Science and higher education are key for expanding human knowledge, enhancing society's capacity

for self-reflection and finding solutions to pressing challenges.

Academic freedom is a universal right and fundamental to scientific progress and the

pursuit of truth. If students and scholars can't study and engage in research freely,

the world's biggest problems cannot be solved.

171 countries have committed to safeguarding the freedom indispensable for scientific research.

But not all universities around the world are free institutions, and some academics

experience negative repercussions because of their work. From self-censorship and surveillance

in classrooms to regulations that ban research or outright violent repression, these are

just some examples of how academic freedom gets stifled around the world.

How free are students and scholars in pursuing their studies and research?

To understand this, researchers in Germany and Sweden have joined forces with experts

around the world to develop an Academic Freedom Index, a dataset that quantifies the levels

of academic freedom worldwide. We've discovered that almost 80% of the world's population

currently live in countries where academic freedom is not well protected in practice.

How do we know? The index assesses academic freedom by looking

at five key indicators. Academic freedom means that individual researchers

can pursue their curiosity without interference or restrictions. This is what we call the

freedom of scholars to research and teach. Academic freedom also includes the freedom

to share one's research findings with the public and to exchange ideas with other scientists.

Academic freedom entails that universities have institutional autonomy and can take

independent decisions including how to invest resources or who to partner with.

Academic freedom is also about safety. Students and professors should be free from surveillance

and harassment on campus, including on digital learning platforms. And the index includes

an indicator that captures scholars' freedom to express themselves on current events or

political issues. So far, data is available for 175 countries

and territories for the time span between 1900 and 2020.

Each country and year get assessed by several independent experts, who are usually academics

based in that country. Of course, experts are not perfect in their assessments.

To reduce biases and improve comparability, the Academic Freedom Index relies on a state-of-the-art

statistical model that the VDEM project developed for their large social science dataset on

democracy. The VDEM model considers each expert assessment

individually and attributes more weight to experts who are identified as most reliable.

We also continuously invite more experts to contribute to the index and help us improve

the databases. So far, about 2,000 country experts around

the world have helped paint the most comprehensive global picture that exists of academic freedom

to date. One of the most valuable features of the data

is that we can also trace how academic freedom has evolved in individual countries over time,

like in this example of Turkey. This data is open access and can be downloaded

by anyone for further analysis. Who might find it particularly useful?

Scientists who want to research how and why academic freedom increases or declines.

University leaders who want to guard academic freedom in their own institutions and build

partnerships with universities in other countries. Policymakers who seek to promote academic

freedom or engage in international science diplomacy.

Research funders who seek to better understand the context of different research projects.

And of course, scholars and students who plan to study or work abroad and want to understand

what kind of environment they will encounter. Academic freedom is a universal right and

common good. We hope that better knowledge on the state

of academic freedom in the world will have a cascading effect.

That it will spark meaningful public debates on academic freedom infringements and inspire