SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Learn more.
Results
On May 10, 2020, Chinese authorities reportedly detained legal scholar Zhang Xuezhong, in apparent retaliation for an open letter he published that criticized China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) and the country's system of government more broadly. Zhang is a prominent intellectual ...
On May 9, 2020, unidentified individuals reportedly interrupted Oklahoma City University’s virtual graduation ceremony, broadcast over Zoom, with a series of racist messages. Starting in early March 2020, higher education institutions across the US suspended in-person classes and campus activities, moving ...
On May 1, 2020, it was reported that Mostafa Hashemizadeh, a civil engineering student at the University of Tehran (UT), was sentenced to six years in prison for his alleged participation in a protest over the Iranian government’s role in ...
On April 29, 2020, police reportedly arrested a professor and an administrative staffer from Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) for public comments regarding the administration of the university. National and regional media outlets reported that Eyo Eminue, a political science lecturer, ...
On April 28, 2020, it was reported that Amir Mohammad Sharifi, a student at the University of Tehran (UT), was sentenced to three months in prison for nonviolent expressive activity, including his alleged participation in protests over the Iranian government’s ...
On April 28, 2020, Houthi militia forces reportedly detained at least twenty students from Dhamar University for undisclosed reasons. There are few details regarding the detentions as of this report. Available sources indicate that Houthi soldiers had kidnapped the students, whose ...
On April 24, 2020, unidentified individuals reportedly interrupted a virtual event for the Association of African American Students at the University of South Carolina by sending racist messages. Starting in early March 2020, higher education institutions across the US suspended in-person ...
On April 21, 2020, Indonesia’s Banda Aceh state court convicted Syiah Kuala University (Unsyiah) lecturer Saiful Mahdi in connection with online expression critical of the university. The court sentenced Mahdi to three months imprisonment and issued a fine of ten ...
On April 20, 2020, the University of Buea suspended and launched disciplinary proceedings against law professor Felix Agbor Nkongho (also known as "Agbor-Balla"), in apparent connection with an exam question related to an ongoing crisis in the country’s Anglophone region. ...
On April 20, 2020, unidentified individuals reportedly interrupted an online class at California State University, Fresno by showing child pornography. Starting in early March 2020, higher education institutions across the US suspended in-person classes and campus activities, moving them all online ...