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Topline
Indicators of academic freedom declined for more than half the world’s population between 2012 and 2022, data from the updated Academic Freedom Index finds, including students and teachers living in the United States who endured the fallout over the recent debate over critical race theory.
A student walks near Royce Hall at UCLA (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Key Facts
The updated Index released Thursday measured scholars’ and academic institutions’ freedom from political interference and surveillance in 179 countries.
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg and FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg analyzed data from more than 2,000 experts before assigning each country an academic freedom score from zero to one, with zero being no academic freedom and one being perfect academic freedom.
Academic freedom scores substantially declined between 2012 and 2022 in 22 countries, including India and China, affecting more than 50% of the world’s population, according to the Index.
Overall academic freedom in the United States declined 15% (from 0.93 in 2012 to 0.79 in 2022), but teachers’ freedom to speak their mind on topics of their choosing—even political ones—has remained constant and robust.
Though data suggests academic freedom substantially increased in five countries from 2012 to 2022, only 0.7% of the world’s population reaped the benefits.
Academic freedom declined across types of governments, including countries facing increased state control, like Russia, and liberal democracies like the U.S. and the U.K.
Countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Northern Africa faced the sharpest declines in academic freedom scores between 2012 and 2022.
Key Background
The Index analyzed data using a statistical model created by the Varieties of Democracy project, which specializes in analyzing principles of democracy, before comparing each country’s academic freedom score in 2022 and to their score in 2012. Researchers say global academic freedom is difficult to measure, so each country’s estimated score comes with an uncertainty interval, or range of possible scores. If a country’s range of academic freedom scores from 2012 overlapped with its range of scores from 2022, researchers couldn’t statistically determine if academic freedom increased or decreased.
Countries With The Highest Academic Freedom Scores
- Czechia (0.98)
- Estonia (0.97)
- Belgium (0.97)
- Italy (0.96)
- Germany (0.96)
Countries With The Lowest Academic Freedom Scores
- North Korea (0.01)
- Myanmar (0.01)
- Eritrea (0.02)
- Turkmenistan (0.02)
- Belarus (0.03)
Countries Whose Academic Freedom Scores Improved from 2012 to 2022
- Seychelles (0.75 in 2012 to 0.91 in 2022)
- Montenegro (0.61 to 0.82)
- The Gambia (0.49 to 0.82)
- Kazakhstan (0.25 to 0.50)
- Uzbekistan (0.06 to 0.30)
Countries Whose Academic Freedom Scores Fell The Most from 2012 to 2022
- Brazil (0.50 point drop)
- Hong Kong (0.48)
- Afghanistan (0.42)
- El Salvador (0.37)
- Nicaragua (0.37)
Surprising Fact
President Donald Trump frequently criticized and threatened to defund some scientific and academic institutions, but American academic freedom indicators declined visibly on Index models in 2021 after he left office. This is because American education is largely regulated by states that have increasingly interfered in academics since 2021, experts say.
Tangent
Three individual indicators of academic freedom dropped significantly in America between 2012 and 2022: School campus freedom from political surveillance or harassment dropped the most at 0.77 points (individual indicators are measured on a scale of zero to four with zero being no freedom and four being perfect freedom), followed by freedom for teachers to research and teach what they want (which declined by 0.76) and academic institutions’ freedom to operate without political interference (which declined by 0.56). But some state actions, like banning teachings related to Critical Race Theory, negatively affected America’s 2022 academic freedom score. Efforts to “polarize and intimidate” teachers negatively affected America’s academic freedom score, experts say, including online lists claiming to expose “radical” professors, like Professor Watchlist, and pressure from political conservatives to hold college professors “accountable” by restricting tenure, which negatively affects teachers’ job security.
Further Reading
Academic Freedom Index Update 2023 (FAU)
College Board Flunks In Florida. Here’s Why. (Forbes)
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