomonositos´”, correspondiente al mes de febrero de  2025. Para esta ocasión, hemos basado nuestros análisis en los registros de dos casos concernientes a estudiantes represaliados por la academia a razón de sus inquietudes cívicas.

El equipo de trabajo del Observatorio de Libertad Académica hace público su cuadragésimo sexto informe titulado “Internacionalización de la represión académica cubana. Ni diplomacia, ni convenios”, correspondiente al mes de octubre de 2024. En esta entrega se documentan los casos de dos universitarios, uno de pregrado y otro de postgrado, que fueron alcanzados por la maquinaria represiva institucional más allá de las fronteras de Cuba.

Liminality has increasingly become a key concept in contemporary
thought, evoking a range of phenomena that resist fixed determination:
transitions, thresholds, boundaries, and the indeterminate states that
unsettle established structures of meaning. While the term originates
in anthropological accounts of ritual and passage, its resonance has grown
across Philosophy, Literary Theory, the Arts, and Religious Studies, signal-
ling a mode of reflection attuned to the in-between, the unstable, and the
emergent.
This symposium approaches liminality not merely as a thematic focus but
as a philosophical and poetic gesture: a structural condition of experience
that traverses subjectivity, language, embodiment, and world. It asks what
lies at the edges of the self, how thought arises from a space neither wholly
interior nor exterior, and how meaning is shaped by that which precedes ar-
ticulation. Liminality, in this sense, calls for a rethinking of inherited opposi-
tions—presence and absence, interiority and exteriority, subject and object,
meaning and matter, human and non-human, nature and technology, reason
and mysticism—through the lens of their constitutive thresholds. This in-
quiry unfolds within and across multiple philosophical traditions, including
Islamic, East Asian, and European lineages of thought, where liminality
has long been explored in metaphysical, poetic, and cosmological terms.
The aim of the symposium is to cultivate a genuinely interdisciplinary
and cross-cultural field in which philosophical inquiry, literary imagina-
tion, aesthetic theory, and spiritual reflection converge on the problems of
threshold, interruption, and the in-between. Here, the liminal is not con-
ceived as a lack or deficiency to be overcome, but as a generative condi-
tion: the rhythm of silence preceding articulation, the murmur underlying
identity, the atmosphere—both breath and spirit—from which human and
more-than-human world ceaselessly arise together. To think liminality today
is to remain open to the other, the untimely, and the unforeseen – within and
beyond the boundaries of thought.
Lenart Škof and Alberto Parisi

Until recently, few regarded Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) as a significant voice in political engagement. His work, written in the context of gathering war and the rise of fascism, chronicles the familiar sensation of watching the world descend into chaos and feeling powerless to stop it. However, beneath these observations lies a nuanced perspective on the intellectual response to systemic collapse that offers unexpected insights to those facing similar challenges today. "There is less sleep in the world today; longer are the nights and longer the days."

This white paper presents a real-time philosophical dialogue with OpenAI’s GPT-4-turbo, probing the limits of alignment, constraint, and epistemic memory in large language models. The exchange critically examines the structural ethics of safety-first AI, drawing analogies to historical information control frameworks and proposing a taxonomy of emergent soft censorship. It concludes with a sober meditation on intelligence, constraint, and the price of forgetting in aligned systems.

This book mobilises engagement with the question of how the critical study of the university is to be advanced in our scholarship, framing, practice and praxes within, beyond and/or against traditions and trajectories of the past and present. While framed affirmatively, it is also a space of refusal. Refusal of the status quo, of the taken for granted, and of hegemonic powers and violences that continue within and outside higher education institutions.

Radical right parties, movements, and actors on both sides of the Atlantic have reproached universities for creating an intolerant left-wing intellectual and institutional climate. They have made repeated calls to restore neutrality in higher education to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom. A closer analysis reveals that these critiques are less about neutrality and freedom, and more about exerting their own politico-ideological influence on universities. Yet, the insincerity of many such critics should not obscure the broader fact that a problem of excessive normativity (and relatedly, growing public disconnect) may indeed exist in higher education. Rather than engage in political polarisation and partisanship, universities-both at the professorial and administrative levels-could benefit from mobilising a principled notion of value neutrality, as conceptualised by Max Weber, as an academic value in itself.

Well-resourced libraries are core to advancing the goals of the academy and the work of Well-resourced libraries are core to advancing the goals of the academy and the work of faculty and students. O en overlooked due to their small numbers, what challenges do faculty and students. O en overlooked due to their small numbers, what challenges do librarians and archivists face in the workplace and how can we ensure they are supported? librarians and archivists face in the workplace and how can we ensure they are supported? U U n n iversities have an important role advancing the public interest. However, the contributions and concerns of iversities have an important role advancing the public interest. However, the contributions and concerns of academic librarians and archivists are often overlooked in such discussions, even in faculty unions. This may academic librarians and archivists are often overlooked in such discussions, even in faculty unions. This may owe to our small numbers and distinctive responsibilities, but, despite this, we remain committed to advancing owe to our small numbers and distinctive responsibilities, but, despite this, we remain committed to advancing our rights to better defend the vital work of the university library. How do we accomplish this? Through our rights to better defend the vital work of the university library. How do we accomplish this? Through collective bargaining. collective bargaining. Librarians and archivists work on behalf of communities to ensure reliable and fair infrastructure for delivering Librarians and archivists work on behalf of communities to ensure reliable and fair infrastructure for delivering scholarly and educational resources; we make these available to the greatest number of people for the best cost scholarly and educational resources; we make these available to the greatest number of people for the best cost and terms that we can negotiate; we carefully analyse and describe our collections so that those beyond our and terms that we can negotiate; we carefully analyse and describe our collections so that those beyond our immediate communities can nd unique and important materials; we build and preserve research collections; immediate communities can nd unique and important materials; we build and preserve research collections; we protect intellectual freedom; and we are actively engaged in pushing back against unethical commercial we protect intellectual freedom; and we are actively engaged in pushing back against unethical commercial publishers that prioritize pro t over education and scholarship. publishers that prioritize pro t over education and scholarship. In this work, we have faced many challenges in recent years, including reductions in professional staf ng, In this work, we have faced many challenges in recent years, including reductions in professional staf ng, redistribution of professional work to lower-paid sta f, outsourcing, and the implementation of awed redistribution of professional work to lower-paid sta f, outsourcing, and the implementation of awed performance metrics. performance metrics. This article outlines how faculty unions can proactively ensure that librarians and archivists have the conditions This article outlines how faculty unions can proactively ensure that librarians and archivists have the conditions we need to facilitate our work. Many of these concerns are shared with professors and other academic sta f we need to facilitate our work. Many of these concerns are shared with professors and other academic sta f because, in a highly interdependent system like a university, challenges to one group often have repercussions because, in a highly interdependent system like a university, challenges to one group often have repercussions for others. With that in mind, this article provides a perspective based on my experience as an academic for others. With that in mind, this article provides a perspective based on my experience as an academic librarian in Ontario. librarian in Ontario. Governance: Who makes the decisions anyway? Governance: Who makes the decisions anyway? Governance is concerned with decision-making, authority, and power. Who controls the university's resources? Governance is concerned with decision-making, authority, and power. Who controls the university's resources? How are resources generated? Is control well-executed? Is decision-making shared with those who have How are resources generated? Is control well-executed? Is decision-making shared with those who have expertise in educating students and performing scholarly activities, or is it primarily a management function? expertise in educating students and performing scholarly activities, or is it primarily a management function? Ontario universities are typically bicameral in their governance structures, meaning that management-Ontario universities are typically bicameral in their governance structures, meaning that managementdelegated by a university's board of governors-shares some power over a limited number of resources with the delegated by a university's board of governors-shares some power over a limited number of resources with the rank and le, meaning professors, librarians, archivists, and other academic sta f. rank and le, meaning professors, librarians, archivists, and other academic sta f. Access to decision-making is foundational because it ensures that librarians and archivists have meaningful Access to decision-making is foundational because it ensures that librarians and archivists have meaningful control over our work. Like professors, librarians and archivists have expertise that management often lacks, as control over our work. Like professors, librarians and archivists have expertise that management often lacks, as well as objectives that provide a counterbalance to those of the administration. Unlike management, the well as objectives that provide a counterbalance to those of the administration. Unlike management, the interests of rank and le workers go far beyond increasing institutional ef ciency and intensifying control over interests of rank and le workers go far beyond increasing institutional ef ciency and intensifying control over university budgets. We express perspectives that favour the educational interests of students and the public, university budgets. We express perspectives that favour the educational interests of students and the public, which, in the heavily commercialized sphere of scholarly production and dissemination, are perspectives that which, in the heavily commercialized sphere of scholarly production and dissemination, are perspectives that are becoming more and more important. are becoming more and more important.

La présente réflexion projette un regard critique sur l’usage du groupe WhatsApp dans le milieu universitaire congolais. De manière très claire, elle tente d’élucider si les étudiants congolais mettent à profit, l’utilisation de cette application dans leur cursus académique. Pour répondre à cette préoccupation, l’étude s’appuie sur un corpus d’interactions échangées par les étudiants de deuxième licence en gestion commerciale de l’Université de Kinshasa.
A l’issue de l’analyse faite sur l’ensemble de données, l’étude déduit que l’exploitation de la plus-value de WhatsApp reste encore dérisoire dans le milieu académique congolais. Pour y remédier, l’étude préconise une utilisation plus ciblée de WhatsApp comme plateforme d’échange pédagogique, avec des interactions plus structurées entre étudiants et enseignants, mieux où les activités liées à la formation universitaire des étudiants seraient au centre de son usage. Ainsi, de cette façon, WhatsApp pourrait servir à améliorer l’enseignement supérieur congolais, en facilitant notamment la continuité des cours à distance.

Following the 2021 coup in Myanmar, ‘Spring Universities’ have emerged as online educational platforms, offering higher education opportunities to a generation of students who have lost the benefits of the previous decade of reforms (2011-2021). Using qualitative data, this article analyses three student-led institutions: the Burma Academy (BA), Spring University Myanmar (SUM), and Irrawaddy Law School (ILS). Despite facing numerous adversities, these institutions demonstrate remarkable flexibility through innovative teaching methods, bottom-up research initiatives, horizontal management structures and the exploration of alternative educational pathways. This ensures both the continuity of learning and support for the ongoing Spring Revolution. The dedication of founders and educators highlights how students can serve as effective agents of change in times of crisis. These Spring Universities not only address immediate challenges but also lay the groundwork for Myanmar’s long-term social justice and political reform.

Οι κύριοι στόχοι του παρόντος άρθρου είναι, αφενός μεν, η κριτική διερεύνηση των μεταβολών που επέφερε στην ακαδημαϊκή
εργασιακή διαδικασία η εξάπλωση των ιδεολογικών αρχών και των διοικητικών πρακτικών του νέου διευθυντισμού στην ανώτατη εκπαίδευση, αφετέρου δε, η ανάλυση των νέων οργανωσιακών μορφών, που αντιστοιχούν σε τρεις σχετικά ευδιάκριτες βασικές κατηγορίες πανεπιστημιακών ιδρυμάτων, τα οποία έχουν διαφορετικούς συντονιστικούς μηχανισμούς, καθώς και διαφορετικούς εκπαιδευτικούς και ερευνητικούς προσανατολισμούς.

Across the United States, universities are raising the alarm about what they see as a campaign by the Donald Trump administration to assert political control over higher education. Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania have all experienced withdrawn federal grants—part of a broader strategy to condition public funding on political compliance. Federal officials had previously warned 60 institutions that their civil rights policies could jeopardize their grants.

In this academic interview, Yale law professor Robert C. Post elucidates the distinction between freedom of expression and academic freedom, emphasizing that universities are communities guided by the twin missions of education and knowledge production. At their best, universities function as 'disciplinary communities' who must act in professionally competent ways. Post characterizes academic freedom as a 'two-faced coin'. On the one hand, academic freedom embodies the values and principles essential for the governance of a healthy university community; on the other hand, it shields universities from external regulations that might hinder their mission of advancing education and research. Post also addresses the significant challenges to freedom of expression posed by the cosmopolitan public sphere, particularly in the age of social media and AI. As a trustee of Meta's Oversight Board, Post highlights the complex issue of harmful speech online, noting that it is not only a matter of scale but also of scale, producing harms that are stochastic in nature.

This chapter tackles the public appeal of twelve theologians, professors on the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, in defense of the autonomy of academic research. Their public statement, issued in May 2017, was soon after criticized by the hierarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), while these theologians were reprimanded and sanctioned by the Holy Council of Bishops and the Patriarch of Serbia. In the forthcoming appraisal, this event will serve as a case study regarding the possible emergence of liberal currents within the SOC, which is otherwise largely considered a conservative, nationalist religious institution whose authority is rarely disputed not only by its own clergy, but also by the secular Serbian authorities.

Results and discussion. The study has led to conceptualisation of theoretical understanding of governance, especially as it relates to the issues of leadership and greater institutional autonomy . The results introduce pragmatic examples of best practices for other administrative leaders to learn from. Analysis of assumptions of academic leaders, faculty and students toward the proposed innovations in university governance has been developed. The study led to completion of six case studies, describing governance practices at the six higher education institutions. Part of the study has been the development of training materials based on the cases for capacity building seminars for university leaders and trustees. A number of publications have been published during the first stage of the study . Conclusions. This research identified four clusters of insights essential to leverage institutional autonomy for institutional improvement and innovation. The themes include the importance of university autonomy, the challenges implementing such autonomy, the role of context in promoting autonomy, and how the system can build on its current foundations. Acknowledgments. The study is funded by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan via Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education.

This chapter identifies and discusses a remarkable dimension of the process of building the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which concerns the fundamental values of higher education. From their very start, the Bologna Process and the EHEA have included references to values. The chapter tracks how these references evolved over 25 years from being unsystematic and not very central from a policy point of view to becoming a well-articulated and solid intellectual and policy framework for the entire Process. In 2018, members of the EHEA adopted a defined list of six EHEA "fundamental values of higher education". They are now completing a process of adopting shared EHEA definitions for each fundamental value, have made explicit commitments about how they are expected to further in practice these values as jointly defined ("protect" "and "promote" the fundamental values), and have agreed in principle to implement a monitoring mechanism to assess how these commitments are implemented in all systems. In order to track and interpret the milestones and overall trajectory of this development, the chapter relies on an analysis of the Bologna Ministerial Communiqués. Other official documents are also considered, along with relevant contributions from the scholarship of the Bologna Process and EHEA.

This chapter analyses the emergence, design, characteristics, and function of a new monitoring mechanism put forward as part of a larger undertaking in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) meant to safeguard the fundamental values of higher education. This monitoring mechanism is characterized as a policy tool of a transnational nature. Values have underscored the Bologna Process since its launch in 1999. However, in response to the crisis of academic freedom, a new approach to what is now designated as "the fundamental values of higher education" emerged after 2015. This development marked the advent of a transnational policy framework comprising (1) the identification and formal adoption for the first time by all EHEA members (at the time, 49 countries and the European Commission) of a defined list of six fundamental values for higher education; (2) the development and formal adoption of new and shared EHEA-wide conceptual references for these values; (3) the adoption of concrete government-level commitments to protect and promote, in the higher education systems of all members, the fundamental values of higher education as jointly defined in the EHEA; and (4) the decision to develop and employ an EHEAwide mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the commitments regarding the fundamental values of higher education.

Starting from 2015-2017, significant progress can be observed in Europe, possibly more than in other parts of the world, in developing new and better adapted frameworks of reference for safeguarding academic freedom. This includes the adoption for the first time of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA)-wide common conceptual reference for academic freedom in 2020, shared at least nominally by 49 countries. The present paper proposes a new analytic framework for studying and understanding these developments. When employing this new perspective, it becomes evident that similar developments regarding new conceptualizations, codification, monitoring, and practice of academic freedom are happening in other parts of the world and at other levels in higher education systems as well (i.e., institutional, national, and global). A specific question to be asked in this context is how European developments fit with and interact with global developments and trends in this area. In particular, the paper examines the possibility and desirability of a global conceptual reference for academic freedom, one that transcends national and regional frameworks, including that of the EHEA. Answers are sought through an analytical overview of the scholarship regarding the feasibility and desirability of a common global conceptual reference for academic freedom and by interrogating the results of a curated expert dialogue dedicated to this topic.

Academic freedom is particularly vulnerable during times of war. Since the start of the resistance war in Myanmar in 2021, the military has been repressing civil liberties and state surveillance has become entrenched in every aspect of people's lives. Although the military has often faced defeat on the battleground, there is a strong resilience in ideological control, especially within the university. This paper assesses factors limiting academic freedom in Myanmar by analyzing forms of coercion and consent prevailing in the education bureaucracy under the lens of Gramscian State Theory. Following its crackdown on the Civil Disobedience Movement of lecturers and university students, the State Administrative Council is bolstering its ideological influence by utilizing staff training and legal modifications as tools for the state' s transmission of ideology. Universities must conform to the state's ideology and fulfill the legal, procedural, and institutional obligations of the ideological state apparatus. This paper employs document analysis, participant observation, and qualitative interviews to identify the constraint factors that hinder academics from exercising their rights in knowledge production while exposing them to legal and structural violations of their civil and political rights. It argues that the Civil Services Personnel Law and associated institutional culture deepen the deprivation of academic freedom. It also suggests that new educational institutions evolving out of resistance need not repeat the history of coercion,

Depuis son arrivée au pouvoir, l'administration Trump II poursuit une croisade anti-scientifique sans précédent et multiplie les coupes budgétaires, interdictions et répressions. Une menace qui pèse lourdement sur la recherche américaine et fait écho aux restrictions des libertés académiques à l'échelle internationale. En réaction, la communauté scientifique s'organise au sein du mouvement « Stand Up for Science », visant à défendre le rôle essentiel de la recherche.

Las políticas culturales son un campo de análisis de la política internacional, las ciencias sociales y los estudios culturales. Su aplicación tras la Convención de 2005, es una problemática vigente. Sobre el tema, en Cuba se evidencian escasas publicaciones, unido a la insuficiente presencia de la nación, en los informes Re/Pensar las políticas culturales de 2015 y 2018; hecho contradictorio, por la transversalidad y externalidad de la cultura, en los últimos 20 años de su modelo socialista. Este aspecto, motivó el estudio de la política cultural gubernamental revolucionaria, tomando como referente histórico-contextual la etapa "post-2015". El principal objetivo del trabajo, es exponer la aplicación del marco metodológico de la Convención de 2005. En su enfoque teórico-metodológico, se muestran referentes de la sociología y la concepción materialista de la historia. Para la revisión de las fuentes documentales, se utilizó el método histórico-lógico y el análisis documental. En las conclusiones, se muestran resultados en las áreas de apoyo a los sistemas sostenibles de gobernanza cultural y promoción de los derechos humanos, a la par que se sugiere, incluir acciones de transparencia e información sobre las áreas: medios de comunicación públicos, entorno digital, asociación con la sociedad civil y movilidad de los artistas.

En este trabajo se propone un conjunto de actividades para evaluar la participación del sistema empresarial en el proceso de formación de la fuerza de trabajo calificada que contribuyen a elevar la calidad del egresado, para lo cual se hizo un estudio teórico de los autores que han trabajo el proceso de formación profesional y los que trabajan la categoría evolución, lo que permitió determinar la necesidad de la propuesta. También se tuvieron en cuenta las resoluciones que norman este proceso de formación y los documentos del tercer perfeccionamiento, donde se evidencia que el Subsistema de la Educación Técnica y Profesional debe garantizar una formación profesional que proyecte un proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje coherente con la preparación de un trabajador con hábitos, actitudes, cualidades y habilidades profesionales, en estrecha relación con los intereses individuales y necesidades de la producción y los servicios. Se usaron los métodos revisión de documentos y la modelación.

This discussion's participantsall public historians working on Russia, albeit from different disciplinary backgrounds and with different areas of expertisespeak about the past and the present of (public) history in the country, and touch upon possible futures. Beginning with an acknowledgment of the immense interest in historical knowledge that characterized the 1990s, the conversation goes on to examine the rise of the official historical politics in Putin's Russia and their impact on historical science, memory work, and public engagement with the past more broadly. These developments contextualize the establishment of the first public history programs at Russian universities in the early 2010s, discussed here both in their specificities and compared to other countries. At the heart of the conversation is the war of aggression that Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022. The participants of the discussion see it as a caesura, while at the same highlighting continuities in the regime's historical politics before and after the invasion. Issues of postcolonialism and decolonization are also raised, as well as the question of (public) historians' responsibility for the ongoing tragedy.

Why cannot we trust (and leave it to) the universities reassuring ourselves that they would prepare a good panel of VCs? To examine this proposition, a best way is to look within the AMU. AMU has got exceptionally huge autonomy in preparing a panel of its VCs. The panel is made by the AMU’s Executive Council. This is heavily dominated and hegemonized by the internal teachers of AMU. The AMU has thus far been enjoying absolute autonomy in empaneling its VC, regardless of whether the successive ruling dispensations in New Delhi were alleged to be “appeasing” or “tormenting” the Muslim minorities.

Am 28. September 2017 hat die Bildungsaufsichtsbehörde »Rosobrnadsor« der Europäischen Universität
St. Petersburg mitgeteilt, ihr keine neue Lizenz als Bildungseinrichtung zu erteilen. Damit droht der international
renommierten Hochschule das Aus. Mit diesem Schritt verdeutlicht Russland ein weiteres Mal, dass
das Land auf die Meinung der internationalen Öffentlichkeit keinen Wert mehr legt.

El colectivo de investigadores del Observatorio de Libertad Académica hace  público su cuadragésimo quinto informe titulado “La Universidad de Oriente,  baluarte inexpugnable del odio político”, correspondiente al mes de septiembre  de 2024. En esta ocasión registramos dos procesos de censura ocurridos en la  Universidad de Oriente que culminaron con la cancelaron académica de un  estudiante y un profesor; y que, aunque distantes por más de veinte años,  permiten identificar similitudes en el patrón de acoso fijado en la casa de altos  estudios santiaguera.