Academic freedom is the right of a teacher to instruct and the right of a student to learn in an academic setting unhampered by interference. It may also include the right of academics to engage in social and political criticism.
Academic freedom is often premised on the conviction that freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts (including those that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities) without the fear of being repressed, losing their job or being imprisoned. While the core of academic freedom covers scholars acting in an academic capacity (as teachers or researchers expressing strictly scholarly viewpoints), an expansive interpretation extends these occupational safeguards to scholars' speech on matters outside their professional expertise.Van Alstyne, William (1975). The Specific Theory of Academic Freedom and the General Issue of Civil Liberty. In The Concept of Academic Freedom, ed. Edmund Pincoffs. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1975.
Academic tenure protects academic freedom by ensuring that teachers can be fired only for causes such as gross professional incompetence or behavior that evokes condemnation from the academic community itself.. The academic community pressuring scholars can reduce academic freedom.
Historically, academic freedom emerged tentatively, as academics in medieval and early modern Europe could face repression for acting in ways considered objectionable by religious authorities or by governments. Scholars tend to link the institutionalization of academic freedom to the rise of the modern research university and the Humboldtian model of higher education from the 19th century. By one estimate, academic freedom has substantially increased worldwide since the 1960s. Academic freedom is more likely in liberal democratic states, while it is more heavily constrained in authoritarian states, illiberal states, and states embroiled in military conflict. Since 2013, while some countries have seen improvements to academic freedom, the overall trend is towards reductions in freedom.
Definition
A minimal definition of academic freedom is that a teacher has a right to instruct, and a student has a right to learn in an academic setting unhampered by interference.Britannica website, academic freedom, article dated Mar 25, 2024 Other definitions include the right of teachers to engage in social and political criticism.
A broader definition of academic freedom incorporates individual, extramural and institutional components. Under this broader definition, an academic has freedom of expression without government interference, but this freedom is circumscribed by academic expertise and position. Academic freedom of speech is therefore narrower than a general freedom of speech. For example, a non-academic has the freedom of speech to criticize the efficacy of vaccines, but only has academic freedom to do so if they possess the prerequisite academic qualifications to do so. Unlike public speech, academic speech is also subject to quality controls by academic peers, for example through peer review.
Universities UK has defined academic freedom as "protecting the intellectual independence of academics to question and test received views and wisdom, and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing themselves in danger of losing their jobs or privileges",Universities UK website, Higher education sector statement on promoting academic freedom and free speech, article dated 20 Dec 2022 while the American Federation of Teachers has seen it as "based on the idea that the free exchange of ideas on campus is essential to good education". Norwegian education sees it as a guarantee that research and teaching is "intellectually and morally independent of all political and economic interests", leading to openness, free enquiry and debate.
The laissez-faire approach of unaccountable academic freedom is contrasted with democratic accountability of academia.
Historical background Historically, academic freedom emerged tentatively. However, Richard Hofstadter and Walter Metzger contend that academic freedom is "a modern term for an ancient idea" and "can be traced at least as far back as Socrates' eloquent defense of himself in 399 B.C. against the charge of corrupting the youth of Athens."
In 1155, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa issued the document Authentica habita which laid out rights and privileges of students and scholars, which included immunity from civil jurisdiction and freedom of movement for the purposes of studying and teaching. Similarly, civil disturbances, such as the St Scholastica Day riot of 1355 at the University of Oxford often led to great autonomy for universities. And even those scholars who committed theological heresy, such as John Wyclif and Jan Hus, has support due to their roles as faculty at a university.
19th century The Humboldtian model of higher education from the 19th century enshrined the basic ideas of academic freedom and diffused them to other countries. Wilhelm von Humboldt was a philosopher and linguist who was given the authority to create a new university in Berlin in the early 19th century. In founding the Humboldt University of Berlin he created a university that adhered to two principles of academic freedom: freedom of scientific inquiry and the unity between research and teaching. According to Humboldt, the fundamental proposition underlying the principles of academic freedom was to uphold the view that science is not something that has already been found but as knowledge that will never be fully discovered and, yet, needs to be searched for unceasingly. The university he founded later became a model and inspiration for modern colleges in Germany and universities in the West.
During this period there was also a sense that universities must be insulated from the pressures of donors, boards of trustees and state governments. One notable instance was the case of the resignation of Brown University president Elisha Andrews, who advocated silver coinage to reduce the impact on Americans and farmers who owed larger and larger loans due to deflation. The board of Brown University, many of whom were creditors and landowners and benefited from deflation, told Andrews to cease his public advocacy. The dean of Yale Law School, Francis Wayland, argued that Andrews' free expression threatened donations to Brown, and that money was the life blood of universities. In 1897, Andrews was forced to offer his resignation, but there was a backlash by faculty and students who advocated that he should be protected under the principles of free speech. The board reversed its decision and refused Andrews' resignation. A year later, Andrews resigned anyway.
20th century The concept of academic freedom was also formulated in response to the encroachments of the totalitarian state on science and academia in general for the furtherance of its own goals. For instance, in the Soviet Union, scientific research was brought under strict political control in the 1930s. A number of research areas were declared "bourgeois pseudoscience" and forbidden, notably genetics (see "Lysenkoism") and sociology. Marxist scientist John Desmond Bernal characterized this as part of the interdependence between "applied science" and "pure science".
Michael Polanyi argued that a structure of liberty is essential for the advancement of science. In 1936, as a consequence of an invitation to give lectures for the Ministry of Heavy Industry in the USSR, Polanyi met Bukharin, who told him that in socialist societies all scientific research is directed to accord with the needs of the latest five-year plan. Demands in Britain for centrally planned scientific research led Polanyi, together with John Baker, to found the Society for Freedom in Science. The society promoted a liberal conception of science as free enquiry against the instrumental view that science should exist primarily to serve the needs of society. In a series of articles, re-published in The Contempt of Freedom (1940) and The Logic of Liberty (1951), Polanyi claimed that co-operation among scientists is analogous to the way in which agents co-ordinate themselves within a free market. Just as consumers in a free market determine the value of products, science is a spontaneous order that arises as a consequence of open debate among specialists. Science can therefore only flourish when scientists have the liberty to pursue truth as an end in itself:
Rationale Proponents of academic freedom believe that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy. They argue that academic communities are repeatedly targeted for repression due to their ability to shape and control the flow of information. When scholars attempt to teach or communicate ideas or facts that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities, they may find themselves targeted for public vilification, job loss, imprisonment, or even death. For example, in North Africa, a professor of public health discovered that his country's infant mortality rate was higher than government figures indicated. He lost his job and was imprisoned.Robert Quinn (2004). " Items and Issues: Defending 'Dangerous Minds .'" Social Science Research Council. Vol. 5 No. 1-2.Ralph E. Fuchs (1969). "Academic Freedom—Its Basic Philosophy, Function and History," in Louis Joughin (ed)., Academic Freedom and Tenure: A Handbook of the American Association of University Professors.
The fate of biology in the Soviet Union is cited by Jasper Becker as a reason why society has an interest in protecting academic freedom. Also it is important to make the distinction between science and pseudoscience, on the border of this lies the case of a Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko rejected Western science – then focused primarily on making advances in theoretical genetics, based on research with the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) – and proposed an approach to farming that was based on the collectivist principles of dialectical materialism. Lysenko called this "Michurinism", but it is more commonly known today as Lysenkoism, and named after him. Lysenko's ideas appealed to the Soviet leadership, in part because of their value as propaganda, and he was ultimately made director of the Soviet Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Subsequently, Lysenko directed a purge of scientists who professed "harmful ideas", resulting in the expulsion, imprisonment, or death of hundreds of Soviet scientists. Lysenko's ideas were then implemented on collectivized farms in the Soviet Union and China. Famines that resulted partly from Lysenko's influence are believed to have killed 30 million people in China alone during the Great Leap Forward.Jasper Becker (1996). Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. New York: Free Press. Chapter 5: False science, false promises. "All over China in 1958...real scientists were imprisoned or sent to do manual labor. In their place, thousands of untrained peasants carried out 'scientific research.'" (p. 63). "For twenty-five years, Trofim Denisovitch Lysenko ruled over Soviet agricultural scientists list a dictator. Those who opposed him were shot or perished in labor camps..." (p. 64)
Sociologist Ruth Pearce argued that the concept of academic freedom exists to protect scholarship from censure by state or religious authorities or others, and not to defend intolerance. Academic freedom can be reduced through scholars pressuring other scholars and resulting self-censorship or political bias.