Inclusive freedom reflects university values in protecting free thought, inquiry and expression, while protecting the dignity of all students and faculty by allowing them to equally contribute.
Academic freedom protects free speech, but also conditions it. Knowledge cannot be tested and doesn’t advance if there isn’t also a duty to be well informed and reasoned.
Not only do some countries perpetrate direct attacks on students and academics but the internationalisation of higher education has also created new global threats.
Most medical research is funded by industry, not public sources. And industry puts pressure on researchers in many ways, from guiding the research question to suppressing unfavourable findings.
National security isn’t just about warding off physical attacks. It’s also about understanding cultural forces that drive a society to think, feel and act in certain ways, a political scientist says.
Is a $25 million judgement against Oberlin College going to chill free speech – or is the wealth of a publicly subsidized private college helping polarize debates about race and politics?
Tensions between the government and the university sector ran high in 2018, with the government cutting funding to student places and research and a big push back from universities.
The Institute for Public Affairs’ audit of academic freedom pits people either for or against universities. This prevents us from having thorough conversations about real threats to academic freedom.
Most universities do, in fact, mention academic freedom in several policy documents, such as enterprise bargaining agreements and other codes of conduct.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University