Press Releases and Statements

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

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

Statement in Response to Report the FBI Is Urging Universities to Monitor Chinese Students and Scholars

August 12, 2019 – According to recent public reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government officials have advised some U.S. universities to develop protocols for monitoring students and scholars from Chinese state-affiliated research institutions. This move seemingly

SAR calls for action to counter mass targeting of higher education communities in Turkey

July 30, 2019 | New York, NY – Scholars at Risk (SAR), in partnership with the Human Rights Centre of Ghent University, has filed a submission with the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), highlighting pressures and attacks on higher

Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable for Rights Violations

Scholars at Risk and 39 other human rights organizations have sent the below letter to 48 ministries of foreign affairs, urging them to adopt a resolution in the UN’s Human Rights Council to report on human rights violations in Saudi

SAR Expresses Concern About Legislative Threats to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Proposed legislation submitted to Hungarian Parliament for consideration on June 4, 2019 threatens the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) and the academic freedom of thousands of scientists and researchers in Hungary. Scholars at Risk (SAR) has issued the below letter

Scholars at Risk Network to Establish SAR Slovakia Section

May 14, 2019 – Leaders from universities across Slovakia will convene on May 23, 2019 at Art Books Coffee in Bratislava to launch the Slovakia section of Scholars at Risk (SAR). The launch is organized by the Bratislava Policy Institute, which will act

Iran: SAR Calls for Action Against Attacks on Higher Education Communities

April 16, 2019 | New York, NY — Scholars at Risk (SAR), in cooperation with the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham, has filed a submission with the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, highlighting attacks and pressures

Egypt: Attacks on Academic Freedom Require Global Response

April 10, 2019 | New York, NY — Scholars at Risk (SAR) and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression in Egypt (AFTE) have filed a joint submission with the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR), highlighting attacks and

Release Women’s Rights Activists in Saudi Arabia

Scholars at Risk joins over 50 other human rights organizations in calling for the immediate release of Saudi women’s rights activists including scholar Hatoon Al-Fassi. Hatoon Al-Fassi is an Associate Professor of women’s history at King Saud University who has

Student Advocacy Days 2019: Students take to Washington to advocate on behalf of imprisoned scholars

March 1, 2019 | New York, NY – Scholars at Risk (SAR) announces its third annual Student Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C. on March 7 and 8, 2019. Students and faculty from across the US and Canada will come together

Scholars at Risk and the Central European University awarded Politiken Freedom Prize

The leading Danish newspaper Politiken has announced Scholars at Risk and the Central European University (CEU), of Hungary, as recipients of this year’s Politiken Freedom Prize, in recognition of their contribution to protect threatened scholars and the freedom to think,

Free Online Course: “Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters”

Are some questions too dangerous to ask? What happens to scholars and students who ask those questions? How can you contribute to strengthening core higher education values, such as academic freedom? These are among the questions we will discuss in

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

Introducing Scholars at Risk

Scholars at Risk is an international network of institutions and individuals whose mission it is to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. Learn more about SAR’s mission and the courageous scholars we are honored to assist in the below video

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