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Academic Freedom Report: Legal Protection and Challenges in the 21st Century

Explore the importance of academic freedom, its legal protection, and challenges faced. Learn about the UCU study on protection levels, European survey findings, and more.

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Academic Freedom Report: Legal Protection and Challenges in the 21st Century

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  1. Annual Congress, University and College Union, Brighton, 27th May 2017. Academic Freedom: UCU Report Terence Karran

  2. Academic Freedom: a ‘Cindarella’ liberty? • Academic freedom is important for academics, but has little resonance with the public at large, when compared with other more critical liberties like freedom from unlawful imprisonment, or freedom of speech, etc. However, academic freedom, as well as protecting the freedom to teach and research, enables universities to act as ‘the critic and conscience of society.’ Moreover, in a knowledge economy, academic freedom is vital in enabling the discovery of new knowledge.

  3. Protection for Academic Freedom • Academic freedom, like other basic rights, usually has legal (de jure) protection by means of constitutions and legislation. • Additionally, the manner in which the law is interpreted, and acted on, gives rise to normative practices and de facto protection. • The UCU study examined both the de jure protection, via examination of legal instruments, and the de factor protection, by means of a survey which was completed by +2500 UCU members.

  4. De Jure Protection - The Constitution

  5. National Legislation

  6. International Treaties - UNESCO

  7. Academic Freedom “Scorecard” • An academic freedom “scorecard” was developed, comprising 37 statements, to assess legal protection in five critical areas: • freedom to teach and research (20%) • institutional autonomy (20%) • university governance (20%) • university autonomy (20%) • in international agreements and the constitution (20%) • The % level of protection for each EU nation was assessed for each of these dimensions.

  8. Academic Freedom in Europe in 2016De Jure Protection: Detailed Scorecard

  9. De Jure Protection: Summary Scorecard

  10. De Jure Protection: Summary • Constitution: • UK has no protection for freedom of speech • UK has no protection for academic freedom • National Legislation: • ERA 1988 allows for redress for dismissal without due cause – but since 1996 no commissioners exist to investigate cases • International Instruments: • UK is signatory of 1997 UNESCORecommendation but is not compliant with the major elements (e.g. governance, tenure)

  11. Academic Freedom: an Empirical Approach • Although academic freedom is considered important, very few (if any) empirical analyses have been undertaken of academics’ experiences of how this liberty operates in their workplace and whether existing departmental norms and institutional policies provide sufficient protection for academic freedom, more particularly in the UK, where tenure no longer exists.

  12. Academic Freedom: The European survey • In 2013, the lead author was awarded an EU funding for a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, to enable a study of academic freedom in the European Union. The major aspect of this work was the creation of an on-line survey on academic freedom, which was completed by university staff in all the universities of the European states. This work is on-going, but currently there are more than 5300 responses from EU nations.

  13. Academic Freedom: The UCU Survey • Following consultation at UCU, some questions in the EU survey were removed, while others, more directly relating to the UCU, were added. The survey was made available on-line, and all UCU members were emailed an invitation from the General Secretary, and a reminder. 2340 UCU members completed the survey, making it large enough to be able to undertake comparative analyses with the EU data. All results reported here are statistically significant at the 5% level (χ 2 and ANOVA).

  14. I have an adequate working knowledge of the concept of academic freedom

  15. Do you know about the protection for academic freedom available under the 1988 Education Reform Act?

  16. Do you know about the UNESCO 1997 Recommendation on academic freedom?

  17. I would welcome additional information on the concept of academic freedom

  18. To what extent is academic freedom protected in your institution?

  19. Has the protection of academic freedom in your university altered in recent years?

  20. Individual academic freedom for teaching has declined in my institution in recent years

  21. My individual academic freedom for research has declined in recent years

  22. My institution’s autonomy has • declined in recent years

  23. My institution’s self governance • has declined in recent years

  24. Employment protection for academic staff in my university has declined in recent years

  25. Because of your academic views have you been subjected to bullying by academic colleagues?

  26. Because of your academic views have you been subjected to psychological pressure by academic colleagues?

  27. Have you ever undertaken self-censorship (refrained from publishing, teaching, talking or doing research on a particular topic), for fear of negative repercussions

  28. I am concerned that the TEF will reduce my individual academic freedom

  29. Knowledge of Academic freedom • Adequate working knowledge: • Lower level of knowledge in UK than EU • UNESCO 1997 Recommendation: • Lower level of knowledge in UK than EU • Desire for additional information: • Higher desire for additional information in UK than EU

  30. De Facto Protection: Summary • Academic Freedom -Teaching: • Decline in protection is greater in UK than EU • Academic Freedom - Research: • Decline in protection is greater in UK than EU • Academic Freedom -Autonomy: • Decline in protection is greater in UK than EU • Academic Freedom - Governance: • Decline in protection is greater in UK than EU • Academic Freedom – Tenure: • Decline in protection is greater in UK than EU • )

  31. Impact of low de jure and de facto protection for academic freedom on staff in U.K. higher education: • Experience of bullying: • Greater in UK (23.1%) than EU (14.1%) • Experience of Psychological Pressure: • Greater in UK (26.6%) than EU (15.7%) • Experience of Self Censorship • Greater in UK (35.5%) than EU (19.1%) • Opinion on likely impact of TEF • 70% think TEF will reduce academic freedom

  32. The Next Steps? • Education and Awareness Raising: • UK University staff have relatively low levels of knowledge about academic freedom, and hence are less likely to complain when their academic freedom is abused. • National and International Action: • National action to improve protection for academic freedom is unlikely to be effective. An appeal to UNESCO that the 1997 Recommendation is not observed in the UK, although it is a signatory state, stands a better chance of success.

  33. Thank you for listening! If you would like a copy of this presentation, or a copy of UCU Report, then please email me: tkarran@lincoln.ac.uk

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