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. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.
Results
In late June 2026, Florida International University (FIU), a public research university that is part of the state university system, issued disciplinary penalties against seven students for participating in a peaceful and non-disruptive protest on campus. The disciplinary penalties included ...
On June 29, 2026, Israeli forces forcibly entered Birzeit University, assaulting a guard and damaging property. The forces searched campus buildings and raided the Faculty of Sports’ eastern wing. Scholars at Risk is concerned about the forced entry into a higher education ...
On June 22, 2026, Haitian National Police officers deployed tear gas against students from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy at the State University of Haiti (UEH) during a demonstration demanding the reopening of the university hospital. The students had gathered ...
On June 12, 2026, the Technical University (TU) Berlin moved several lectures off campus and changed the program titles of several sessions scheduled to take place during the “Take Back the Future” student congress, deeming them overly critical of the ...
On June 4, 2026, the Senate of the University of Novi Sad voted in secret to deny the reappointment of Vladimir Mihić, an associate professor of psychology. The denial appeared to be retaliation for his support of student protests. Mihić, a ...
On June 5, 2026, Louisiana State Police removed five researchers from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting for distributing an editorial criticizing the US administration’s research funding policies. At the time of the researchers’ removal, they were peacefully and quietly ...
On June 5, 2026, the Auburn University Board of Trustees unanimously approved two policies that weaken the faculty’s role in university governance and curricular decisions. The Board is made up of the governor of the state and 15 others appointed by ...
On June 4, 2026, Israeli forces arrested four women Birzeit University students, apparently based on their alleged affiliation with an activist student organization. The four students arrested included Sama Safi, an American Palestinian psychology student, who was arrested at her family ...
On June 3, 2026, unidentified gunmen abducted seven university students from their off-campus hostel in Zamfara state. The armed individuals stormed the student accommodation early in the morning, raiding the residence before taking the students to an unknown location. Security forces ...
On June 3, 2026, Chinese authorities arrested Min Zin, a scholar of political science, while he was traveling for academic purposes. Zin, a U.S. citizen, was a student activist during the 1988 Myanmar pro-democracy movement. He holds a master’s degree in ...