Final Report Summary - SAFE (Safeguarding Academic Freedom in Europe)
The project “Safeguarding Academic Freedom in Europe” (SAFE) addressed (and subsequent further research after the formal end of the project will continue to address) academic freedom as a fundamental human right and as a key element in creating a knowledge economy in Europe. Whereas universities are vital in the construction of a European knowledge economy, academic freedom is essential to the proper functioning of universities.
Academic freedom is generally recognised as a human right, both at the national and the international level. Focusing on Europe, specifically those countries that are members of the European Union, it may be observed that academic freedom often has a basis in the constitutions and laws on higher education of these countries. The countries concerned are also bound under international human rights agreements, such as the International Covenants on Civil and Political and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, respectively, or the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, as amended and supplemented, to safeguard academic freedom under provisions on the rights to freedom of expression, to freedom of scientific research and to education in these instruments. The research analysed the constitutional and legislative/legal protection for academic freedom in Europe. It examined, further, whether the countries concerned have formally accepted obligations under international human rights treaties. However, the research also assessed the extent to which institutional, faculty and departmental policies, conventions and culture in these countries are in compliance (or non-compliance) with the legal standards in force, extend beyond these, or protect academic freedom despite the absence of relevant legal standards. This measurement of de facto protection has been achieved through an online survey of academic staff in the countries of Europe. The overall intention was to produce a comparative assessment of the protection for, and health of, academic freedom in Europe in the light of the applicable legal requirements as formulated in the relevant documents of international law, notably UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, a document that has political salience, but which is not legally binding.
For purposes of assessing the de iure protection of academic freedom, a standard scorecard, defining 37 specific indicators, has been developed, utilizing criteria of protection of academic freedom based on human rights requirements, notably as reflected in the UNESCO Recommendation. The results for the various countries have then been quantified and countries ranked in accordance with “their performance”. The research has shown that, increasingly, merely lip-service is being paid to the value of academic freedom. Focusing on the constituent elements of academic freedom under the UNESCO Recommendation of 1997 – these encompassing freedom of teaching, freedom in carrying out research, the autonomy of institutions of higher education, self-governance in higher education by academic staff and students, and employment security (including tenure) – it appears that, whereas the concept of institutional autonomy is increasingly being misconstrued, self-governance at all levels in higher education institutions and employment security have become subjected to rigorous processes of erosion. The results show that the legal protection of academic freedom in Europe leaves much to be desired. The findings of this part of the research are in the process of being published in recognised academic journals.
For purposes of assessing the de facto protection of academic freedom, a survey instrument to examine the state of protection of academic freedom in practice in higher education institutions in the different countries of Europe has been produced. Its normative content is essentially based on the UNESCO Recommendation. It has been tested by way of a pilot in an English university and made available online for participation by academic staff throughout Europe. High response rates have been achieved for some EU countries, for example the U.K. or Ireland, but in others, e.g. Denmark, France or Germany, further efforts will be necessary in the course of the following six months or so to achieve an increase in participation. Analysis of the data has thus been possible for some of the countries (and for Europe generally), but will have to be repeated for other countries once a sufficient response rate for these has been achieved. The data has and is being collected in a large SPSS file and analysed in accordance with accepted statistical methods, including descriptive statistics (mean, standard variation), through to chi-squared tests, correlation coefficients and factor analysis, thus producing a picture of how academic freedom operates in practice in higher education institutions in Europe. The assessment of the data gathered so far largely confirms many of the conclusions drawn regarding the de iure protection of academic freedom: In the view of a significant majority of academic staff throughout Europe, the protection of academic freedom in practice has reached a disturbingly low level: Higher education institutions rely on their institutional autonomy to infringe individual academic freedom. Academic staff do not sufficiently participate in the taking of academic, but also strategic decisions in senates/boards or faculty/departmental councils, and job security (including tenure) is inadequately protected. The survey instrument itself has been widely endorsed by national and international NGOs dealing with human rights or matters of higher education. The findings on the de facto protection of academic freedom will be published in academic journals as from 2016/17 onwards.
A ranking of European Union Member States has been prepared for their legal protection of academic freedom. This will be supplemented by a ranking reflecting performance in practice, once data collection by way of the online survey and their analysis have been completed. Subsequently, both rankings will be combined to produce an overall ranking for the protection of academic freedom in European states. These rankings not only show where a country stands comparatively to other countries, but also quantify performance in the light of accepted normative standards of international law, thus presenting an objective account of the extent to which a country complies with criteria of academic freedom.
The identification of the deficits in the legal and factual protection of academic freedom in Europe will henceforth facilitate discussions at the international, national and institutional levels addressing the taking of corrective measures directed at restoring academic freedom to its former high esteem. The research findings may well be applied as a basis for ascertaining “best practice” for the protection of academic freedom in Europe and may, at a concrete level, aid the construction of adequate national and institutional normative and policy instruments for protecting academic freedom in the various countries. At the level of the UN and UNESCO, it is hoped that the research will prompt the drafting of a General Comment on academic freedom by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the UN Committee supervising implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and potentially of a binding or non-binding legal instrument on the topic by UNESCO. In the end, the research will thus desirably lead to a better protection for academic freedom in Europe at national and institutional levels. It has certainly promoted a better understanding of the human rights associated with academic freedom, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, to freedom of scientific research and to education. It has additionally facilitated the creation of new knowledge at the interstices of different disciplines – human rights law and higher education studies – i.e. disciplines that have traditionally experienced subject barriers to collaboration.
For further information, please contact Dr. Klaus D. Beiter at klausbeiter@hotmail.com or Prof. Terence Karran at tkarran@lincoln.ac.uk.
The survey may be accessed at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AcademicFreedomSurvey.
Academic freedom is generally recognised as a human right, both at the national and the international level. Focusing on Europe, specifically those countries that are members of the European Union, it may be observed that academic freedom often has a basis in the constitutions and laws on higher education of these countries. The countries concerned are also bound under international human rights agreements, such as the International Covenants on Civil and Political and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, respectively, or the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950, as amended and supplemented, to safeguard academic freedom under provisions on the rights to freedom of expression, to freedom of scientific research and to education in these instruments. The research analysed the constitutional and legislative/legal protection for academic freedom in Europe. It examined, further, whether the countries concerned have formally accepted obligations under international human rights treaties. However, the research also assessed the extent to which institutional, faculty and departmental policies, conventions and culture in these countries are in compliance (or non-compliance) with the legal standards in force, extend beyond these, or protect academic freedom despite the absence of relevant legal standards. This measurement of de facto protection has been achieved through an online survey of academic staff in the countries of Europe. The overall intention was to produce a comparative assessment of the protection for, and health of, academic freedom in Europe in the light of the applicable legal requirements as formulated in the relevant documents of international law, notably UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, a document that has political salience, but which is not legally binding.
For purposes of assessing the de iure protection of academic freedom, a standard scorecard, defining 37 specific indicators, has been developed, utilizing criteria of protection of academic freedom based on human rights requirements, notably as reflected in the UNESCO Recommendation. The results for the various countries have then been quantified and countries ranked in accordance with “their performance”. The research has shown that, increasingly, merely lip-service is being paid to the value of academic freedom. Focusing on the constituent elements of academic freedom under the UNESCO Recommendation of 1997 – these encompassing freedom of teaching, freedom in carrying out research, the autonomy of institutions of higher education, self-governance in higher education by academic staff and students, and employment security (including tenure) – it appears that, whereas the concept of institutional autonomy is increasingly being misconstrued, self-governance at all levels in higher education institutions and employment security have become subjected to rigorous processes of erosion. The results show that the legal protection of academic freedom in Europe leaves much to be desired. The findings of this part of the research are in the process of being published in recognised academic journals.
For purposes of assessing the de facto protection of academic freedom, a survey instrument to examine the state of protection of academic freedom in practice in higher education institutions in the different countries of Europe has been produced. Its normative content is essentially based on the UNESCO Recommendation. It has been tested by way of a pilot in an English university and made available online for participation by academic staff throughout Europe. High response rates have been achieved for some EU countries, for example the U.K. or Ireland, but in others, e.g. Denmark, France or Germany, further efforts will be necessary in the course of the following six months or so to achieve an increase in participation. Analysis of the data has thus been possible for some of the countries (and for Europe generally), but will have to be repeated for other countries once a sufficient response rate for these has been achieved. The data has and is being collected in a large SPSS file and analysed in accordance with accepted statistical methods, including descriptive statistics (mean, standard variation), through to chi-squared tests, correlation coefficients and factor analysis, thus producing a picture of how academic freedom operates in practice in higher education institutions in Europe. The assessment of the data gathered so far largely confirms many of the conclusions drawn regarding the de iure protection of academic freedom: In the view of a significant majority of academic staff throughout Europe, the protection of academic freedom in practice has reached a disturbingly low level: Higher education institutions rely on their institutional autonomy to infringe individual academic freedom. Academic staff do not sufficiently participate in the taking of academic, but also strategic decisions in senates/boards or faculty/departmental councils, and job security (including tenure) is inadequately protected. The survey instrument itself has been widely endorsed by national and international NGOs dealing with human rights or matters of higher education. The findings on the de facto protection of academic freedom will be published in academic journals as from 2016/17 onwards.
A ranking of European Union Member States has been prepared for their legal protection of academic freedom. This will be supplemented by a ranking reflecting performance in practice, once data collection by way of the online survey and their analysis have been completed. Subsequently, both rankings will be combined to produce an overall ranking for the protection of academic freedom in European states. These rankings not only show where a country stands comparatively to other countries, but also quantify performance in the light of accepted normative standards of international law, thus presenting an objective account of the extent to which a country complies with criteria of academic freedom.
The identification of the deficits in the legal and factual protection of academic freedom in Europe will henceforth facilitate discussions at the international, national and institutional levels addressing the taking of corrective measures directed at restoring academic freedom to its former high esteem. The research findings may well be applied as a basis for ascertaining “best practice” for the protection of academic freedom in Europe and may, at a concrete level, aid the construction of adequate national and institutional normative and policy instruments for protecting academic freedom in the various countries. At the level of the UN and UNESCO, it is hoped that the research will prompt the drafting of a General Comment on academic freedom by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the UN Committee supervising implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and potentially of a binding or non-binding legal instrument on the topic by UNESCO. In the end, the research will thus desirably lead to a better protection for academic freedom in Europe at national and institutional levels. It has certainly promoted a better understanding of the human rights associated with academic freedom, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, to freedom of scientific research and to education. It has additionally facilitated the creation of new knowledge at the interstices of different disciplines – human rights law and higher education studies – i.e. disciplines that have traditionally experienced subject barriers to collaboration.
For further information, please contact Dr. Klaus D. Beiter at klausbeiter@hotmail.com or Prof. Terence Karran at tkarran@lincoln.ac.uk.
The survey may be accessed at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AcademicFreedomSurvey.