News

Network announcements, press releases and other updates from the SAR Secretariat

SAR’s Response to the US Executive Order Titled “Combating Anti-Semitism”

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is greatly concerned by the recent US Executive Order titled “Combating Anti-Semitism”, which appears to be a dangerous intrusion of executive authority into the substance of research, teaching, and discourse on US higher education campuses, and

Scholars at Risk December 2019 Newsletter

Scholars at Risk is pleased to share their December 2019 Newsletter. Click here to read this document.

Call for 2020 Courage to Think Award Nominations

Scholars at Risk is seeking nominations for the 2020 Courage to Think Award, which will be presented during the Courage to Think Award Dinner at the SAR Network 2020 Global Congress in Baltimore on March 27, 2020. The Courage to

Hong Kong: Authorities Must Exercise Restraint and End Violent Sieges on Universities

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is gravely concerned about a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Hong Kong’s university campuses, and calls on government and university authorities to take immediate steps to de-escalate violence and to ensure the safety and well-being

Free to Think 2019: Distressing phenomenon of attacks on higher education demands global action

New York, NY — Scholars at Risk announces the release of Free to Think 2019, a report analyzing 324 attacks on higher education communities in 56 countries between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019. “Attacks on higher education communities

Pakistan: Release Professor Junaid Hafeez

Professor Junaid Hafeez is a former lecturer and MPhil candidate in the English literature department at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan who has been held in pre-trial detention for over six years in Pakistan. SAR has issued the below letter

Scholars at Risk November 2019 Newsletter

Scholars at Risk is pleased to share their November 2019 Newsletter. Click here to read this document.

Scholars at Risk October 2019 Newsletter

Scholars at Risk is pleased to share their October 2019 Newsletter. Click here to read this document.

Threats to Academic Freedom Jeopardize China’s Higher Education Ambitions

Scholars at Risk announces the release of Obstacles to Excellence: Academic Freedom & China’s Quest for World Class Universities, a new report mapping threats to academic freedom that jeopardize China’s higher education ambitions.

Capacity-building gift from the Charles Koch Foundation

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is pleased to announce a capacity-building gift from the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF). The gift will allow SAR to strengthen the network office, which has been under pressure to keep up with increasing attacks on higher

China: Halt the Execution of Renowned Scholar Tashpolat Tiyip

Dr. Tashpolat Tiyip, a renowned scholar of geography and former president of Xinjiang University (XJU), is suspected to be at risk of execution as he nears the end of the two-year reprieve of his death sentence. SAR has issued the

Scholars at Risk September 2019 Newsletter

Scholars at Risk is pleased to share their September 2019 Newsletter. Click here to read this document.

Egypt: End Probationary Measures Against Waleed K. Salem

Waleed K. Salem is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington who was arrested while conducting dissertation research in Cairo in May 2018 and detained without charge until December 2018. Following his release, he has been required to regularly

Concerns About Restrictions on Scholars’ Ability to Travel to the West Bank

International faculty at Palestinian universities have faced increasingly opaque and arbitrary limitations on their ability to remain in or return to the West Bank to continue teaching activities. These limitations threaten significant harm to Palestinian higher education. Scholars at Risk

Iran: Release Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali

On July 29, 2019, Dr. Ahmadreza Djalali, a scholar of disaster medicine sentenced to death in Iran, was unexpectedly transferred to an undisclosed location, where he was reportedly held in solitary confinement. Dr. Djalali’s wife reports that authorities attempted to

The Future of Value-Based Higher Education and Quality Assurance – The Future of Academic Freedom

The Webinar debated the contours of academic freedom both as it relates to institutions and quality assurance: What rights and obligations are attached to it from a European, Latin American and Scholars at Risk perspectives, and how these concepts are

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Free Universities: Putting the Academic Freedom Index Into Action

This joint report by the Global Public Policy Institute and Scholars at Risk introduces the Academic Freedom Index (AFi), a new time series and near-global dataset on several dimensions of academic freedom. It calls on decision-makers in higher education and