Attacks on academic freedom and higher education are frequent, pervasive, and have wide-ranging—at times deadly—consequences for scholars, students, and society at large. These attacks occur in closed societies, where the right to think and speak freely is routinely oppressed, and amid political and economic crises and armed conflict that put scholars and students in especially vulnerable situations. But they also occur in more open, democratic, and stable societies, leaving no country immune from their threat. State and non-state actors, including armed militant and extremist groups, police and military forces, government authorities, off-campus groups, and even members of higher education communities, among others, carry out these attacks, which often result in deaths, injuries, deprivations of liberty, and the upending of scholars’ and students’ academic careers.

Beyond their harm to the individuals and institutions directly targeted, these attacks undermine entire higher education systems, by impairing the quality of teaching, research, and discourse on campus and constricting society’s space to think, question, and share ideas. Ultimately, they impact all of us, by damaging higher education’s unique capacity to drive the social, political, cultural, and economic development from which we all benefit.

Through its Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, Scholars at Risk (SAR) responds to these attacks by identifying and tracking key incidents, with the aim of protecting vulnerable individuals, raising awareness, encouraging accountability, and promoting the dialogue and understanding necessary to prevent future threats. Since 2015, SAR has been publishing Free to Think, a series of annual reports analyzing attacks on higher education communities around the world.

A Year of Attacks on Higher Education

Free to Think 2022 documents 391 attacks on higher education communities in 65 countries and territories, from September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022. During that time, armed conflict and political upheaval endangered entire higher education communities, disrupted academic activity, and severely undermined academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and other university values, making them the most concerning trends from this reporting period. Russia’s war in Ukraine has had disastrous consequences for higher education communities in both countries. The invasion by Russian armed forces sent countless scholars and students fleeing, internally and abroad, for safer harbor, while shelling and airstrikes inflicted considerable damage to Ukrainian higher education and scientific research infrastructure.^[1] Across the border, in Russia, scholars and students opposed to the war faced and fled persecution at a time when their sector saw growing signs of academic isolation imposed by forces in and outside the country.^[2] The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan reversed two decades of higher education progress, as the new de facto authorities imposed policies and practices that systematically deny female students and scholars their rights to education and academic freedom.^[3] Taliban-controlled universities ordered arbitrary dismissals of academic and administrative personnel, including on ethnic grounds, while Taliban police detained scholars critical of the new government.^[4] In Myanmar, the aftermath of a still-disputed February 2021 military coup has kept the higher education sector in a state of distress. The military continues to occupy campuses and arrest and prosecute anti-coup students and scholars.^[5] And in Ethiopia, amid fighting with government forces, militants with the anti-government Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) took over and looted Wollo University, imposing catastrophic damage on one of the nation’s top universities, damage that was worsened by government drone strikes targeting the occupying TPLF forces.^[6]

Violent attacks on higher education were not limited to countries experiencing armed conflict. Around the world, non-state armed groups and individual actors committed violent, targeted attacks on higher education institutions that undermine the security and integrity of campus communities. These included attacks stemming from extremism, whereby perpetrators targeted higher education communities as perceived symbols of state authority or as sources of opposition. In Nigeria, suspected members of Boko Haram—a terrorist group that has for years carried out attacks on local educational institutions—attacked the Nigerian Army University Biu’s Tukur Yusufu Buratai Institute for War and Peace, killing at least two employees and burning cars and offices on the campus.^[7] In Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers from the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute, as well as their Pakistani driver, in an attack claimed by the separatist Baloch Liberation Army.^[8] Threats of violence were also directed against higher education institutions and individuals. In the United States, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country were frequently targeted with bomb threats starting in early 2022, causing significant disruptions to academic activity and leaving students and their communities suffering from trauma, anxiety, and stress.^[9]

Attacks on student expression remain the most frequent type of attack reported by the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, comprising roughly 41% of this year’s incidents. Police in Sri Lanka fired teargas and water cannons at peaceful student protesters during nationwide demonstrations against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa; in some cases, police attempted to bar students from exiting the campus gates.^[10] In Indonesia, a university ordered a criminal referral against student journalists and sought to shut down their paper in response to their publishing of a special edition discussing sexual harassment allegations on campus.^[11] In Turkey, students faced repeated police repression for peaceful expression relating to diverse issues, including affordable student housing, university autonomy, and LGBTQ+ rights, among others.^[12] In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers carried out violent campus raids, notably at Birzeit University, that appeared to target student union activities, demonstrations, and other events.^[13]

State security forces are not the only threat to students’ expressive activities—non-state actors and even other students have perpetrated attacks. This was especially the case in Bangladesh, where SAR reported members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League—the student wing of the ruling party—frequently beating and harassing fellow students in apparent retaliation for and to deter expression with which they disagreed.^[14]

State authorities detained, prosecuted, and used other coercive legal measures to punish and restrict scholars’ academic activity, extramural expression, and associations. In Kuwait, prosecutors charged a computer science professor with a “fake news” offense, among others, for discussing in an interview the risks of hacking and threats of data security posed by servers associated with the Civil Service Commission of Egypt; Egypt is a strong international ally of Kuwait.^[15] In South Korea, as part of a national security investigation, police searched the home of Dae-il Jeong, a researcher specializing in North Korean Juche ideology at the Korea Institute for National Unification.^[16] Police confiscated the researcher’s electronic devices, research materials, and a copy of a controversial memoir written by former North Korean President Kim Il-sung. In Iran, police arrested prominent sociologist Saeed Madani, whose research focuses on sensitive topics such as poverty, drug addiction, sex work, and child abuse, on vague security charges allegedly involving “suspicious foreign links.”^[17]

Higher education and state officials took disciplinary actions against faculty and students for their academic work, views, and extramural expressive activities. In Poland, President Andrzej Duda refused to approve a promotion to full professorship for Michał Bilewicz, a genocide researcher at the University of Warsaw, apparently due to the nature of his work on anti-Semitism and Polish peoples’ role in the Holocaust and its aftermath, topics considered sensitive by Duda’s ruling right-wing government.^[18] In Iran, four prominent university professors lost their positions in the months following the inauguration of the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi, heightening concerns over the regime’s grip over the higher education sector.^[19] In China, Ludong University expelled Sun Jian, a master’s student in Chinese history, for protesting his university’s COVID-19 policies and campus lockdown.^[20]

Governments restricted and frustrated academics’ and students’ freedom of movement through targeted actions and policies and practices that limit the academic movement of entire communities of students and scholars. In Algeria, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research barred members of the national higher education community from participating in conferences or seminars in Morocco in apparent response to “anti-Algerian articles” the Ministry found in a Moroccan journal and tensions between the two countries.^[21] Israel’s government issued a directive that restricts international scholar and student travel to and work in the West Bank.^[22] In Turkey, many higher education personnel and civil servants remain unable to travel internationally after the government canceled their passports for expressive activity and alleged affiliations with groups disfavored by the government starting in 2016.

Higher education and state authorities attempted to deter scholars and students from hosting and participating in academic events or sharing their work on campus. In China, state officials sought to prevent five scholars from participating virtually in the Association for Asian Studies’ 2022 Annual Conference hosted in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States.^[23] In India, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s administration ordered the cancellation of a webinar titled “Gender resistance and fresh challenges in post-2019 Kashmir,” which the Vice-Chancellor described as a “highly objectionable and provocative subject.”^[24] In Thailand, Chiang Mai University faculty and administrators reportedly prohibited students from exhibiting their theses in the University Art Centre on the grounds that some pieces dealt with social and political themes.^[25]

Around the world, state authorities and lawmakers used the powers of their respective offices in ways that undermine institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and quality higher education. In Nicaragua, the National Assembly voted to cancel operating licenses and seize control of six private universities, apparently on political grounds, and gave overwhelming control over higher education curricula, hiring, and leadership appointments to the National Council of Universities, which previously played a more limited role in these matters.^[26] In Kenya, the Jubilee Party attempted to pass legislation that would retract from state university councils and confer to the education cabinet secretaries important responsibilities, including control over key university leadership appointments.^[27] In Hong Kong, public universities are now requiring undergraduate students to attend “national security” courses, in response to the sweeping National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the special administrative region in June 2020.^[28] And in the United States, state legislatures around the country proposed and enacted bills aimed at restricting higher education institutions from teaching so-called “divisive concepts,” often meaning race, gender, and sexuality.

Impact of Attacks

The incidents in this report represent a wide cross-sample of attacks around the world, but only a fraction of all attacks on higher education that have occurred over the past year.

Additional evidence of deteriorating conditions for academic freedom can be found in the increasing numbers of scholars and students seeking help. Over the last year, SAR and our partners who implement scholar support programs have received record levels of requests for assistance, including but not limited to those seeking to escape the above-referenced crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine (including both Ukrainian and Russian students and scholars targeted for their opposition to the regime and its invasion), as well as less well-reported crises in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Myanmar, among other places. Similarly, expert, country-level assessments in the most recent annual data from the Academic Freedom Index (AFi) show substantial declines in respect for academic freedom in 19 countries and territories since 2011.^[29] Already low scores and in some cases significant drops were seen in many of the countries featured in Free to Think 2022, including India, Nicaragua, Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

Countries around the world are suffering declines in respect for academic freedom, according to the Academic Freedom Index (AFi), a tool co-developed by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the V-Dem Institute, and SAR. Concerning declines in respect for academic freedom have occurred in the above countries and territory discussed in Free to Think 2022, including Hong Kong, where the Beijing-imposed National Security Law threatens free and open academic discourse; India, Russia, and Turkey, where there have been authoritarian crackdowns on outspoken scholars; Nicaragua, where police violently suppressed student protesters in 2018 and more recently the government canceled operating licenses and seized control of six private universities; and the United States, where legislators have sought to restrict university discourse. Learn more about the AFi and the full 2022 dataset.

Taken together, the available evidence clearly demonstrates the destructive impacts of attacks on higher education communities at the national, institutional, and individual levels. These attacks endanger the lives of scholars, students, and their families. They can have a severe chilling effect on the broader higher education community, forcing scholars and students to reconsider and even refrain from their research, teaching, and discourse. They trigger self-censorship, which stifles academic productivity, depriving society of the full benefits that universities, colleges, and research institutions are uniquely positioned to offer: the advancement of knowledge and the development of solutions to problems that impact everyone.

A Global Response

To date, despite the efforts of the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, too many attacks on higher education go unreported. And even fewer of those that are reported receive adequate attention resulting in any kind of meaningful accountability or redress. This must change.

SAR calls on states, higher education communities, and civil society around the world to respond to these attacks: to reject violence and coercion aimed at restricting inquiry and expression; to protect threatened scholars, students, and higher education institutions; and to reaffirm publicly their commitment to academic freedom and support for the principles that critical discourse is not disloyalty, that ideas are not crimes, and that everyone must be free to think, question, and share their ideas.

^[1] Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project (SAR AFMP), March 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-02-v-n-karazin-kharkiv-national-university/; SAR AFMP, March 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-06-kharkiv-institute-of-physics-and-technology/; and SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022 www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-sukhomlynskyi-mykolaiv-national-university-admiral-makarov-national-university-of-shipbuilding/.

^[2] See SAR AFMP, February 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-28-plekhanov-russian-university-of-economics/; SAR AFMP, March 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-09-st-petersburg-state-university/; and SAR AFMP, April 19, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-19-volgograd-state-university/.

^[3] See, for example, SAR AFMP, April 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-04-various-institutions/; SAR AFMP, May 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-18-kabul-polytechnic-university/; and Emma Graham-Harrison, “Taliban policies risk de facto university ban for Afghan women, say officials,” The Guardian, August 1, 2022, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/01/taliban-policies-risk-de-facto-university-ban-for-afghan-women-say-officials.

^[4] See, for example, SAR AFMP, January 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-08-kabul-university/; SAR AFMP, March 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-04-unknown/; and SAR AFMP, April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-27-balkh-university/.

^[5] See, for example, SAR AFMP, September 19, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-19-technological-university-dawei/; and SAR AFMP, April 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-21-dagon-university/. See also Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Universities, professors and students still under attack,” University World News, January 28, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2022012812432689; and Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), The Impacts of Attacks on Education and Military Use in Myanmar (September 2022), available at protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/ImpactofAttacksMyanmar2022.pdf.

^[6] SAR AFMP, November 11, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-01-wollo-university/.

^[7] SAR AFMP, January 10, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-10-nigerian-army-university-biu/.

^[8] SAR AFMP, April 26, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-26-university-of-karachi/.

^[9] See, for example, SAR AFMP, January 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-04-various/; SAR AFMP, January 31, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-31-various-institutions/; and SAR AFMP, March 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-14-morehouse-college/.

^[10] See, for example, SAR AFMP, April 3, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-03-university-of-peradeniya/; SAR AFMP, May 5, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-05-various/; and SAR AFMP, May 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-06-various/.

^[11] SAR AFMP, March 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-17-state-islamic-institute-ambon/.

^[12] See, for example, SAR AFMP, May 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-20-bogazici-university/.

^[13] See, for example, SAR AFMP, January 11, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-10-birzeit-university/.

^[14] See, for example, SAR AFMP, January 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-15-sylhet-shahjalal-university-of-science-and-technology/; SAR AFMP, May 23, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-23-rajshahi-university/; and SAR AFMP, June 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-06-university-of-dhaka/.

^[15] SAR AFMP, November 20, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-20-kuwait-university/.

^[16] SAR AFMP, July 29, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-29-korea-institute-for-national-unification/.

^[17] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-16-allameh-university/.

^[18] SAR AFMP, May 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-24-university-of-warsaw/.

^[19] See SAR AFMP, September 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-shahid-beheshti-university/; SAR AFMP, September 4, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-04-islamic-azad-university/; SAR AFMP, January 3, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-03-university-of-tehran/; and SAR AFMP, January 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-21-sharif-university-of-technology/.

^[20] SAR AFMP, March 31, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-31-ludong-university/.

^[21] SAR AFMP, July 5, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-05-ministry-of-higher-education/.

^[22] See SAR’s letter to Israeli authorities, “Protect and promote international academic travel to the West Bank,” April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/04/protect-and-promote-international-academic-travel-to-the-west-bank/.

^[23] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-24-various-institutions/.

^[24] SAR AFMP, October 29, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-29-jawaharlal-nehru-university/.

^[25] SAR AFMP, October 15, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-15-chiang-mai-university/.

^[26] SAR AFMP, December 13, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-13-hispanic-american-university/; and SAR AFMP, February 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-various/; Ismael Lopez, “Nicaragua approves education reform seen as move to destroy university autonomy,” Reuters, March 31, 2022, www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-approves-education-reform-seen-move-destroy-university-autonomy-2022-03-31/.

^[27] See Faith Nyamai, “Bill giving CS powers on varsities fails to pass,” Nation, June 11, 2022, nation.africa/kenya/news/education/bill-giving-cs-powers-on-varsities-fails-to-pass-3844974; and Wachira Kigotho, “MPs reject bill aimed at curtailing university autonomy,” University World News, June 14, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220614092839317.

^[28] See Candice Chau, “University of Hong Kong makes national security law course a mandatory graduation requirement,” Hong Kong Free Press, July 25, 2022, www.hongkongfp.com/2022/07/25/university-of-hong-kong-makes-national-security-law-course-a-mandatory-graduation-requirement/.

^[29] Katrin Kinzelbach, Staffan I. Lindberg, Lars Pelke, and Janika Spannagel, Academic Freedom Index 2022 Update (2022), FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and V-Dem Institute, DOI: 10.25593/opus4-fau-18612.

Demands for meaningful accountability or redress for attacks on higher education and violations of academic freedom can be made under existing international human rights law and higher education principles. Key stakeholders—including states, national human rights institutions, courts, civil society actors, rights advocates, and the higher education sector itself—must be made more familiar with these standards, and with the legal, policy, and public education avenues for deploying them.

Academic freedom is legally grounded in existing international human rights standards. It is fully and independently grounded in freedom of opinion and expression, the right to education, and the right to the benefits of science, respectively, and has elements of freedom of association, freedom of movement, and other rights. Numerous international statements from state sources reaffirm the right of academic freedom under these standards.

Freedom of Expression

At the international level, protections for academic freedom begin within the documents collectively known as the International Bill of Human Rights: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Specifically, ICCPR Article 19(2) protects the right of everyone to hold opinions without interference and:

the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of [one’s] choice.

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee has stated that the right includes teaching and public commentary by researchers.^[1]

Right to Education

ICESCR Article 13 guarantees the right to education. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has explicitly found that the right to education “can only be enjoyed if accompanied by the academic freedom of staff and students.”^[2] The CESCR further stated:

Members of the academic community, individually or collectively, are free to pursue, develop and transmit knowledge and ideas, through research, teaching, study, discussion, documentation, production, creation or writing. Academic freedom includes the liberty of individuals to express freely opinions about the institution or system in which they work, to fulfill their functions without discrimination or fear of repression by the State or any other actor, to participate in professional or representative academic bodies, and to enjoy all the internationally recognized human rights applicable to other individuals in the same jurisdiction.

Right to the Benefits of Science

ICESCR Article 15(3) protects the right to the benefits of scientific progress and requires state parties to “respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.” According to the CESCR, states have “a positive duty to actively promote the advancement of science through, inter alia, education and investment in science and technology.”^[3] The Committee continues:

This includes approving policies and regulations which foster scientific research, allocating appropriate resources in the budgets and, in general, creating an enabling and participatory environment for the conservation, development and diffusion of science and technology. This implies inter alia protection and promotion of academic and scientific freedom, including freedoms of expression and to seek, receive and impart scientific information, freedom of association and movement; guarantees for equal access and participation of all public and private actors; and capacity-building and education.

Academic Freedom

International bodies have elaborated on the broad protections laid out in these core documents. Most especially, UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel (RSHETP) articulates academic freedom to include, among other things, the

freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom [of higher education personnel] to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies.^[4]

Institutional Autonomy

In order for academic freedom to be meaningfully realized, higher education institutions must be grounded in certain core values that support the quality of research, teaching, and learning. In addition to academic freedom, these core values include institutional autonomy, accountability, equitable access, and social responsibility.

UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation defines institutional autonomy as:

that degree of self-governance necessary for effective decision making by institutions of higher education regarding their academic work, standards, management and related activities consistent with systems of public accountability, especially in respect of funding provided by the state, and respect for academic freedom and human rights.^[5]

Accountability

Accountability is the institutionalization of clear and transparent systems, structures, or mechanisms by which the state, higher education professionals, staff, students, and the wider society may evaluate—with due respect for academic freedom and institutional autonomy—the quality and performance of higher education communities. It includes, inter alia: “effective communication to the public concerning the nature of their educational mission;” “effective support of academic freedom and fundamental human rights;” and “ensuring high quality education for as many academically qualified individuals as possible subject to the constraints of the resources available to them.”^[6]

The CESCR states, in relation to university autonomy, that self-governance:

must be consistent with systems of public accountability, especially in respect of funding provided by the State. Given the substantial public investments made in higher education, an appropriate balance has to be struck between institutional autonomy and accountability. While there is no single model, institutional arrangements should be fair, just and equitable, and as transparent and participatory as possible.^[7]

Equitable Access

Equitable access is derived from ICESCR Article 13(2)(c), which provides that “higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education…”^[8]

The CESCR has elaborated on this position, stating: “[e]ducational institutions and programmes have to be accessible to everyone, without discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party…”^[9] and noting further that accessibility includes three overlapping dimensions: non-discrimination and equal treatment, physical accessibility, and economic accessibility. The UNESCO RSHETP echoes this equality principle, providing:

Access to the higher education academic profession should be based solely on appropriate academic qualifications, competence and experience and be equal for all members of society without any discrimination.^[10]

Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is the duty of members of the higher education community to use the freedoms and opportunities afforded by state and public respect for academic freedom and institutional autonomy in a manner consistent with the obligation to seek and impart truth, according to ethical and professional standards, and to respond to contemporary problems and needs of all members of society. The UNESCO RSHETP states:

Higher-education teaching personnel should recognize that the exercise of rights carries with it special duties and responsibilities, including the obligation to respect the academic freedom of other members of the academic community and to ensure the fair discussion of contrary views. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base research on an honest search for truth. Teaching, research and scholarship should be conducted in full accordance with ethical and professional standards and should, where appropriate, respond to contemporary problems facing society as well as preserve the historical and cultural heritage of the world.^[11]

State Responsibility to Protect and Promote

Under existing international human rights standards, states have affirmative obligations (positive and negative) to protect and promote academic freedom. These include obligations to: refrain from direct or complicit involvement in violations of academic freedom; protect higher education communities against such violations; support victims of such violations; deter future violations, including by investigating violations and holding perpetrators accountable; promote the exercise of academic freedom, including by supporting higher education and international research cooperation; and promote greater understanding of academic freedom and its benefit to society.^[12]

Regional Human Rights Standards

Jurisprudence around academic freedom and its components has developed within regional bodies including the European Parliament^[13] and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR),^[14] the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR),^[15] and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR).^[16] For example, in December 2021, the IACHR issued its “Declaration of Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy,” which is intended to “improve protection and safeguards for academic freedom in the Americas” and “stresses the importance of science and knowledge as public goods and as pillars of democracy, the rule of law, sustainable development, diversity of ideas, and academic progress.”^[17]

National Standards

Complementing this international jurisprudence are recognitions of academic freedom in state constitutions, national laws, decisions, and regulations, as well as in higher education policies and practices at the sectoral and institutional levels. As of 2021, 81 countries and territories had constitutional provisions that explicitly or implicitly protect academic freedom.^[18] Collectively, these demonstrate broad recognition of the right to academic freedom.

Taken together, these global, regional, and national-level standards provide a robust framework for states, national human rights institutions, courts, civil society actors, rights advocates, and the higher education sector itself to advance claims for academic freedom, asserting them wherever possible and explicitly acknowledging the grounding of academic freedom within international human rights law.

^[1] Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 34: Freedoms of opinion and expression (Article 19), September 12, 2011, paras. 11-12 and 30, digitallibrary.un.org/record/715606?ln=en.

^[2] CESCR, General Comment No. 13: The Right to Education (Article 13), December 8, 1999, para. 38, www.refworld.org/pdfid/4538838c22.pdf.

^[3] Ibid, para. 46.

^[4] UNESCO, “Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel” (“RSHETP”), November 11, 1997, para. 27, portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13144&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

^[5] Ibid, para. 17.

^[6] Ibid, paras. 22-24.

^[7] See CESCR (1999), para. 40. See also RSHETP, para. 22 (a), (c), (d).

^[8] See ICESCR, Article 13(2)(c). See also UNESCO, “Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960,” December 14, 1960, available at portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12949&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

^[9] See CESCR (1999), paras. 6(b), 31-37.

^[10] See RSHETP, para. 25.

^[11] See RSHETP, para. 33.

^[12] See ICCPR, Art. 2(1); RSHETP, paras. 17-19; UNESCO, “Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers,” November 13, 2017, paras. 32-33; GCPEA, “Principles of State Responsibility to Protect Higher Education from Attack,” available at protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/documents_principles_of_state_responsibility_to_protect_higher_education_from_attack.pdf; GCPEA, “Safe Schools Declaration,” protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/documents_safe_schools_declaration-final.pdf; and GCPEA, “Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict,” protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/documents/documents_guidelines_en.pdf.

^[13] European Parliament, “Recommendation of 29 November 2018 to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on Defence of academic freedom in the EU’s external action (2018/2117(INI)),” November 29, 2018, available at www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2018-0483_EN.html.

^[14] See, for example, ECtHR, Sorguç v. Turkey, June 23, 2009, no. 17089/03, para. 35 (defining academic freedom as comprising “academics’ freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work and freedom to distribute knowledge and truth without restriction”); ECtHR, Riolo v. Italy, July 27, 2008, no. 42211/07, para. 63 (publication of an academic work in a newspaper entitled the applicant to the same level of free expression protection as that afforded to journalists); ECtHR, Mustafa Erdoğan and Others v. Turkey (2014), para. 40 (“[Academic freedom] is not restricted to academic or scientific research, but also extends to the academics’ freedom to express freely their views and opinions, even if controversial or unpopular, in the areas of their research, professional expertise and competence. This may include an examination of the functioning of public institutions in a given political system, and a criticism thereof.”); and ECtHR, Kula v. Turkey, June 19, 2018, no. 20233/06, paras. 38-39 (holding that expression by an academic on a television program “unquestionably concerns his academic freedom, which should guarantee freedom of expression and of action, freedom to disseminate information and freedom to ‘conduct research and distribute knowledge and truth without restriction.”

^[15] IACHR, “Gross human rights violations in the context of social protests in Nicaragua,” June 21, 2018, paras. 170-171; IACHR, “IACHR Observes Persistent Human Rights Issues in Venezuela,” April 5, 2019, www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2019/091.asp (expressing concern about attacks on professors and students, and stating that “academic freedom [and institutional autonomy] are crucial pillars to strengthen democratic structures and prevent politically driven pressures and interventions.”).

^[16] Kenneth Good v. Republic of Botswana, 313/05, (May 2010) at paras. 199-200 (holding that “[t]he expulsion of a non-national legal resident in a country, for simply expressing their views, especially within the course of their profession, is a flagrant violation of [freedom of expression]… The opinions and views expressed [resulting in expulsion are] critical comments that are expected from an academician of the field”).

^[17] Organization of American States, “IACHR Issues Declaration of Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy,” December 9, 2021, www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/331.asp.

^[18] Filtering for the variable, “v2caprotac,” in the 2022 V-Dem dataset, available at v-dem.net/vdemds.html.

SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project (the “Monitoring Project”) identifies key types of attacks on higher education communities in order to raise awareness of the problem, reduce the sense of isolation of survivors of attacks, promote accountability, and help mitigate, deter, or otherwise prevent future incidents.

This year’s report assesses data collected from September 2021 to August 2022 and includes 391 attacks arising from 318 incidents in 65 countries and territories. Given the limited resources available, the scope, variety, and complexity of attacks occurring, and a common fear among survivors to report attacks, it should be noted that these figures represent only a fraction of the total number of attacks we believe occur annually. A comprehensive accounting is not yet possible. Rather, this report analyzes reported incidents for recurring themes, regional trends, and common factors that warrant deeper attention from stakeholders, especially states, intergovernmental organizations, higher education leaders, the media, and civil society.

For the purpose of this report, “attacks” on higher education include threats or deliberate use of violent or coercive force against higher education institutions and their members, including leadership, administrators, academic and other staff, and students. They include intentional acts resulting in wrongful death, physical harm, loss of liberty, limitations on academic travel, or loss of professional or academic standing, or resulting in the destruction, damage, closure, or seizure of higher education institutions, facilities, or equipment. This definition also includes deliberate acts of coercion, intimidation, or threats of harm that undermine institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and educational functions, but it does not generally include other infringements of these values and functions which lack these violent, coercive, or restrictive dimensions.

Whatever the types of incidents and wherever they occur, they share common negative outcomes: they undermine the security of higher education institutions and personnel, including those directly targeted and those intimidated or silenced by attacks on others. They impose restrictions on access to higher education by targeted and vulnerable individuals and groups. They undermine research, teaching, and public discourse, eroding not only academic quality, but social, political, economic, and cultural development. And insofar as higher education contributes to pedagogy, materials, and teacher-training, attacks on higher education can undermine education at all levels. They contribute to “brain drain,” the flight of scholars and students, as well as to “brain drag,” the “lost personal, professional, and creative productivity that would have been, but for the rational fear of retaliation,”^[1] undermining national investments in education and exacerbating inequities within the local and global knowledge economies. They disrupt increasingly important flows of higher education staff, students, and research between countries, depriving everyone of the fullest benefits of cross-border intellectual exchange and research.

The Monitoring Project organizes documented attacks into six categories: (i) killings, violence, and disappearances; (ii) wrongful imprisonment; (iii) wrongful prosecution; (iv) loss of position and expulsion from study; (v) improper travel restrictions; and (vi) other severe or systemic issues. This chapter provides an overview of the typology of attacks, using Monitoring Project data from the above-mentioned reporting period, to highlight relevant issues of concern, including attacks on student expression that figure into many of the incidents SAR reports. This overview is followed by a review of concerning developments and trends around the world.

Killings, Violence, and Disappearances

Violent attacks on scholars, students, staff, and their institutions are one of the most serious threats to the higher education sector. Campus-wide attacks, targeted killings, lethal force against student protesters, and threats of violence result in loss of lives and injuries to many, compromise the safety of entire campuses, and incite fear in faculty, students, administrators, and society at large. This, in turn, can restrict access to higher education, threaten the functioning of the higher education space, and chill academic freedom. Since the Monitoring Project’s inception in 2011, SAR has registered 831 violent attacks (roughly one third of total attacks documented), including 181 (nearly half of this report’s total attacks), that occurred during this reporting period.

Individuals and groups carry out attacks on higher education communities with the intention of killing or injuring multiple faculty, students, and staff. Perpetrators may intentionally target specific institutions or individuals or attack indiscriminately. They may target institutions as proxies for state authority or as a symbol of a modern, education-based society. Or they may be opportunistic acts aimed at taking advantage of university and college campuses and facilities as places where groups of people gather according to predictable schedules, especially when inadequate steps are taken to provide for the security of campuses, classrooms, transports, and dormitories.

In Cameroon, unidentified individuals detonated a homemade bomb on the campus of the University of Buea, injuring 11 students.^[2] The incident occurred against the backdrop of violent conflict between anglophone separatists and the government in the western part of the country. The bomb was reportedly thrown onto the roof of a lecture hall, where it exploded.

In Nigeria, suspected members of the terrorist group Boko Haram attacked the Tukur Yusufu Buratai Institute for War and Peace at the Nigerian Army University, killing at least two employees and burning cars and offices on the campus.^[3] According to Sahara Reporters, the assailants arrived on gun trucks and fired rocket propelled grenades at security personnel stationed near the entrance.^[4]

In Pakistan, three Chinese teachers and their Pakistani driver were killed by a suicide bombing at the entrance to the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute.^[5] Those killed in the attack included the Confucius Institute’s founder, Huang Guiping, and his fellow teachers, Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. A fourth teacher, Wang Yuqing, was injured in the attack. The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack. Sources identified the assailant as Shaari Baloch, who detonated her explosive vest outside the university entrance, just as a van carrying the teachers arrived. BLA commented that it targeted the Institute as a “symbol of Chinese economic, cultural and political expansionism.”^[6]

Targeted killings include those aiming to silence particular individuals because of the content of their research, teaching, writing, or public expression, or simply for their identity as scholars or students.

In Afghanistan, the Dean of the Sharia Law Faculty at Ghazni University, Sayed Asif Mubtahij Hashemi, was found dead after being abducted by armed assailants several months earlier.^[7] Hashemi’s colleagues told one news outlet that he was abducted at gunpoint while teaching at an orphanage and taken to an unknown location by individuals who appeared to be affiliated with the Taliban. The professors asserted that the abductors had previously shown up at Hashemi’s house in Taliban uniforms and Hashemi’s family additionally reported that Taliban authorities had summoned him to a specific area through repeated phone calls ahead of his abduction. Another Afghan lawyer stated that it is possible Hashemi was killed for his liberal ideas and anti-extremist interpretations of religious texts. Taliban officials denied involvement in his abduction.

In Nigeria, a group of students at Shehu Shagari College Of Education Sokoto (SSCOE) killed classmate Deborah Samuel (also known as Deborah Yakubu), a Christain student, after classmates accused her of blasphemy.^[8] Her accusers alleged that Samuel made a comment in a WhatsApp group that they perceived as insulting the Prophet Muhammed. According to police, a group of students took Samuel from a campus security outpost where she was hiding, beat her with clubs and stones, and then set her body on fire. Police reportedly used tear gas and fired shots in the air in an apparent attempt to disperse her attackers, who threw rocks and sticks in response.

Scholars, students, and their institutions also face threats of violence designed to punish, block, or otherwise alter their research, teaching, studies, or public expression.

In Colombia, a professor in the law and political sciences faculty of the University of Antioquia reportedly received anonymous messages threatening to torture and kill her, apparently in response to the professor’s academic activity.^[9] The university issued a statement, denouncing the threats as harmful to academic freedom and to the university’s mission. Sources kept the professor’s identity confidential, apparently to protect her.

In India, students in the right-wing group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and others at the University of Lucknow surrounded Ravi Kant Chandan, a Dalit professor of Hindi, and harassed and threatened him over accusations that he disrespected Hindu deities in comments he made during an online event.^[10] Kant, who told Hindustan Times that he believed the students wanted to kill him, was forced to seek shelter for hours in an administrator’s office.^[11] Roughly one week after the incident, Kant was physically attacked, and a student filed a criminal complaint against him with local authorities, resulting in a criminal investigation.

In Northern Ireland, a professor of human rights law at Queens University Belfast, Colin Harvey, has been subjected to violent threats as part of a years’ long smear campaign for his academic work regarding the status of Northern Ireland.^[12] Harvey, who previously served as commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, has reportedly been targeted by politicians, journalists, and others on social media. He has also been subjected to threats of violence and false allegations that he is affiliated with paramilitary groups and associated with nazism. In March 2022, UN human rights experts publicly raised concerns that the campaign placed him at risk of physical harm.^[13]

The use of violent and especially lethal force, particularly the use of live ammunition, by state and private security forces against student protesters is also of particular concern to higher education communities.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a police officer killed a University of Mbandaka student and a fellow officer during a police response to a student protest over an increase in registration fees.^[14] After a dispute broke out between students and police, an officer chased the victim who was running away from the scene. The officer fired his weapon, striking the student and a fellow officer. The same officer who fired his weapon then reportedly rushed to the aforementioned student and shot her in the chest, killing her. The second officer was also killed as a result of the initial gunfire.

In Lesotho, police killed one student and injured several others when they opened fire during their response to a protest over the reduction of student grants at the National University of Lesotho.^[15] Some sources described the protest as disruptive, but no specific acts of student violence were reported. Students claimed that the police fired their weapons without warning.

In Nigeria, police opened fire at a crowd of Abia State Polytechnic (ASP) students protesting in response to news that a police officer allegedly raped a fellow student.^[16] A large group of students—apparently hundreds, according to available reports, photos, and videos—peacefully protested on a busy road near campus, bringing traffic to a halt. Students chanted and held placards. Police near ASP’s entrance reportedly fired several shots towards protesters, who sources described as being nonviolent. There were no reported injuries.

While state and private university security forces have a responsibility to ensure security and safety, they must also exercise restraint and respond to student expression and protest activities in an appropriate and proportional manner, emphasizing de-escalation, and consistent with recognized international human rights standards. Security forces should not use weapons when responding to nonviolent student expression. Lethal force against nonviolent student expression is never justified.

SAR condemns targeted, violent attacks on higher education communities, threats of violence, and the use of lethal force against student protesters. SAR calls on state authorities to investigate these incidents, to make every effort to hold perpetrators accountable, and to ensure the security of all members of the community. State authorities must publicize investigations and accountability measures, so as to inform constituents, positively influence state and non-state actors, and make these measures effective. SAR also calls on higher education institutions and civil society to press state authorities for greater protection and accountability, and to contribute to efforts to understand and reinforce principles of autonomy and academic freedom.

Wrongful Imprisonment and Prosecution

Scholars and students bring attention to a variety of important issues and may question dominant discourse and figures of authority through their academic work, inquiry, expression, and associations. In an effort to maintain power and control, state authorities often attempt to silence them with a range of coercive legal measures, including criminal investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonment. Since the Monitoring Project’s inception, SAR has documented 786 incidents involving wrongful imprisonment or prosecution, 83 of which occurred during this reporting period.

Imprisonments and prosecutions of scholars and students are wrongful when intended to punish, deter, or impede nonviolent academic activity or the exercise of other protected rights, including freedoms of expression, association, or assembly. Such prosecutions are typically brought under laws aimed at restricting critical inquiry and expression. These include opaque and overbroad laws on blasphemy, lèse-majesté, civil and criminal defamation, sedition, espionage, national security, and terrorism that make illegal the mere expression of opinions or ideas on certain topics, without any link to violent or otherwise criminal acts or intentions whatsoever.^[17] Such laws raise concern for entire higher education communities in that they sanction and impose artificial boundaries on research, teaching, publications, and discussion, undermining quality, creativity, and innovation that can benefit society at large. Scholars also face legal actions brought under other laws of general application, including, for example, those proscribing financial impropriety, corruption, or immorality. Wrongful prosecutions under these laws damage the reputation of the targeted individuals and isolate them from their institutions, colleagues, and other sources of professional and personal support.

In many cases, legal proceedings and prosecutions of scholars and students involve forced confessions, fabricated evidence, arbitrary charges, and lengthy prison sentences or harsh penalties. Trials may be repeatedly delayed or held in secret or closed-door proceedings, denying access to media and family. Such actions raise serious due process concerns. Detained or imprisoned scholars and students may also be held in overcrowded cells or solitary confinement, denied access to appropriate medical care, family, or legal counsel, and subjected to lengthy interrogations, abuse, and torture.

Lecturers, researchers, and other academic personnel, as well as students, are routinely investigated, prosecuted, imprisoned, and subjected to other legal actions for a wide range of academic conduct as well as their public views, peaceful protest activity, associations, and ideas. Public criticism of governments or political leaders, and other forms of dissent—whether in academic or other contexts—are frequently the apparent basis for such actions by the state. The examples below from this reporting period demonstrate the diversity of alleged bases for coercive legal actions and the range of actions taken to silence and punish scholars and students.

In Afghanistan, Taliban forces arrested Kabul University lecturer and political commentator Faizullah Jalal at his home and took him to an unknown location, apparently for his public criticism of the Taliban government.^[18] According to TOLO News, a “security source” stated that Jalal had been arrested for “making allegations against some government departments” and was being subjected to interrogations by the intelligence department.^[19] On January 9, Al Jazeera reported that government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had posted tweets about the arrest stating that Jalal had made comments on social media in an attempt to “instigate people against the system” and that he had been arrested to ensure “others don’t make similar senseless comments in the name of being a professor or scholar that harm the dignity of the people.”^[20] Mujahid reportedly shared inflammatory tweets from an account under the professor’s name that Jalal and his family said was fake. On January 11, Jalal’s family announced on social media that he had been released from detention.

In Egypt, a court ordered the detention of Ayman Mansour Nada, a renowned journalism professor and head of the Radio and Television Department at Cairo University, for his public criticism of some of Egypt’s media personalities and officials, the country’s general media landscape, and the Cairo University administration.^[21] Nada was held for nearly two months before being released on November 17, 2021. In March 2022, a court issued Nada a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 20,000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $1,020 USD) for “publicly and maliciously publishing false news about Egyptian media that would disturb public peace and harm the public interest.”^[22]

In Ethiopia, state authorities arrested Addis Ababa University law professor Assefa Fiseha amidt a state of emergency enacted in connection with armed conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and government troops.^[23] An internationally known expert on federalism and constitutional law, Feseha is one of 1,000 people, predominantly ethnic Tigrayans, who were arrested since the government enacted a state of emergency in early November.^[24]

In Indonesia, on December 1, 2021—a day recognized by Papuan separatists as Papua’s independence day—Indonesian police arrested and detained a group of eight peaceful student protesters who raised the Morning Star flag, which is banned in Indonesia, above a stadium in Jayapura and called for a referendum on Papuan independence.^[25] The students were charged with treason, which can carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

In Kuwait, national security agents interrogated and made a referral for a criminal investigation against Safaa Zaman, a professor for the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at Kuwait University and the president of the Kuwait Association for Information Security, about an interview she gave in her field of study.^[26] Days before the interrogation, Al-Shahed TV published an interview of Zaman, during which she spoke about the risks of hacking and threats of data security posed by the existence of electronic servers associated with Egypt’s Civil Service Commission. (Egypt is a strong international ally of Kuwait.) The Gulf Centre for Human Rights noted that Zaman’s remarks were “within her field of speciali[z]ation” and made “using evidence-based information.”^[27] Zaman was later charged with “broadcasting false news that undermines the prestige of the state,” “causing panic in society,” and “exposing the country to the risk of severing its relationship with a friendly country.” According to Civicus, a court of first instance acquitted Zaman on March 29, 2022.^[28]

In Mexico, the attorney general’s office (FGR) requested arrest warrants for 31 scientists, academics, and researchers—all former members of an independent scientific advisory board called the Scientific and Technological Consultative Forum (“Foro Consultivo”)—on charges of money laundering, organized crime, and embezzlement.^[29] Specifically, the FGR accused the academics of spending millions in public funds awarded to them by the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt), in violation of a law passed in 2019 that prohibits members of an advisory board from receiving money from a government science fund. The FGR reportedly sought to jail the academics at Altiplano prison, a maximum-security facility historically used to intern high-level criminals. The academics disputed the charges, asserting that the funds were awarded and spent by the advisory board well before the 2019 law was passed, and that their use had been approved. A judge declined the FGR’s multiple requests for arrest warrants and found the case inadmissible. The FGR’s attempt to jail and prosecute the 31 former Foro Consultivo members outraged the local and international scientific communities, raising concerns that the FGR’s action was actually an attempt to intimidate and silence critics of Conacyt’s director, María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, including the accused academics. Conacyt filed a complaint that prompted the FGR’s investigation around the same time that Álvarez-Buylla appointed Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero to a high-level membership in Mexico’s National System of Researchers. That decision was considered highly controversial, as Gertz had been repeatedly denied the appointment in connection with plagiarism allegations.

In Myanmar, soldiers arrested Daw Hnin Nandar Aung, a faculty member of Technological University, Dawei, who allegedly participated in a civil disobedience movement protesting a military coup that began in February 2021.^[30] The university’s student union reported that soldiers arrested her at her home, around 10:00 PM. As of this report, there is no public information regarding her current status, including whether she remains in the military’s custody.

In South Korea, police raided the home of researcher Dae-il Jeong, who studies the North Korean Juche ideology at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).^[31] The police conducted a search and seizure of property at Jeong’s residence on charges that he was violating South Korea’s National Security Act (NSA), which prohibits individuals from possessing documents associated with anti-state groups. The police searched and confiscated Jeong’s cellphone, computers, research materials, and a copy of With the Century, a memoir written by former North Korean President Kim Il-sung that is considered controversial in South Korea. Months earlier, police raided the offices of one publishing house that printed the memoir, claiming that they had violated the NSA. The police warrant reportedly noted allegations that Jeong was in communication with that same publishing house regarding the production of the memoir. KINU denounced the search as a violation of academic freedom.

The incidents described above provide a disturbing accounting of the range of punitive legal actions that scholars and students often suffer in connection with their research, publications, expressive activity, and associations. Such actions can leave them with physical and emotional scars and, in some cases, destroy careers. Beyond the immediate harm to those individual scholars and students, wrongful imprisonments and prosecutions send a message to higher education communities and society at large that expressing ideas or raising questions can result in grave consequences. As a result, society risks losing the benefits of a diverse community of scholars and students, free to carry out their work or share their thoughts, without fear of punishment by state authorities.

SAR urges state authorities around the world to release scholars and students imprisoned for their academic work or the nonviolent exercise of other protected human rights. With particular concern over the heightened risk COVID-19 continues to present to incarcerated populations, SAR calls on state authorities to immediately release wrongfully imprisoned scholars and students, especially those who have health conditions that elevate their level of risk or who are being held in unsanitary or crowded conditions. Pending this, states must uphold their obligations under domestic and international law, including those related to due process and the humane treatment of prisoners. SAR further urges state authorities to drop prosecutions against scholars in connection with nonviolent academic or expressive activity, to review laws that have been used wrongfully to prosecute scholars and students, and to amend or repeal them as necessary, to ensure that scholars can think, question, and share ideas without fear of retribution.

Loss of Position

Higher education and state authorities punish, deter, and restrict the exercise of academic freedom and other protected rights of scholars and students through employment or administrative actions. These include the loss of position by dismissal, suspension, demotion, and denial of promotions or other benefits to scholars, and permanent or temporary expulsion of students from courses of study, programs, and facilities. Reports of credible threats by relevant authorities to take such actions are also considered. Since the Monitoring Project’s inception, SAR has reported 257 incidents involving permanent or temporary loss of position or threats of the same.

Disciplinary actions may be openly acknowledged as punishing or attempting to block academic speech or conduct, including statements made in the classroom or on campus, writings (including newspaper columns, letters, blogs, and social media), research, participation in professional or student associations, union activity, or criticism of higher education or state leadership or policy. State or university officials may also attribute the action to regular administrative or employment decisions having nothing to do with academic content or conduct, such as budget cuts or lack of demand, or allegations of poor performance, violation of policy, violation of terms of employment or admission, fraud or other dishonest or inappropriate behavior; they may also provide no explanation.^[32] It is important to note the role of government and political figures in such incidents, where these external actors publicly and privately exert pressure on higher education administrations to secure the removal of particular scholars or students from the campus community. In some cases, state and military leaders have also pushed for mass dismissals and suspensions of students and scholars for their peaceful dissent. The below examples illustrate a range of employment and administrative actions taken against lecturers, researchers, and other academic personnel during this reporting period.

In Belarus, Belarusian State University (BSU) declined to renew the contract of Aliaksandr Danilevich, an associate professor of international relations, apparently for signing a public appeal against Russia’s war in Ukraine.^[33] BSU administrators had earlier reprimanded Danilevich for signing the appeal, informing him that faculty are not permitted to engage in so-called political agitation, but Danilevich refused to remove his signature. Danilevich had taught at BSU for 20 years.

In China, Shanghai Aurora College fired Song Gengyi, a journalism lecturer, after giving a lecture in which she questioned the accuracy of the official death toll relating to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which the imperial Japanese Army committed a series of grave atrocities during the second Sino-Japanese War.^[34] During the lecture, Song reportedly argued that the Chinese government’s official estimate of 300,000 deaths lacked statistical support and that estimates ranged from “500,000 to 300,000 to 30,000 to 3,000.”^[35] A student reportedly recorded the lecture and posted it online, shortly after which the university terminated Song for “making the wrong remarks, causing a serious teaching incident, and resulting in severely bad social impact.”^[36]

In India, Sharda University suspended Waqas Farooq Kuttay, an assistant professor, for a question he included on a political science exam for undergraduate students. Kuttay reportedly asked: “Do you find any similarities between Fascism/Nazism and Hindu right wing (Hindutva)? Elaborate with arguments.”^[37] A photo of the exam question was posted to Twitter and went viral. Some students reportedly complained about the question to the university. In announcing the suspension, the university stated, “The university regrets that such an incident has taken place that may have the potential for fomenting social discord.”^[38]

In Poland, President Andrzej Duda refused to approve the promotion of Michał Bilewicz, a genocide researcher and the head of the Center for Research on Prejudice at University of Warsaw, to a full professorship, apparently due to the nature of his research.^[39] Bilewicz, currently an associate professor, has written extensively on anti-Semitism and the Polish people’s role in the Holocaust, and its aftermath—topics considered sensitive by the country’s ruling right-wing government. For more than three years, Duda had refused to sign off on Bilewicz’s committee-approved appointment, with a number of observers arguing that his refusal to do so is driven by the fact that Bilewicz’s research findings conflict with Duda’s party’s nationalist views. They point out that Bilewicz’s appointment is one of two in Poland that Duda has refused to sign off on; the other is the appointment of Walter Żelazny, an outspoken opposition sociologist and activist. Duda has claimed that he refused to sign off on Bilewicz’s appointment because too many of the reviewers were from Bilewicz’s university.

In Sudan, the military-led government dismissed all university boards and replaced 30 public university presidents and 8 vice presidents who had been appointed by the prior civilian-led government.^[40] Waleed Ali Ahmed, a council member of the Sudanese Professionals Association, stated that the officials were “removed and replaced by others who are loyal to the Islamic movement.”^[41] Higher education organizations across Sudan condemned the move as a silencing tactic and called it “illegal.” Senior-level officials in the Ministry of Higher Education and General Education were also reportedly dismissed.^[42]

In Turkey, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) ordered the dismissal of three deans from Boğaziçi University, apparently for their participation in protests against the university’s rector, Mehmet Naci İnci.^[43] Özlem Berk Albachten, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Metin Ercan, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and Yasemin Bayyurt, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, had been active participants in protests against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appointment of İnci’s predecessor and Erdoğan political ally, Melih Bulu, as rector of the university in January 2021. The protests continued after Bulu’s dismissal and replacement with İnci in August 2021, despite overwhelming faculty disapproval of the latter. Since January 2021, protesting students and faculty have faced arrests, detentions, prosecutions, suspensions, dismissals, and violent force by Turkish police. İnci stated on his Twitter that YÖK had ordered the three scholars to be removed from their deanships due to investigations into alleged, unspecified disciplinary offenses. Academics at Boğaziçi University criticized the dismissals as arbitrary and damaging to the university and emphasized that the deans had been elected to their posts by a faculty majority.

In the United States, the Soka University of America launched an investigation against Aneil Rallin, a celebrated professor of rhetoric and composition, in response to alleged student complaints about their (Rallin uses they/them pronouns) course titled, “Writing the Body.”^[44] In their complaints, students stated that they felt “violated” and “triggered” and that the content included required readings that were “disturbing,” “gratuitously violent,” and “vaguely pedophilic.”^[45] The interim dean of faculty describing these allegations stated that Rallin was accused of violating four policies in the faculty handbook, including violations that could serve as grounds for dismissal. Rallin has denied the allegations and stated that they took all necessary measures to make students feel comfortable, including providing trigger warnings, offering alternate reading material, and assuring students that they did not have to engage with certain works or share their own work if they were not comfortable doing so. One student expressed surprise over the complaints, noting that Rallin went out of their way to help make all students comfortable and that “Writing the Body” was “probably one of the most popular courses.”^[46] Only two faculty members showed up to serve on a faculty adjudication committee that was ordered, with the dean serving as a third member, prompting serious due process concerns.

Students also face similar reprisals for expressive activity. Retaliations of this type can have lasting negative impacts on the students they affect: even if they are permitted to enroll elsewhere, other institutions may be hesitant to accept them, fearing government reprisals if they do so, and as a result, the students’ future prospects are reduced.

In China, Ludong University expelled Sun Jian, a master’s student in Chinese history, for protesting the university’s COVID-19 policies and campus lockdown.^[47] Prior to his expulsion, Sun had been criticizing the university’s pandemic response for months, including publishing an open letter to his WeChat account. According to University World News, on March 27, 2022, Sun held signs on campus reading “Unblock Ludong” and “Resolutely oppose high nucleic acid testing for all staff” for approximately 20 minutes.^[48] Sun told Radio Free Asia that he was approached several times and followed during that period, before eventually being tackled and escorted into an administrative building on campus by a teacher and two security guards.^[49] Following his brief detainment, he posted videos of himself holding the signs on social media, which purportedly caused the security bureau to issue him a warning. However, the bureau claimed that Sun allegedly continued to “incite[] students to boycott” the university’s COVID-19 prevention measures on WeChat and other platforms following the warning. Then, on March 31, the university issued an expulsion notice to Sun, claiming that he had seriously violated national laws and public order and granting him 10 days to file a written appeal to the university.

In Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reportedly ordered St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU) to expel 13 students who participated in anti-war protests following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.^[50] SPbGu’s vice-rector Alexander Babich noted on the university’s website that if the state notified the university about a student found guilty of violating the law, including that which criminalizes mass demonstrations without state-issued permits, the student would be punished up to, and including, expulsion.^[51]

In Ukraine, Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University expelled a fourth-year student, identified as Elvira, in the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, for a social media post that apparently suggested that she did not support either side in the fighting that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.^[52] In a statement, the university said it had called an urgent meeting of senior administrators, during which they ordered the student’s immediate expulsion.^[53] The university also noted that it had contacted state law enforcement.

Expulsions, dismissals, suspensions, and other forms of professional retaliation or silencing can have a corrosive effect on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and free expression generally. They can encourage self-censorship and even contribute to brain drain, as scholars and students seek fairer and more transparent environments in which to conduct their research, teaching, and studying. They can also leave individuals isolated and vulnerable to more extreme forms of attack, including arrest, prosecution, and violence. Early attention to dismissals and expulsions may then help to forestall these attacks. Finally, to the extent that these forms of attacks are intended to silence critics and, in the case of students, eliminate their potential for effective criticism and dissent in the future, these forms of attacks threaten the foundations of democratic society and warrant a robust response.

To safeguard academic freedom and institutional autonomy and to maintain the highest standards of quality education, SAR calls on higher education leaders and state authorities to refrain from taking or compelling disciplinary actions intended to punish or restrict the exercise of academic freedom and other protected rights. SAR further calls on higher education leaders and administrators to ensure faculty and students due process in all disciplinary proceedings.

Travel Restrictions

Freedom of movement is fundamental to quality higher education, advancing the exchange of new ideas and bolstering international academic collaborations to address the world’s problems. However, the international and intrastate mobility of both students and scholars is routinely threatened by state actors seeking to limit the flow of knowledge. Governments deny scholars and students entry at their national borders, deport members of the academic community, and enact policies that seek to or unintentionally limit or frustrate academic travel, including for fieldwork, conferences, study abroad, and to take up employment offers. Since the Monitoring Project’s inception, SAR has reported 92 incidents involving travel restrictions that have directly impacted thousands of scholars and students.

To be clear, states have the right to control entry into their territories; however, they must do so consistent with their obligations under domestic and international law. Restrictions on travel intended to limit particular academic content or conduct, or that of particular scholars or students, may violate academic freedom, freedom of expression, and other internationally recognized freedoms. Indeed, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) speaks directly to this issue, providing that the right to freedom of expression “shall include [the] freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers…” (emphasis added).

Thus, while states may restrict travel to protect national security and public health, and to support other legitimate state interests, policy-level decisions intended to restrict or frustrate access to higher education, or that have a disproportionate impact on higher education, may violate state obligations to protect the right to education and freedom of expression. Likewise, policies or restrictions aimed at retaliating against or preventing academic inquiry or expression may violate academic freedom.

Given a sustained reduction in scholars’ and students’ international academic travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SAR reported relatively few particularized incidents involving travel restrictions over the past year.

In Iran, for example, state authorities barred sociology professor and former political prisoner Saeed Madani from leaving the country to begin a one-year research post at Yale University, in the United States.^[54] Madani’s research focuses on poverty, drug addiction, sex work, and child abuse, among other topics considered controversial in Iran. According to a letter that Madani later sent to Iran’s Minister of Justice in response to the travel ban, he was interrogated by intelligence officials two days prior to his scheduled flight out of Iran, but was informed that he could travel. However, on December 7, the day of his flight, authorities stopped Madani at his gate in the airport and prevented him from boarding. He was then taken to the police station where he was interrogated by officers from various security agencies about his views and activities. The officers ultimately informed Madani that he was banned from traveling and confiscated his passport. Six months later, in May 2022, Iranian state media reported that Madani had been arrested on security charges for alleged “suspicious foreign links.”^[55]

In India, on March 24, 2022, authorities denied entry to and deported Filippo Osella, a renowned anthropology and South Asian studies professor from the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, who was traveling to attend an academic conference.^[56] After his plane landed in Thiruvananthapuram, Osella was escorted to an immigration desk, where officials photographed and fingerprinted him before informing him that there was a government order to deport him back to the UK. The officials would not provide further information on the reason for his deportation and would not allow him to contact friends or colleagues within India who could vouch for his reputation or seek answers from the Indian government. When he asked to retrieve some medication from his luggage, the officials threatened to restrain Osella if he did not stop talking. Osella has speculated that he was denied entry and deported due to his previous travel to Pakistan, which he has visited twice and was questioned about by immigration officials during this deportation process, as well as during other visits to India.^[57]

Targeted travel restrictions highlighted in past editions of Free to Think have included China’s government barring human rights lawyer Lu Siwei from leaving the country and traveling to the US to undertake an academic fellowship, on national security grounds;^[58] Egyptian authorities barring Walid Salem, an Egyptian PhD candidate at the University of Washington, from traveling to the US to resume his studies;^[59] Russian officials denying entry to French sociologist Carine Clément, who was to participate in a conference on protest movements;^[60] and Zambia’s government detaining and deporting Patrick Lumumba, a Kenyan law professor, who was invited to deliver a lecture on Chinese-African relations, a potentially sensitive topic given the government’s apparent reliance on Chinese loans.^[61] These earlier incidents serve as a reminder of the types of travel restrictions scholars and students may see more frequently once global academic travel more fully resumes.

Governments also use broad policies and practices that restrict the movement of scholars and students thereby limiting academic activity and the cross-border exchange of ideas for entire communities.

In Algeria, the Ministry of Higher Education ordered a ban on Algerian scholars attending academic conferences in Morocco.^[62] The decision apparently stemmed from the publication of allegedly “anti-Algerian articles” in a Moroccan legal and judicial studies journal called Al-Bahit as well as tense relations between the Moroccan and Algerian governments. The Ministry also reportedly barred Algerian scholars from publishing research in Moroccan journals.

In India, regulatory authorities announced that any degrees from Pakistani higher education institutions will no longer be recognized in India, a move that would deter most Indian students from pursuing education there.^[63] According to a joint notice issued by the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education, “[a]ny Indian national or [Indian] overseas citizen who intends to take admission in any degree college or educational institution of Pakistan shall not be eligible for seeking employment or higher studies in India.”^[64] The notice further stated that “all concerned are advised not to travel to Pakistan for pursuing higher education.” The policy change was reportedly connected to tensions between India and Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir. In response to the announcement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office issued a statement that “Pakistan reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response to this openly discriminatory and inexplicable action by India.”^[65]

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the government of Israel continues to impose on scholars and students an array of policies that restrict their movement. These include long-standing restrictions, such as checkpoints and travel permits imposed on all Palestinians, as well as targeted pressures that impact the global academic community. For example, in February 2022, Israeli authorities announced a government directive that restricts international scholar and student travel to and work in the West Bank.^[66] The “Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Area,” inter alia, gives a unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defense discretion over international scholar and student residency applications, limits the duration of their residency in the West Bank and places burdensome requirements on applicants and future permit holders, including requirements to leave the West Bank for 9 months after their first 27 months and possible financial guarantees of up to 70,000 NIS (roughly $20,000 USD). The original directive sought to limit the number of foreign faculty and students permitted to study and research long-term at West bank higher education institutions to 100 and 150 annually, respectively; however, this was later struck from an updated directive published in September, following significant local and international outcry, including from the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, SAR, and others.^[67] For Palestinian scholars and students in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, checkpoints, roadblocks, the separation wall, and the opaque and lengthy processing of travel permits continue to restrict their travel within the OPT, into Israel, and abroad, constricting their ability to study, teach, research, and exchange ideas with colleagues within and outside the OPT. Israel’s border restrictions also impede the importation of equipment, books, and school materials that quality higher education requires.^[68] Travel restrictions limiting the flow of scholars, students, and academic materials in and out of the OPT constrict the meaningful exercise of the right to education and academic freedom. Moreover, such broad barriers to movement threaten the long-term development of quality higher education in the OPT and, by consequence, Palestinians’ scientific, social, and economic progress.

In Turkey, many higher education personnel and civil servants remain unable to travel internationally after the government canceled their passports for expressive activity and alleged affiliations with groups disfavored by the government.^[69] In July 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared a state of emergency following a violent coup attempt. Under the state of emergency, the government issued a series of decrees that, among other things, sanctioned more than 125,000 civil servants, including academics and other university personnel, accused of having affiliations with Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who the Turkish government claims coordinated the coup attempt. Among the dismissed were 406 signatories to the Academics for Peace petition, which condemned the Turkish government’s anti-terrorism policies in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern part of the country and urged state authorities to resume peace negotiations. Faculty and other university personnel named in the decrees were dismissed from their positions, barred from future civil service posts, and put under an international travel ban; spouses of those individuals were also subject to a travel ban. By July 8, 2018, more than 7,500 university personnel had been sanctioned by the emergency decrees. Being named in the decrees has effectively amounted to blacklisting within much of Turkish society.^[70] Unable to obtain academic employment (or any state employment) in Turkey or seek overseas academic work, scholars and others targeted by the decrees have described being subjected to a “civil death.” In October 2019, a law was passed that would ostensibly allow dismissed scholars (and other civil servants) to apply for new passports, but scholars have described a burdensome and exceedingly narrow pathway for successfully regaining travel privileges.^[71]

Healthy societies require the free movement of scholars, students, and their ideas. Restrictions on academic travel—whether they involve interstate or intrastate travel, denial of exit or entry, or policies that limit the movement of entire classes of higher education personnel—repress and often penalize the international exchange of ideas that is a hallmark of modern academia. SAR calls upon state and international authorities to adopt and respect policies that fully protect the right to academic travel, including the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers.”^[72] State authorities should not deny scholars and students entry or exit visas, cancel their passports, force their return to their home countries, or otherwise attempt to impede or interfere with academic expression or conduct.

Other

The enumerated types of attacks discussed above capture the most severe incidents (killings, violence, disappearances; prosecution and imprisonment) and those which, despite the difficulty in documenting them, likely impact large numbers of scholars and students (loss of position/expulsion; travel restrictions). The “other” type captures incidents that do not fall squarely within these but may nevertheless significantly impair higher education functions, academic freedom, and the rights of entire higher education communities. Forms of “other” attacks typically include military raids on and occupations of higher education facilities; damage to or destruction of higher education facilities, often during armed conflict; legislative and administrative actions that erode institutional autonomy; systematic or repeated harassment intended to intimidate and undermine the academic freedom of scholars, students, and other personnel but lacking the overt element of violence or coercion present in the enumerated type discussed earlier; and efforts to restrict or otherwise impede higher education events. Since the Monitoring Project’s inception, SAR has reported 320 “other” incidents, including 67 during this reporting period.

Military, paramilitary, or organized criminal groups targeting, occupying, or using higher education facilities during or outside of conflict can disrupt or completely impede education in the short term. This includes the use of weapons in armed conflict to damage or destroy higher education infrastructure as well as the use of higher education facilities as barracks, weapons caches, firing ranges, and interrogation and detention centers.

In Ethiopia, for example, militants with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) took over and occupied the campus of Wollo University in November 2021, during a period of intense armed conflict with Ethiopian government forces.^[73] TPLF forces took over the campus when fighting reached the town of Dessie, located in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. During their occupation, TPLF forces reportedly looted the campus, taking computers, medical equipment, and other items. Images of the university show windows smashed and doors blown out, empty classrooms strewn with trash and debris, and caved-in roofs. Fighting by TPLF forces and government drone strikes targeting the former caused significant damage to university infrastructure. The university’s Vice President Amare Mitiku told reporters that the damage inflicted and looting that occurred amounted to approximately 10 billion Ethiopian birr (equivalent to around $200 million USD).

In Myanmar, the military continued to occupy higher education facilities since a coup in February 2021.^[74] The military raided campuses shortly after the coup, in an apparent effort to remove and deter students and faculty who protested the military and to seize the campuses for strategic purposes. Data collected by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database Project (ACLED), an NGO based in the United States, showed incidents of military forces stationed on campuses engaging in combat with resistance forces, raising concerns over the safety of civilians, including students and personnel, damage to higher education facilities, and serious disruption to academic activity.^[75]

Amidst Russia’s war in Ukraine, Russian forces have launched attacks, including airstrikes and shellings, targeting higher education facilities. Among the institutions that have sustained damage from such attacks are V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University,^[76] Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology,^[77] Chernihiv Polytechnic National University,^[78] Sukhomlynskyi Mykolaiv National University,^[79] Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding,^[80] O.M. Beketov Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy,^[81] and Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.^[82] In Kharkiv alone, military officials reported at least seven higher education institutions suffered damage during the month of March.^[83] While civilian casualties were not reported in most of the incidents captured by SAR’s Monitoriing Project, the attacks resulted in substantial damage to campus infrastructure. The Kyiv School of Economics has calculated that Ukrainian higher education institutions suffered roughly $2.648 billion USD in damage since the start of the war.^[84]

In Yemen, Houthi forces stormed the Faculties of Arts and Education of Dhamar University (DU) (also romanized as “Thamar University”) and allegedly assaulted university staff in an effort to seize control of the campus.^[85] A Houthi-appointed official in the Dhamar governorate had reportedly ordered Houthi forces to take control of the two faculties’ buildings on grounds that they belonged to the [de-facto] government, not the university. When DU staff attempted to stop the Houthi forces from entering the campus, Houthi forces reportedly assaulted them and detained two university security personnel.

Other incidents include attempts by state and non-state armed groups to silence dissent by simply entering or maintaining a presence on campuses. Such acts undermine the autonomy of the university, academic freedom, and an institution’s ability to function.

In Ecuador, officers with the National Police repeatedly entered university facilities without authorization, apparently to quell student protests that began in mid-June 2022. On June 21, for example, police entered the Catholic Pontifical University of Ecuador to disperse peaceful student protesters.^[86] The police were apparently evicted from the campus, but began launching teargas from the outside. Similar unauthorized encroachments on university spaces were reported at the University of Cuenca^[87] and the National Polytechnic School.^[88] University officials denounced these encroachments publicly and moved the national Ombudsman’s Office to adopt a resolution that bars national police and armed forces from entering university campuses or firing weapons into them and establishes “peace borders” outside university campuses, to prevent confrontations between state authorities and protesters.^[89]

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israeli soldiers carried out an early morning raid on the Birzeit University campus, assaulting guards, damaging university property, confiscating students’ belongings, and sparking violent clashes.^[90] According to the university, roughly 100 Israeli soldiers broke through the campus’s main gate around 4:00 AM. Once inside, the soldiers beat and detained several campus guards, removed the Palestinian flag from the center of campus, and conducted raids on three faculties: Science, Graduate Studies, and Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Professions. The raid on these and other campus buildings lasted around two hours, during which some of the contents inside were damaged. Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that the soldiers also “confiscated banners and personal belongings of student [blocs] before leaving campus premises.” The raid preceded a ceremony planned for that day by the Islamic student bloc to mark the founding of Hamas, though the Jerusalem Post later reported that it was unclear whether the soldiers’ actions were connected to the ceremony.^[91] Following the raid, clashes reportedly broke out between Israeli soldiers and civilians, including students. Israeli forces fired bullets and tear gas canisters to disperse the civilians.

In Venezuela, the Bolivarian National Police entered the campus of Central University of Venezuela (UCV) in an apparent effort to disrupt a nonviolent protest.^[92] UCV employees had gathered on campus and began marching to protest in connection with an ongoing labor dispute. Shortly thereafter, a group of police arrived on motorcycles. A number of protesters reportedly confronted the police, stating that their presence on campus was a violation of university autonomy and of Venezuelan law. According to available reporting, the confrontations were all nonviolent.

University closures may also constitute attacks when states or higher education leaders forcibly or arbitrarily shut down individual institutions or entire higher education systems to punish, deter, or impede academic speech, content, or conduct, or otherwise to sanction members of the higher education community for their exercise of protected rights. Closures are often linked to student protests or strikes over higher education policies or reforms, or to general public protests or unrest. They are often justified on grounds of protecting individuals and property from harm. Such justifications should be examined for pretext where the real reason for the closure may be to silence dissent, avoid embarrassment of university or state leaders, and exclude or eliminate student leaders. The latter is particularly true when closures are accompanied by dismissals, expulsions, arrests, or prosecutions of scholars and students. But even in circumstances where they are a response to legitimate security concerns and not aimed at restricting expression, closures are an extreme measure which may protect lives and property but fail to protect higher education as an open, functioning space for research, teaching, and learning.

In Morocco, for example, Ibn Tofaïl University closed its campus and suspended classes for three days, in order to prevent a three-day series of events responding to the “normalizing” of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel.^[93] The events—organized by the the National Student Union of Morocco and students affiliated with the Islamist movement Al Adl Wal Ihsane (“Justice and Charity” or “AWI”)—were to include seminars, an arts festival, and a football tournament. In announcing their decision to close the campus, the university stated that the forum “has a national dimension and is organized in partnership with a non-student body that has nothing to do with the university,” ostensibly referring to AWI.^[94] The university also cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and security concerns arising from “tensions that this meeting could leave within the university.”

Through the use of legislative and administrative powers, governments have attempted to shut down, exile, seize control of, and undermine the autonomy of higher education institutions.

In Nicaragua, the National Assembly, allied with President Daniel Ortega, voted to cancel the operating licenses of six private universities.^[95] The government accused the universities—along with a number of non-higher education associations whose operating licenses were also canceled —of violating financial disclosure requirements. University officials and others allege that these actions stemmed from protests against the Ortega government in 2018, during which state authorities violently suppressed demonstrators—many of whom were university students—ending in the deaths of more than 350 Nicaraguans. Four of the private universities were merged to form a new state university, while the other two were renamed.^[96] These new universities would be overseen by the National Council of Universities and would offer admission to students whose universities were closed down.

In Ukraine, Russian occupying forces took over the campuses of several Ukrainian higher education institutions, renamed those institutions, and appointed new leadership. On May 27, 2022, for example, it was reported that Russian occupying forces invaded and seized control of Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University and Bohdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, and announced that the two universities would be merged into a new “Melitopol State University.”^[97] The Russian-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, where the universities are located, said that the new university would adapt to the system used by the Russian Federation.^[98] SAR reported similar developments at Kherson State University,^[99] Kherson National Technical University^[100] and Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University.^[101]

Other attacks may include efforts to cancel or impede participation in lectures, seminars, conferences, or other events hosted by members of the higher education community. These attacks restrict or deter scholarly discussion and the exchange of ideas and information.

In China, state authorities sought to prevent at least five scholars from attending and participating virtually in the Association for Asian Studies’ (AAS) 2022 Annual Conference.^[102] The international conference ran on an in-person/virtual hybrid format from March 24-27, 2022, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States. Several individuals with direct knowledge of the incident informed the US-based National Public Radio that Chinese security and education authorities “directly intervened” in the scholars’ scheduled participation, “citing education regulations published during a global coronavirus pandemic which require all Chinese scholars to receive university permission to attend any international event in-person or online.”^[103] In one instance, Chinese police reportedly interrogated one of the scholars for hours at their home after they presented their research paper to an online panel earlier in the week. NPR reported that it “did not touch on subjects which Chinese authorities normally consider sensitive.”^[104]

In India, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) administration ordered the cancellation of a webinar on Kashmir organized by the university’s Centre for Women’s Studies (CWS), apparently based on political considerations.^[105] The webinar, “Gender resistance and fresh challenges in post-2019 Kashmir,” was to feature well-known anthropologist and activist Ather Zia and would draw from and build on Zia’s book, Resisting Disappearance: Military occupation and women’s activism in Kashmir, to assess resistance and dissent in Kashmir in the wake of India’s 2019 repeal of Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of the Indian constitution. JNU Vice-Chancellor published a statement calling the topic of the webinar “a highly objectionable and provocative subject, which questions the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country” and stated that upon learning of the webinar, the administration “immediately instructed the faculty members organizing the event to cancel it.”^[106] Kumar also relayed that the faculty members in charge of the event had not sought the university’s permission to hold it and that the matter was now under investigation.

In Thailand, Chiang Mai University faculty and administrators prohibited students from exhibiting their theses in the University Art Centre on the grounds that some pieces dealt with social and political themes.^[107] The university’s Media Arts and Design Department required that fourth year students publicly exhibit their final theses; however, after determining that some of the work involved political or social themes, the university administration refused to permit the students to use the University Art Centre for that purpose, effectively denying them the ability to meet a program requirement. The students were later granted a temporary injunction by the Chiang Mai Administrative Court, requiring the university to allow them to exhibit their work.

These “other” attacks are diverse in form and impact, but share with the five types described earlier an intent to punish or control expression and inquiry within the academic community. They have the potential to severely undermine the rights of individual scholars and students and, when targeting entire institutions, they can impede core higher education functions and erode the autonomy universities and colleges need to operate without the undue influence of political actors.

States, higher education leaders, and civil society should take steps to understand and prevent the range of attacks described here, including by publicly reporting and condemning such attacks and by promoting the importance of academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

Student Expression

Student expression and violent responses to the same are featured in many of the incidents reported by SAR’s Monitoring Project, warranting discussion here.

Individual and organized student expression is an integral part of the higher education process and an important contributor to public discourse generally. Incidents involving student expression are connected to a variety of issues, including the rising cost of tuition, education policy, police brutality, sexual assault, and government reforms. Students bring attention to these issues through marches, sit-ins, petitions, vigils, and other forms of on- and off-campus expression.

Their right to do so is protected under international human rights standards relating to academic freedom, freedom of expression, freedoms of assembly and association, and the right to education. Despite these protections, state and institutional actors frequently restrict and retaliate against student expression through the use of violent force, detentions, and coercive legal and disciplinary actions. Beyond violating internationally recognized human rights and endangering members of the campus community, attacks on student expression chill the learning environment and limit the free inquiry and expression required for open, democratically legitimate societies.

During this reporting period, SAR reported more than 130 student expression–related incidents that directly impacted many hundreds of students and other victims. The vast majority of these attacks involve the use of violence, arrests, prosecutions, suspensions, and expulsions targeting students. For example, in Guinea, police fired tear gas and arrested students, including the head of a student association from the Gamal Abdel Nasser University of Conakry during a peaceful protest demanding improved conditions, including student transportation services.^[108] In Indonesia, the administration of the State Islamic Institute Ambon took disciplinary and legal actions against a student news publication, known as Lintas, and its student staff members in response to the publication of a special edition regarding sexual harassment allegations on campus.^[109] In Sudan, shortly after the start of a military coup, soldiers raided a dormitory at the University of Khartoum, where they used force against students in an apparent effort to deter anti-coup protest activities.^[110] One student reported that the soldiers confiscated students’ mobile phones, used whips against them, and ordered them to leave the dormitory; another student reported that soldiers shaved his head. In Caracas, Venezuela, a group of individuals posing as students, who were in fact party members loyal to the regime of Nicolás Maduro, physically attacked a group of students holding an anti-government protest on the steps of Venezuela Central University.^[111] In Yemen, Houthi forces, called on by the Sana’a University administration (under Houthi command) to quell an on-campus student demonstration, beat student protesters and arrested an unspecified number of them.^[112] Medical students had gathered inside a building on campus to demand the postponement of final exams. Video posted to Twitter shows Houthi forces pushing students to move down a hallway, and students can be heard yelling and crying. Students reported that they were threatened with weapons and that a number of them were arrested.

A minority of incidents involve some students—often subsets of a broader group—engaging in physical violence directed at fellow students, higher education personnel, or campus facilities. In Bangladesh, for example, alleged members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the country’s ruling party, attacked female students holding a protest on the Sylhet Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) campus.^[113] The protesters were demanding the removal of a residence hall provost for allegedly being dismissive of their concerns over the behavior of the hall’s security guards. Several students were reportedly injured in the attack on the protest. In South Africa, students reportedly set fire to a building and damaged a library at Durban University of Technology (DUT) during a protest over financial aid allowances and residence hall conditions.^[114] DUT closed its Steve Biko, M.L. Sultan, and Ritson campuses and asked students to vacate as a result.

Regardless of the type of perpetrator, the frequency and severity of incidents involving student expression underscore the importance and vulnerability of student expression around the world. (Indeed, student expression incidents constitute roughly 41% of the incidents SAR reported this year, although this may reflect in part greater visibility and reporting on attacks on students relative to other attacks.) Understanding student expression—its forms, presence around the globe, and significance to education and society—and working to protect it is essential to ensuring quality higher education that provides the maximum societal benefit.

SAR condemns violent and coercive attacks against students, from whatever source. SAR urges governments and higher education leaders to ensure that security officials, both state and private, exercise restraint and respond to student expression and protest activities in an appropriate and proportional manner, focused on de-escalation and consistent with recognized international human rights standards. States should not use weapons when responding to nonviolent student expression.^[115] If force is necessary, as a last resort to maintain safety, it must be proportionate and limited, so as to reduce unnecessary risk of harm to protesting students and others. State authorities must further ensure appropriate protections for nonviolent student expression—especially when on a campus or in an academic setting. SAR calls on state authorities to immediately release students in custody and drop any charges that stem from their peaceful academic or expressive activity. SAR urges higher education leaders to refrain from taking disciplinary actions against students in retaliation for or to restrict nonviolent student expression, inquiry, assembly, or association.

SAR also calls on students engaged in expressive activity, on or off campus, to do so consistent with higher education values and human rights principles. This includes abstaining from using physical violence to advance the objectives of student expression. Members of higher education communities and civil society should commit to respecting the campus space, both physical and virtual, as a safe, free space, where ideas can be expressed and debated without fear of physical harm or undue restriction.

^[1] Robert Quinn, “Academic Self-Censorship Is a ‘Brain Drag’ on Arab Universities and Societies,” Al-Fanar Media, April 18, 2021, www.al-fanarmedia.org/2021/04/academic-self-censorship-is-a-brain-drag-on-arab-universities-and-societies/.

^[2] SAR AFMP, November 10, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-10-university-of-buea/.

^[3] SAR AFMP, January 10, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-10-nigerian-army-university-biu/.

^[4] “Boko Haram Attacks Tukur Buratai War Institute In Borno, Kills Two Workers, Burns Vehicles,” Sahara Reporters, January 12, 2022, saharareporters.com/2022/01/12/boko-haram-attacks-tukur-buratai-war-institute-borno-kills-two-workers-burns-vehicles/.

^[5] SAR AFMP, April 26, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-26-university-of-karachi/.

^[6] Sophia Saifi, Saleem Mehsud, and Azaz Syed, “Female suicide bomber behind Karachi attack that killed 3 Chinese citizens: police,” CNN, April 27, 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/asia/pakistan-karachi-blast-chinese-nationals-killed-intl-hnk/index.html.

^[7] SAR AFMP, November 12, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-12-ghazni-university/.

^[8] SAR AFMP, May 12, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-12-shehu-shagari-college-of-education-sokoto/.

^[9] SAR AFMP, June 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-06-university-of-antioquia/.

^[10] SAR AFMP, May 10, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-10-lucknow-university/.

^[11] “Dalit professor alleges attack by student on Lucknow University campus,” Hindustan Times, May 18, 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/lucknow-news/dalit-professor-alleges-attack-by-student-on-lucknow-university-campus-101652897154086.html.

^[12] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-24-queens-university-belfast/.

^[13] United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Attacks against human rights advocate threaten academic freedom in Northern Ireland – UN experts,” March 24, 2022, www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/attacks-against-human-rights-advocate-threaten-academic-freedom-northern.

^[14] SAR AFMP, April 12, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-12-university-of-mbandaka/.

^[15] SAR AFMP, June 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-16-national-university-of-lesotho/.

^[16] SAR AFMP, September 23, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-23-abia-state-polytechnic/.

^[17] Even if they were narrowly drafted, limited in use, and conscientiously applied through fair and transparent legal proceedings fully compliant with recognized human rights standards, such laws would still impose a significant chill on academic freedom, freedom of expression, and other rights. In practice, however, such limits are rarely in place.

^[18] SAR AFMP, January 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-08-kabul-university/.

^[19] “Professor, Analyst Faizullah Jalal Arrested In Kabul,” TOLO News, January 8, 2022, tolonews.com/afghanistan-176224.

^[20] “Prominent Afghan professor arrested for criticising Taliban rule,” Al Jazeera, January 9, 2022, www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/afghan-professor-arrested-for-criticising-taliban-regime.

^[21] SAR AFMP, September 28, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-28-cairo-university/.

^[22] Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, “Criminal Court refers lawsuit against Ayman Mansour Nada before Court of Appeal,” March 31, 2022, afteegypt.org/en/legal-updates-en/legal-news-en/2021/10/24/25288-afteegypt.html.

^[23] SAR AFMP, November 17, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-17-addis-ababa-university/.

^[24] Lenin Ndebele, “Leading constitutional law professor detained in Ethiopia,” News24, November 23, 2021, https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/leading-constitutional-law-professor-detained-in-ethiopia-20211123.

^[25] SAR AFMP, December 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-01-unknown/.

^[26] SAR AFMP, November 20, 2021, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-20-kuwait-university/.

^[27] Gulf Centre for Human Rights, “Kuwait: Trial of Dr. Safaa Zaman set for 11 January 2022,” March 30, 2022, https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/2919.

^[28] Civicus, “Blogger Faces Lengthy Prison Sentence & Risk of Torture if Forcibly Returned to Kuwait,” May 10, 2022, monitor.civicus.org/updates/2022/05/10/blogger-faces-lengthy-prison-sentence-risk-torture-if-forcibly-returned-kuwait/.

^[29] SAR AFMP, September 22, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-22-various/.

^[30] SAR AFMP, September 19, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-19-technological-university-dawei/.

^[31] SAR AFMP, July 29, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-29-korea-institute-for-national-unification/.

^[32] This presents significant challenges in reporting, given the need to look for evidence of pretext by examining the timing of the action, its context, any history or pattern of similar actions against the victim(s) or others, the fairness and transparency of any process leading to the action, and any available statements and supporting information from the parties involved, witnesses, and independent experts.

^[33] SAR AFMP, April 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-18-belarusian-state-university/.

^[34] SAR AFMP, December 16, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-16-shanghai-aurora-college/.

^[35] Qiao Long, “Teacher sent to psychiatric hospital in China’s Hunan after backing massacre comments,” Radio Free Asia, December 20, 2021, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/teacher-history-12202021123228.html.

^[36] Didi Tang, “Chinese teacher sacked for questioning death toll in Nanjing massacre,” The Times, December 17, 2021, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-teacher-sacked-for-questioning-death-toll-in-nanjing-massacre-8npg0mgwl.

^[37] SAR AFMP, May 6, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-06-sharda-university/.

^[38] “Sharda University professor suspended over question in Political Science exam,” The Indian Express, May 8, 2022, indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/sharda-university-professor-suspended-over-question-in-political-science-exam-7905927/.

^[39] SAR AFMP, May 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-24-university-of-warsaw/.

^[40] SAR AFMP, March 29, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-29-various-institutions/.

^[41] Simon Marks and Mohammed Alamin, “Sudan Purges Professors as Army Leader Seeks to Quell Dissent,” Bloomberg, March 31, 2022, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-31/sudan-purges-professors-as-army-leader-seeks-to-quell-dissent.

^[42] Ibid.

^[43] SAR AFMP, January 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-18-bogazici-university/.

^[44] SAR AFMP, March 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-28-soka-university-of-america/.

^[45]  Colleen Flaherty, “‘Faculty Should Be Outraged,’” Inside Higher Ed, May 16, 2022, www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/05/16/university-could-fire-writing-professor-over-deviant-pornography.

^[46] Ibid.

^[47] SAR AFMP, March 31, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-31-ludong-university/.

^[48] Mimi Leung, “Harsh lockdown curbs prompt student protests, expulsion,” University World News, April 8, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220408081223818.

^[49] “Student expelled from Chinese university over placard protest at campus lockdown,” Radio Free Asia, April 5, 2022, www.rfa.org/english/news/china/expelled-04052022150034.html.

^[50] SAR AFMP, March 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-09-st-petersburg-state-university/.

^[51] St. Petersburg State University, “Правда ли, что из университета могут отчислить за политические взгляды?,” March 2, 2022, https://guestbook.spbu.ru/vse-obrashcheniya/401-prorektory-spbgu/admission-education/18471-pravda-li-chto-iz-universiteta-mogut-otchislit-za-politicheskie-vzglyady.html.

^[52] SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-bila-tserkva-national-agrarian-university/.

^[53] Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, “Серед студентів Білоцерківського НАУ було виявлено особу, яка є прихильницею ворожих намірів,” July, 15, 2022 btsau.edu.ua/uk/content/sered-studentiv-bilocerkivskogo-nau-bulo-vyyavleno-osobu-yaka-ye-pryhylnyceyu-vorozhyh.

^[54] SAR AFMP, December 7, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-07-yale-university/.

^[55] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-16-allameh-university/.

^[56] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-24-university-of-sussex/.

^[57] Soutik Biswas, “Filippo Osella: The UK academic who was deported from Kerala,” BBC, March 29, 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60894743.

^[58] SAR AFMP, May 8, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-05-08-unaffiliated/.

^[59] SAR AFMP, May 24, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-05-24-university-of-washington/.

^[60] SAR AFMP, November 27, 2019, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2019-11-27-ecole-des-hautes-etudes-en-sciences-sociales/.

^[61] SAR AFMP, September 28, 2018, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-09-28-kabarak-university/.

^[62] SAR AFMP, July 5, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-05-ministry-of-higher-education/.

^[63] SAR AFMP, APril 22, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-22-various/.

^[64] All India Council for Technical Education and University Grants Commission, “Public Notice,” April 22, 2022, www.aicte-india.org/sites/default/files/with%20sign_Public%20Notice%20regarding%20not%20pursuing%20Higher%20Education%20in%20Pakistan.pdf.

^[65] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, “Pakistan deplores the ‘Public Notice’ jointly issued by University Grants Commission of India and All India Council for Technical Education regarding pursuance of higher education in Pakistan,” April 25, 2022, mofa.gov.pk/pakistan-deplores-the-public-notice-jointly-issued-by-university-grants-commission-of-india-and-all-india-council-for-technical-education-regarding-pursuance-of-higher-education-in-pakistan/.

^[66] The original directive, issued in February 2022, can be found at www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Procedure-for-entry-and-residence-of-foreigners-in-the-Judea-and-Samaria-area-Feb-2022.pdf. For a copy of the most recent edition of the directive, as of October 2022, visit www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Procedure-for-entry-and-residence-of-foreigners-in-the-Judea-and-Samaria-area-Aug-2022.pdf.

^[67] See HaMoked, “HaMoked demands the Minister of Defense amend a draconian new procedure for the entry of foreigners to the oPt: the procedure would severely infringe on the right to family life and academic freedom of Palestinian universities, and harm the local economy,” March 24, 2022, hamoked.org/document.php?dID=Updates2304; Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, “Letter protesting new Israel Government directive regarding selection of international scholars and students to teach and study in Palestinian Universities,” April 5, 2022, mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2022/04/05/letter-protesting-new-israel-government-directive-regarding-selection-of-international-scholars-and-students-to-teach-and-study-in-palestinian-universities; and SAR’s letter to Israeli authorities, “Protect and promote international academic travel to the West Bank,” April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/04/protect-and-promote-international-academic-travel-to-the-west-bank/.

^[68] Alison Abbott, “In the Palestinian territories, science struggles against all odds,” Nature, November 14, 2018, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07350-9.

^[69] SAR monitoring reports documenting the emergency decrees can be found at: www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2016-09-01-various/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2016-10-29-all-turkish-higher-education-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2016-11-22-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-01-06-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-02-07-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-04-29-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-07-14-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-08-25-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-12-24-various-institutions/; www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-01-12-various-institutions/; and www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-07-08-various-institutions/.

^[70] While the decrees only bar future employment within public higher education institutions, private institutions, generally speaking, will not consider applicants named in the decrees.

^[71] The law stipulated conditions for potential applicants: they must not have been convicted in connection with a case related to the basis of their dismissal or, if convicted, their sentence must have been executed or fully postponed; and they cannot be the subject of an ongoing administrative or criminal investigation in connection with the basis of their dismissal (see “Passport Law No. 5682,” Additional Article 7, www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.3.5682.pdf. Note: a translation is available via the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, “Academics for Peace: Report on the Current Situation,” August 24, 2020, tihvakademi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AfP_Current_Situation_August_2020.pdf). It is unclear how many dismissed academics have successfully appealed and are eligible for new passports. Scholars may be acquitted of one charge (e.g., membership with a Gülen–affiliated organization) only to be charged with another (e.g., membership in a terrorist organization), thus making them ineligible for a new passport. Those eligible may also face a lengthy, opaque process applying to Turkey’s Passport Commission, which may base their decision on the advice of prosecutors, police, and the university from which they were dismissed.

^[72] See Article 19 in “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” December 19, 1966, www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx.

^[73] SAR AFMP, November 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-01-wollo-university/.

^[74] See reports of military forces occupying higher education facilities: Khin Yi Yi Zaw, “Three resistance fighters killed as serious battles rage in Kalay, Sagaing Region,” Myanmar Now, August 7, 2022, myanmar-now.org/en/news/three-resistance-fighters-killed-as-serious-battles-rage-in-kalay-sagaing-region; “The Impacts of Attacks on Education and Military Use in Myanmar,” Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, September 9, 2022, protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/ImpactofAttacksMyanmar2022.pdf.

^[75] Readers can access the data on ACLED’s website, here: acleddata.com/data-export-tool/. For incidents noting military occupation or use of higher education facilities, see incidents marked with the following event identifiers: MMR31333, MMR32158, MMR27757, MMR36948, MMR36223, MMR37505, MMR38008, and MMR31784.

^[76] SAR AFMP, March 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-02-v-n-karazin-kharkiv-national-university/.

^[77] SAR AFMP, March 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-06-kharkiv-institute-of-physics-and-technology/.

^[78] SAR AFMP, March 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-14-chernihiv-polytechnic-national-university/.

^[79] SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-sukhomlynskyi-mykolaiv-national-university-admiral-makarov-national-university-of-shipbuilding/.

^[80] Ibid.

^[81] SAR AFMP, July 23, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-23-o-m-beketov-kharkiv-national-university-of-urban-economy/.

^[82] SAR AFMP August 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-17-petro-mohyla-black-sea-national-university/.

^[83] Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, “Близько 60 шкіл Харківської області пошкоджено внаслідок ворожих обстрілів,” March 21, 2022, kharkivoda.gov.ua/news/114972.

^[84] Kyiv School of Economics, “Assessment of damages in Ukraine due to Russia’s military aggression as of September 1, 2022,” kse.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ENG-Sep22_Working_Sep1_Damages-Report.docx.pdf.

^[85] SAR AFMP, August 13, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-13-dhamar-university/.

^[86] SAR AFMP, June 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-21-catholic-pontifical-university-of-ecuador/.

^[87] SAR AFMP, June 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-15-university-of-cuenca/.

^[88] SAR AFMP, June 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-20-national-polytechnic-school/.

^[89] “Defensoría del Pueblo pide que policías y militares no ingresen a universidades,” Diario Correo, June 22, 2022, https://diariocorreo.com.ec/72140/portada/defensoria-del-pueblo-pide-que-policias-y-militares-no-ingresen-a-universidades.

^[90] SAR AFMP, December 14, 2021, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-14-birzeit-university/.

^[91] Khaled Abu Toameh, “Palestinians concerned about growing violence on campuses,” The Jerusalem Post, December 21, 2021, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-689379.

^[92] SAR AFMP, May 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-18-central-university-of-venezuela/.

^[93] SAR AFMP, April 11, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-11-ibn-tofail-university/.

^[94] “Moroccan University Closes to Prevent Pro-Palestine Conference,” The Maghreb Times, April 17, 2022, themaghrebtimes.com/moroccan-university-closes-to-prevent-pro-palestine-conference/.

^[95] SAR AFMP, December 31, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-13-hispanic-american-university/; and SAR AFMP, February 2, 2022, ​​https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-various/.

^[96] “Ortega confisca y luego “nacionaliza” universidades privadas,” Diario Las Americas, February 8, 2022, www.diariolasamericas.com/america-latina/ortega-confisca-y-luego-nacionaliza-universidades-privadas-n4242738; Sofia Moutinho, “Government attacks on higher education in Nicaragua put research—and researchers—at risk,” Science, April 26, 2022, www.science.org/content/article/government-attacks-higher-education-nicaragua-put-research-and-researchers-risk.

^[97] SAR AFMP, May 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-27-dmytro-motornyi-tavria-state-agrotechnological-university-bohdan-khmelnytsky-melitopol-state-pedagogical-university/.

^[98] Center for Journalistic Investigations, “Окупанти в Запорізької області заявили про створення єдиного «університету»,” May 29, 2022, investigator.org.ua/ua/news-2/243426/.

^[99] SAR AFMP, June 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-14-kherson-state-university/.

^[100] SAR AFMP, July 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-28-kherson-national-technical-university/.

^[101] SAR AFMP, August 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-01-kherson-state-agrarian-and-economic-university/.

^[102] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-24-various-institutions/.

^[103] Emily Feng, “China tightens restrictions and bars scholars from international conferences,” NPR, March 30, 2022, www.npr.org/2022/03/30/1089631713/china-tightens-restrictions-and-bars-scholars-from-international-conferences.

^[104] Ibid.

^[105] SAR AFMP, October 29, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-29-jawaharlal-nehru-university/.

^[106] “‘Provocative’: JNU cancels Kashmir webinar after ABVP, teachers’ body objects,” Hindustan Times, October 30, 2021, www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/provocative-jnu-cancels-kashmir-webinar-after-abvp-teachers-body-objects-101635534114379.html.

^[107] SAR AFMP, October 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-15-chiang-mai-university/.

^[108] SAR AFMP, January 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-20-gamal-abdel-nasser-university-of-conakry/.

^[109] SAR AFMP, March 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-17-state-islamic-institute-ambon/.

^[110] SAR AFMP, October 25, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-25-university-of-khartoum/.

^[111] SAR AFMP, September 2, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-02-venezuela-central-university/.

^[112] SAR AFMP, January 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-20-sanaa-university/.

^[113] SAR AFMP, January 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-15-sylhet-shahjalal-university-of-science-and-technology/.

^[114] SAR AFMP, November 8, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-08-durban-university-of-technology/.

^[115] The use of less-lethal weapons, including tear gas and baton, while less dangerous than more lethal alternatives, such as firearms, may nevertheless result in injuries and fatalities, especially when used improperly. See Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement,” 2020, www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CCPR/LLW_Guidance.pdf.

Attacks on higher education communities occur across the globe. They violate the rights of those targeted and they have the potential to limit academic freedom and the right to education for large numbers of scholars and students at higher education institutions worldwide. Countries and territories suffering from heightened attacks and pressures warrant the attention of the international community.

In this edition of Free to Think, SAR reported 391 attacks on higher education communities in 65 countries and territories around the world, from September 2021 to August 2022. In this section, SAR examines diverse, country-level developments and trends from this reporting period. These include patterns of attacks found in SAR’s Monitoring Project data, such as arrests and disciplinary actions targeting scholars or repeated violations of students’ right to peacefully assemble and express themselves. They also include particular events, novel pressures, or under-discussed phenomena reported by the media and other groups that threaten academic freedom and related values for entire higher education communities, such as restrictive legislative and administrative actions, threats to university governance, or pervasive sexual harassment on campus. This year’s Monitoring Project data^[1] show attacks in societies generally considered to be open and with functioning democracies, like South Korea and the United Kingdom, as well as in closed societies with more authoritative governments, like Belarus and Thailand. Countries and territories not highlighted in Free to Think 2022 are not necessarily free of attacks on higher education communities or restraints on academic freedom. Given resource constraints and challenges in gathering and verifying information, this report features only a representative sample of the global state of attacks on higher education.

Readers interested in learning more about attacks on higher education and academic freedom conditions around the world are encouraged to review national-level incident data on SAR’s website^[2] and country-level expert assessments in the Academic Freedom Index,^[3] a tool co-developed by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the V-Dem Institute, and SAR.^[4] SAR invites readers to contribute information on attacks on higher education communities wherever and whenever they occur.^[5] By building a more comprehensive dataset, SAR can more effectively expose this global phenomenon and work with governments, higher education communities, and civil society to protect higher education from attack and to promote academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and related higher education values.

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the higher education community has suffered devastating attacks and setbacks following the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August 2021, from targeted actions against scholars and students to policies and practices seeking to conform the higher education sector to its vision and priorities.

These include targeted actions against scholars in connection with their expressive activity, views, and identity. Sayed Asif Mubtahij Hashemi, the Dean of Faculty of Sharia Law at Ghazni University was found dead roughly three months after he was abducted by armed assailants believed to be affiliated with the Taliban.^[6] One lawyer believed that Hashemi could have been targeted for his liberal ideas and anti-extremist interpretations of religious texts. In two separate incidents, the Taliban detained two scholars critical of their rule, Faizullah Jalal and Sayed Baqir Mohsini.^[7] At Alberoni University, a professor fearing violent attacks resigned from his position of 14 years after he was accused of blasphemy in connection with comments he allegedly made on WhatsApp; the same scholar was reportedly critical of Taliban policies.^[8] Taliban authorities ordered the dismissal of 50 professors and 8 administrative and financial staff at Balkh University, apparently due to their ethnic identities—53 of them were non-Pashtun—and allegedly planned to replace them with clerics and members of the Taliban.^[9]

In addition to targeting and punishing individual members of the higher education community, the Taliban have constricted female scholars’ and students’ academic freedom and right to education. One of the earliest policies was a requirement that higher education institutions enforce gender segregated classes.^[10] At Kabul University and Kabul Polytechnic University, the Taliban ordered the administrations to schedule “shifts” in university access, such that female students would be barred entry on days that male students are in attendance and vice-versa.^[11] Female professors are further barred from teaching male students and attending meetings with male counterparts.^[12] In April 2022, the Taliban instructed universities to further enforce gender segregation at scientific conferences and programs.^[13] Taliban forces have also reportedly refused female student entry to campus, including for wearing colorful hijabs.^[14] Taliban authorities reportedly interrogated and detained women who protested an event they were invited to attend at Bamyan University.^[15] The event was allegedly supposed to focus on reopening educational opportunities for women and girls; attendees instead found the event space decorated with pro-Taliban banners and an agenda focused on unfreezing Afghan assets.

In addition to restricting the rights of women currently enrolled in or working at higher education institutions, the Taliban have enacted policies that threaten to eliminate university education for future generations of female students. This includes the Taliban’s continued denial of secondary school education for girls after more than one year in power and despite proclamations that they would ensure them access to schooling.^[16] Without high school graduation certificates, women are effectively barred from pursuing higher education.^[17] Furthermore, in March 2022, the Taliban instructed airlines to prevent women from flying without a male chaperone, a decision that could make it nearly impossible for women to access higher education or academic opportunities abroad.^[18]

The Taliban has also taken steps to reinforce religious education at universities. Reports indicate that Taliban officials increased the number of mandatory Islamic studies courses and recruitment of religious scholars for academic positions.^[19] At Badakhshan University, Taliban forces beat students for not attending Taraweeh prayer, a special prayer during Ramadan that the Taliban has mandated.^[20]

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, SAR continues to report a pattern of violent attacks on students and other higher education personnel by members or suspected members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the country’s ruling party, the Awami League. The attacks are apparently aimed at stifling opposing voices, building power and influence on campus, and pushing the political aims of the ruling party. Fellow students and scholars have raised concern over the attacks, worrying that they chill campus discourse and damage the environment for student organizations.^[21] Concerns over the BCL and campus violence have prompted private higher education institutions to move towards banning such partisan groups on their campuses.^[22]

At Sylhet Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, for example, BCL members attacked students protesting for the removal of a residence hall provost, who was allegedly dismissive of protesters’ concerns over the behavior of security guards.^[23] At Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, alleged BCL members armed with bats beat students and university personnel protesting the gang rape of a student.^[24] When members of a rival student group, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), gathered on the University of Rajshahi campus, BCL members assaulted them, leaving at least two injured.^[25] The leader of the campus BCL chapter commented on the attack, stating “We heard that Chhatra Dal [JCD] is planning to make the campus unstable and we got them out of the campus.”^[26] JCD members from the University of Dhaka making their way to a press conference also came under attack by BCL members when the latter beat the former with sticks and other makeshift weapons, injuring as many as 40 students.^[27] In one instance involving a higher education administrator, several BCL members beat and injured the principal of Chandina Redwan Degree Ahmed College, after he asked BCL protesters to return to class.^[28] Additional examples from this reporting period can be found in the table at the end of this report.

China

In China, SAR reported university authorities punishing scholars and students for their views and expressive activity. For example, at Shanghai Aurora College officials announced that Song Gengyi, a journalism lecturer, had been fired after giving a lecture in which she questioned the accuracy of the official death toll relating to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.^[29] During the lecture, Song reportedly argued that the Chinese government’s official estimate of 300,000 deaths lacked statistical support and that estimates ranged from “500,000 to 300,000 to 30,000 to 3,000.” Students recorded Song’s remarks on video and uploaded them to social media. At Qingdao University, officials revoked the teaching license of Gao Weijia and transferred her to a non-teaching position for a social media post in which she said that young people should “feel free to visit the Yasukuni Shrine,” a Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Japan, that is dedicated to 2.5 million Japanese people who died in wars from the 19^th century.^[30] Ludong University expelled Sun Jian, a master’s student in Chinese history, for protesting the university’s COVID-19 policies and campus lockdown,^[31] while Tsinghua University sanctioned two students for distributing LGBTQ+ pride flags on campus.^[32]

State authorities restricted scholars’ online academic and expressive activity. In March 2022, Chinese authorities sought to prevent at least five scholars based in China from participating virtually in the Association for Asian Studies’ 2022 Annual Conference hosted in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the United States.^[33] Chinese security and education authorities reportedly “directly intervened” in the scholars’ scheduled virtual participation, “citing education regulations […] which require all Chinese scholars to receive university permission to attend any international event in-person or online.”^[34] In one reported instance, Chinese police interrogated one of the scholars for hours at their home after they presented their research paper to an online panel earlier in the week. In an effort to control netizens’ speech regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine, Chinese internet censors rushed to take down a public letter by a group of prominent Chinese historians condemning the war.^[35] According to The Guardian, some pro-war “trolls” denounced the scholars as “shameful” and “traitorous.”^[36]

Government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials continued to advance ideological and political education in the country’s university system. In September 2021, CCP officials ordered education officials to reinforce ideological education and the teaching of “Xi Jinping thought” at schools and universities.^[37] The order followed a two-month inspection of 31 higher education institutions, including top universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University, as well as the Ministry of Education.^[38] And in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, education officials in several provinces reportedly ordered ideological and political education faculty to attend mandatory courses to help them “guide” their students’ understanding of the war.^[39] One academic in Guangdong province told University World News that university students were even encouraged to “report teachers who express sympathy for Ukraine.”^[40]

China continues to imprison and prosecute prominent scholars and intellectuals in connection with their work, ideas, and identity. These include, among others, economist Ilham Tohti,^[41] legal scholar and lawyer Xu Zhiyong,^[42] and a number of Uyghur scholars and students detained as part of a campaign targeting ethnic minority communities, including Geography scholar Tashpolat Tiyip,^[43] Uyghur studies scholar Rahile Dawut,^[44] and literary scholar Abdulqadir Jalaleddin.^[45]

Ethiopia

Armed conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government forces that started in November 2020 continued to threaten Ethiopia’s higher education community.

Parties to the conflict in Ethiopia occupied and damaged higher education facilities. In November 2021, for example, TPLF militants took over and occupied the campus of Wollo University.^[46] Fighting between militants and government forces caused damage to university infrastructure and during their occupation, TPLF forces reportedly looted the campus, taking computers, medical equipment, and other items. A government drone strike targeting the TPLF forces reportedly caused further damage to the campus. The university’s vice president, Amare Mitiku, estimated the cost of the damages at approximately 10 billion Ethiopian birr (equivalent to around $200 million USD).^[47] TPLF forces also reportedly looted and damaged Woldia University, which had shut down operations weeks earlier due to the conflict.^[48] Sources described and showed in photos classrooms, laboratories, administrative offices, and other university facilities looted and vandalized.

Scholars and students have also suffered from violence and the threat of arrest amid the conflict, with heightened ethnic tensions appearing to play a role in some of these incidents. On November 3, 2021, unidentified gunmen killed Bahir Dar University chemistry professor Meareg Amare, a member of the Tigrayan ethnic community, just outside his home after he returned from campus to deliver paperwork related to his coming retirement.^[49] Weeks later, state authorities arrested Assefa Fiseha, a Tigrayan law professor and an expert in federalism and constitutional law at Addis Ababa University (AAU).^[50] The BBC’s coverage of Fiseha’s arrest also noted that authorities had taken into custody a second Tigrayan law professor from AAU, Mehari Redeai, around the same time.^[51] On March 13, 2022, violent clashes between students reportedly broke out on AAU’s Sidist Kilo campus, amid a week of tensions over the distribution of materials that allegedly reflected “hatred toward ethnic Oromos.”^[52] On June 25, police beat and attempted to stop AAU students from peacefully marching and protesting against ethnic violence.^[53] According to the Ethiopia Peace Observatory, state security forces used force against Samara University faculty and students during a demonstration protesting the TPLF and the government’s response.^[54]

Ghana

In Ghana, members of the academic community raised institutional autonomy concerns over a parliamentary act that merges three higher education institutions. The act established a new university, the University of Media, Arts, and Communications (UMAC), which brings together the existing Ghana Institute of Journalism, Ghana Institute of Languages, and the National Film and Television Institute.^[55] Proponents of the act argued the merger would improve efficiencies, resource sharing, and infrastructure.^[56] Critics, however, raised concerns that a seven-member interim council established by the act was given outsized powers over planning the new university’s governance and regulations. In a joint petition reported by University World News, the University Teachers Association of Ghana and the Academic Staff Association raised concerns over the exclusion of key stakeholders, including faculty from the above institutes, from the interim council, leaving them without a proper voice in determining the management and direction of the new university.^[57] They described such exclusion as “inimical to the academic integrity and independence of the three institutes concerned” and said the interim council would be “without any proper system for checks and balances.”^[58] They further raised concerns over the endangerment of press freedom, noting that government influence over the new university’s development could harm the national media landscape.

The act establishing UMAC recalls government efforts to pass a controversial Public University Bill.^[59] The bill would have given the country’s president extensive powers to appoint university leaders and broad influence over major academic, financial, and administrative aspects of university life at public institutions.^[60] Parliament suspended the bill in December 2020, following significant public opposition by academic groups and organizations in Ghana and abroad, including SAR; however, it remains to be seen whether lawmakers will revisit the legislation.^[61]

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, interference by the mainland Chinese government and the far-reaching implications of a draconian National Security Law (NSL) continue to undermine academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the free expression rights of the local higher education community.

In June 2020, China’s Central Government imposed on Hong Kong national security legislation that purports to “punish offences of secession, subversion, organisation and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign government or external elements.” The law’s broad and vague provisions threaten to chill academic freedom and peaceful dissent and discourse about Hong Kong and the Central Government in Beijing.^[62]

In September 2021, public universities began designing and implementing “national security” curricula, as part of a requirement under the NSL.^[63] The NSL courses, now a graduation requirement at public higher education institutions,^[64] reportedly cover the law’s provisions and their application to daily life, including protest activities, as well as the history of China and Hong Kong.^[65]

At the University of Hong Kong, officials demanded the removal of the Pillar of Shame—a statue commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre—a move that distressed scholars and students in its representation of the NSL’s chilling effect on higher education.^[66] One anonymous scholar told Times Higher Education that the statue’s removal “can be seen as a final stage of mainlandising Hong Kong’s university campuses.”^[67] Around the same time the Pillar of Shame was taken down, two more monuments relating to the 1989 massacre were removed from campuses at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Lingnan University.^[68]

Concerns over Beijing’s influence and a shrinking space for academic freedom and free thought in Hong Kong were also raised when immigration authorities declined to approve a visa for Ryan Thoreson, a US-based law professor and a LGBTQ+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.^[69] Thoreson, who had accepted a tenure-track position at the University of Hong Kong’s law school and was teaching remotely, stated that his course had not touched on any politically sensitive topics involving China and that Hong Kong authorities had not given him an explanation as to why the visa application was rejected.^[70]

Student expression, including through union activity and student journalism, was particularly vulnerable during this reporting period. Police arrested and charged four members of the pro-democracy group Student Politicism under the NSL for allegedly delivering snacks, books, and other permissible items to prisoners (prosecutors accused them of seeking to recruit “like-minded people” in prison), warning the public to not use the government’s COVID-19 tracking application, and for social media and other public expression critical of the government.^[71] At Hong Kong Baptist University, members of the student newspaper’s editorial board resigned en masse, citing the administration’s intervention in its operations and their decision to revoke the board’s access to campus facilities, apparently for content of which the administration disapproved.^[72] National security police also opened an investigation into the student union of the City University of Hong Kong (CUHK) for alleged expressive activity that they claim incited calls for Hong Kong’s independence and may have breached the NSL.^[73] Student unions continued to disband or freeze activities due to tensions with and pressure from university administrations that began in 2020.^[74] By the end of this reporting period, one group of students at CUHK, where administrators had cut ties with its student union, were organizing to form a new student union that would “steer clear of politics.”^[75]

India

Academic freedom is at risk in India, where police and state authorities cracked down on student protests, state and university authorities punished outspoken scholars, and government actors restricted academic freedom and the right to education. As reported in previous editions of Free to Think, many of these incidents appear to be tied to a shrinking space for free thought owing to a rise in Hindu nationalism promoted by, among others, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party.

SAR reported 16 incidents involving the use of force, arrests, disciplinary actions, or prevention measures in response to peaceful student expression. In Bengaluru, for example, police baton-charged students marching against the government’s National Education Policy.^[76] In Khairabad, police arrested 52 students during a peaceful protest responding to a Hindu seer’s alleged rape threats against Muslim women.^[77] At the University of Delhi, police detained as many as 28 students carrying out a hunger strike and protesting the reopening of campus, which had been partially closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[78] Pondicherry University officials issued an order debarring 11 students for a period of five years and fining them 10,000 rupees (roughly $134 USD) in response to their participation in peaceful sit-ins held in early 2020.^[79] And on the Lakshadweep archipelago, a state education official banned all protest activity at schools and higher education institutions in response to protests over faculty shortages and the state of educational facilities.^[80]

University officials retaliated against scholars for their academic and expressive activity and took action to restrict campus discourse and equitable access to higher education. At Sharda University, for example, the administration suspended assistant professor Waqas Farooq Kuttay for an undergraduate political science exam question that asked students: “Do you find any similarities between Fascism/Nazism and Hindu right wing (Hindutva)?”^[81] Central University of Kerala reportedly issued a circular threatening disciplinary action against faculty members and university employees, apparently in response to a professor’s prior criticism of the ruling party that resulted in his suspension.^[82] Jawaharlal Nehru University ordered the cancellation of a webinar titled, “Gender resistance and fresh challenges in post-2019 Kashmir,” which the vice-chancellor described as “a highly objectionable and provocative subject.”^[83] Mangalore University imposed a total ban on the wearing of hijabs on campus, following protests by the student union, ruled by the far-right student group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.^[84] In the weeks that followed, dozens of students at a college affiliated with Mangalore University were reportedly suspended for continuing to wear hijabs.^[85]

Government actors restricted scholars’ and students’ academic travel into and out of India. In February 2022, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment issued new guidelines for the National Overseas Scholarship—a government scheme that benefits low-income students from marginalized communities—that bar would-be recipients from studying “topics/courses concerning Indian [c]ulture/heritage/[h]istory/[s]ocial studies.”^[86] In March, Indian authorities denied entry to and deported Filippo Osella, a renowned anthropology and South Asian studies professor from the University of Sussex, in the United Kingdom, who was traveling to attend an academic conference. While officials did not comment on the deportation order, Osella speculated that it could have been due to his previous travel to Pakistan, which he has visited twice and was questioned about by immigration officials during the deportation process, as well as during other visits to India.^[87] In April 2022, the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education announced that degrees from Pakistani higher education institutions would no longer be recognized in India and advised against pursuing higher education in Pakistan. The policy change was reportedly connected to tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.^[88]

Indonesia

SAR reported attacks by police to detain and disperse peaceful university student protesters. On September 13, 2021, police detained 10 students who peacefully protested a visit by Indonesia’s president to the Sebelas Maret University campus by displaying posters that criticized the human rights situation under the current administration.^[89] On December 1, 2021, which is recognized by many as Papua’s independence day, police forcibly dispersed peaceful Papuan student protesters commemorating the day and calling for a referendum on Papuan independence.^[90] The students had reportedly secured permission to hold an hour-long protest in front of the World Peace Gong Monument; however, police intervened after roughly 30 minutes, using force to disperse the students. Amnesty International reported 19 students injured.^[91] On the same day, police arrested and charged with treason a group of eight students who raised the Morning Star Flag—banned in Indonesia—above a stadium and carried out a protest march to police headquarters.^[92] Police also used force against students during off-campus protests over fuel prices and the country’s president on April 7 and 18, 2022.^[93]

University administrators also took action against students. On March 17, 2022, the administration of the State Islamic Institute Ambon (IAIN Ambon) began taking disciplinary and legal actions against a student news publication, known as Lintas, and its student staff members in response to the paper’s coverage of sexual harassment allegations at IAIN Ambon.^[94] The university suspended the paper’s operations, ordered the seizure of Lintas’ equipment and the sealing of its campus newsroom. The university also reported Lintas’ chief editor, Yolanda Agne, and other editorial staff to the police. According to Antara News, the university was looking to replace the paper’s leadership and other members.^[95] The university reportedly sought to “restore” IAIN Ambon’s reputation.^[96]

In addition to attacks on student expression, it bears mentioning here several ongoing threats to academic freedom in Indonesia, as described in a joint submission filed by SAR and the Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom (KIKA) with the UN’s Universal Periodic Review in March 2022. These include the controversial Electronic Information and Transaction Law (ITE Law), a so-called “Science Law” from 2019 that raises concerns over a shrinking space for permissible research and international academic exchange, and limitations on university autonomy due to a rector appointment system that engenders corruption.^[97]

Iran

In Iran, scholars and students faced a range of threats, from disciplinary actions to imprisonment, in connection with their academic and expressive activity.

State authorities arrested, imprisoned, and used violent force and travel restrictions against scholars and students. In September 2021, Iranian authorities arrested three professors from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) for espionage; one of them, Maciej Walczak, was accused of taking samples of soil, rock, water, and mud in a restricted area and was later sentenced to three years in prison.^[98] On April 20, 2022, so-called morality guards attacked students at the Iran University of Science and Technology while they attempted to distribute a statement condemning the heightened presence of the guards on campus, especially in women’s dormitories, and their enforcement of compulsory Islamic dress and other regulations.^[99] In May 2022, authorities arrested sociology professor and former political prisoner Saeed Madani—whose research focuses on poverty, drug addiction, sex work, and child abuse, among other topics—on charges of “suspicious foreign connections” and “measures against the security.”^[100] Madani’s arrest came roughly five months after authorities barred him from leaving Iran to begin a one-year research post at Yale University, in the United States.^[101] On August 27, 2022, police arrested a student leader during a peaceful protest against Iran’s compulsory military service outside the Public Conscription Organization office in Tehran.^[102]

Considering the severity of the sentences and their likely chilling effect on the academic community, it bears mentioning here that Iranian authorities continue to imprison a number of scholars and intellectuals, including disaster medicine scholar Ahmadreza Djalali, imprisoned under a death sentence; anthropologist Fariba Adelkah, serving a 5-year prison sentence; and conservationist Niloufar Bayani, serving a 10-year sentence.

Local and international scholars and academic freedom advocates have raised concerns over dismissals and declinations to renew or extend contracts for some high-profile scholars following the inauguration of President Ebrahim Raisi in August 2021. Sharif University of Technology, for example, declined to extend the contract of well-known philosopher Arash Abazari.^[103] A department head said this was influenced by a former member of the Iranian Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and false allegations that Abazari signed an open letter protesting the 2009 Iranian presidential election results. At the University of Tehran, hundreds of academics signed a letter condemning the dismissal of Reza Omidi, who researches and advocates for social policies to combat poverty and inequities in Iran.^[104] The university alleged that security agencies’ concerns prevented them from extending Omidi’s contract; however, inquiries with Iranian security bodies allegedly revealed there were no concerns to preclude Omidi from maintaining his role. According to the Middle East Studies Association, Omidi reportedly maintained an “outstanding record of scholarship, teaching, and service.”^[105] Other scholars who suffered from loss of position during this reporting period include Shahid Beheshti University sociologist Mohammad Fazeli^[106] and Islamic Azad University philosophy professor Bijan Abdolkarimi.^[107]

Kenya

In Kenya, the Jubilee Party—the ruling party at the time—proposed legislation that would restrict the autonomy of higher education institutions.^[108]

The Universities (Amendment) Bill of 2021^[109] sought to revise the prevailing Universities Act of 2021, notably by retracting from university councils a number of responsibilities that the bill would then confer to the education cabinet secretary. These included control over the appointment of key leadership positions at state higher education institutions, including university council members and vice-chancellors; the ability to revoke those same appointments; and veto power over council decisions.^[110]

Critics of the bill complained that these amendments would leave councils powerless. Beyond empowering the cabinet secretary, the bill would allow the use of public funds to support private universities that take in government-sponsored students, which opponents claimed would lead to the defunding of public higher education institutions.^[111] Critics further objected that higher education stakeholders were not consulted in the drafting of the bill, as allegedly required under the constitution.^[112] On June 10, 2022, the speaker of Kenya’s national assembly withdrew the bill, citing the challenge to its constitutionality. ^[113]

Mexico

In Mexico, the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with a history of publicly disparaging the academic community and cutting and restricting research funding,^[114] took actions that represent significant threats to academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

In September 2021, Mexico’s attorney general’s office (FGR) requested arrest warrants for 31 scientists, academics, and researchers—all former members of an independent scientific advisory board called the Scientific and Technological Consultative Forum (“Foro Consultivo”)—on charges of money laundering, organized crime, and embezzlement.^[115] Specifically, the FGR accused the academics of spending millions in public funds awarded to them by the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) between 2012 and 2018, in violation of a law passed in 2019 that prohibits members of an advisory board from receiving money from a government science fund. The FGR reportedly sought to jail the academics at Altiplano prison, a maximum-security facility historically used to intern high-level criminals. Conacyt filed a complaint that prompted the FGR’s investigation. Around that same time, Conacyt’s director, María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, appointed the attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, to a high-level membership in Mexico’s National System of Researchers, a controversial decision as he had been repeatedly denied the appointment in connection with plagiarism allegations.^[116]

The academics disputed the charges, asserting that the funds were awarded and spent by the advisory board well before the 2019 law was passed, and that their use had been approved. A judge declined the FGR’s multiple requests for arrest warrants and found the case inadmissible. The FGR’s attempt to jail and prosecute the 31 former Foro Consultivo members outraged the local and international scientific communities, raising concerns that the FGR’s action was actually an attempt to intimidate and silence Álvarez-Buylla’s critics. Members of the scientific community, including some of the accused, had criticized her for reducing scholarships available for international study, stating that academic works should be published in Spanish or indigenous languages instead of English, and ordering researchers and Conacyt employees to refrain from criticizing the body, among other reasons. Political economist Javier Aparicio commented in Excélsior, “The message from Conacyt and the prosecutor to the national academic community is strong and clear: if you think differently than us, it’s best you find something else to do.”^[117]

Leadership changes at the internationally renowned Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) also raised serious concerns over the state of academic freedom and university autonomy in Mexico. In August 2021, Conacyt director Álvarez-Buylla appointed José Antonio Romero Tellaeche as CIDE’s interim director, reportedly skirting customary elections for the position.^[118] As interim director, Romero Tellaeche carried out two controversial dismissals: one targeting Alejandro Madrazo, director of CIDE’s Aguascalientes campus, apparently for supporting researchers demanding improved working conditions; the second targeting Catherine Andrews, CIDE’s Academic Secretary, for refusing to postpone faculty evaluations.^[119] In November 2021, Álvarez-Buylla appointed Romero Tellaeche as CIDE’s permanent director, prompting students to strike, camp outside CIDE, and hold protests demanding the dismissals of Romero Tellaeche and Álvarez-Buylla.^[120] CIDE faculty claimed that they had been ignored during the appointment process, and that an academic council observer was refused attendance at the meeting where the vote was held.^[121] In addition, faculty members have complained that the government is forcing its political agenda on CIDE, and have raised concerns over Romero Tellaeche’s rhetoric, including claims that CIDE is a bastion of neoliberalism.^[122] Since Romero Tellaeche’s permanent appointment, faculty continued to speak out about concerning developments at CIDE, including nonpayments of salaries, reductions in student enrollments, the apparently arbitrary dismissal of a colleague—María Grisel Salazar Rebolledo, the Academic Coordinator of the Master’s in Journalism and Public Policy program—and the last-minute suspension of that same program.^[123]

Morocco

In Morocco, international and regional media outlets began reporting a widespread problem of faculty members demanding sexual favors from female students in exchange for good grades. Such attacks undermine students’ academic freedom and right to education, among other rights.

Students who refuse professors’ demands have reported facing severe repercussions.^[124] For example, one student from Hassan 1 University reported being expelled based on false accusations of cheating on an exam after she refused her professor’s sexual demands.^[125] A professor from that university was convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for demanding sexual favors. Four other faculty members were expected in court on similar charges.^[126]

While sexual harassment of university students has reportedly been a problem for a long time in Morocco, among other countries, the issue gained attention when an association known as “7achak” (the name translates to an expression one uses before discussing a taboo topic) established a social media campaign that brought many student testimonials to light over the past year.^[127] Abdelmalek Essaadi University, in Tétouan, had reportedly received “nearly 70 complaints” of sexual harassment.^[128] A single professor at a university in Casablanca faces almost 100 allegations from students.^[129]

In response to the wave of reports, Morocco’s Higher Education Minister pledged “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment and some universities reportedly began establishing hotlines and staff to receive and respond to claims.^[130]

Myanmar

In Myanmar, SAR continues to see dangerous pressures on the higher education community that stem from a military coup in early February 2021.

Military and police forces have detained, arrested, and imprisoned university faculty, students, and staff for their participation in demonstrations and strikes as part of a civil disobedience movement (CDM) protesting the coup.^[131] On September 19, 2021, for example, soldiers arrested Daw Hnin Nandar Aung, a faculty member of a technological university in Dawei, who allegedly participated in the CDM.”^[132] That same day, soldiers also reportedly arrested Aye Nanda Soe, a fourth-year student of Sagaing University of Education and a chair of that university’s student union, while she was traveling on a bus from Mandalay to Sagaing.^[133] On April 21, 2022, four current students and an alumnus from Dagon University reportedly went missing, as did two more students the next day.^[134] All seven are believed to have been taken by the military junta. On August, 20, military forces detained seven employees from Yadanabon University at their homes, apparently in connection to their participation in the CDM.^[135]

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an NGO that has monitored the crackdown on anti-coup activists, verified more than 1,300 students and educators arrested from February 2021 to August 2022 (it bears mentioning that this figure likely includes individuals affiliated with secondary and primary educational institutions).^[136] AAPP reported more than 2,250 people killed during that same period.^[137] Reports also indicate that imprisoned students and faculty have suffered torture, solitary confinement, and died while in the junta’s custody.^[138] The military has further sought to silence student unions by closing and replacing them with “student associations.”^[139]

Military occupation and use of educational infrastructure and armed conflict with resistance forces have also undermined the safety of the higher education community.^[140] A review of data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) showed at least 26 incidents involving armed activity on or near higher education facilities or military occupation of such facilities during this reporting period.^[141] These include reports of military forces firing artillery from university campuses, as well as resistance forces’ use of grenades, mines, and improvised explosive devices targeting military forces on or near campuses. This data suggests dangerous conditions for students, personnel, and other civilians on or near these campuses and disregard for institutional autonomy and campus integrity.

Higher education activity has seen a significant slowdown since the February 2021 coup. As part of the CDM, many faculty and students have boycotted universities that are now under the control of the military council.^[142] The effect of the boycotts was likely compounded by a shortage of qualified personnel due to the thousands of faculty and other university personnel dismissed in the months following the coup for their participation in the CDM and their opposition to the junta.^[143] According to Frontier Myanmar, medical schools have reported crisis-level conditions that carry severe implications for the country’s future. Half of their students and staff have joined the boycott movement, there have been significant drops in enrollment, and the junta reportedly acted to lower admissions standards.^[144] Internet shutdowns, online surveillance, and censorship by the military further restricted academic freedom and the right to education.^[145]

Nicaragua

Takeovers of private universities and legislation undermining higher education institution’s autonomy underscored serious concerns that the Nicaraguan government is tightening control over the academic community and silencing dissent.

From December 2021 to February 2022, Nicaragua’s National Assembly, allied with President Daniel Ortega, voted to cancel the operating license of six private universities.^[146] The government accused the universities—along with a number of non-higher education associations whose operating licenses were also canceled—of violating financial disclosure requirements. University officials and others allege that these actions stemmed from protests against the Ortega government in 2018, during which state authorities violently suppressed demonstrators—many of whom were university students—ending in the deaths of more than 350 people. In February 2022, lawmakers passed legislation that would combine four of the private universities—Hispanic American University, Nicaraguan University of Humanistic Studies, Popular University of Nicaragua, and the Paulo Freire University—under one new state institution to be named the Ricardo Morales Avilés National Multidisciplinary University. The two other private institutions whose licenses were canceled—the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua and the Catholic Agricultural University of the Dry Tropics—were reestablished as state institutions known as the National Polytechnic University and Francisco Luis Espinoza Pineda National University, respectively. The legislation called for the National Council of Universities (CNU) to oversee these institutions. Scholars and activists raised concerns that the legislation will restrict the academic freedom and institutional autonomy of those newly state-controlled institutions and chill discourse on campuses across the country.^[147]

On March 31, 2022, the National Assembly passed legislation that severely restricts university autonomy.^[148] The legislation, which amends the Law of Autonomy of Higher Education, effectively transfers control over state higher education institutions’ curricula, hiring, and leadership appointments from university faculty bodies to the CNU, which previously played a more limited role in these matters. The legislation further eliminates state funding for the Central American University, a Jesuit higher education institution where students and faculty played a significant role during the 2018 anti-government protests.^[149] The CNU’s expanded powers may also threaten individual scholars’ academic freedom and freedom of movement, as suggested by an August 2022 circular issued by the CNU ordering universities to report employees’ academic travel, including the reason for their travel, at least seven days in advance of their departure.^[150] The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet described the legislation as “a new threat to academic freedom and university autonomy, an integral component of the right to education and freedom for scientific research and creative activity.”^[151]

Nigeria

In Nigeria, frequent abductions of higher education community members, campus insecurity, and the use of force against student protesters remain chief concerns.

For several years, SAR has reported a concerning trend of armed groups abducting students, faculty, and other higher education personnel. Extremist groups, like Boko Haram, were routinely behind these incidents early on, but over the past two years, criminal groups were increasingly carrying out these abductions with the apparent goal of procuring a ransom. On September 28, 2021, for example, armed men kidnapped Kogi State University Professor John Alabi outside of his apartment as he was returning home, and later contacted Alabi’s wife and the university management demanding a ransom.^[152] On October 3, Alabi was released. At roughly 1:00 AM on November 2, gunmen raided staff quarters at the University of Abuja and kidnapped three staff members and an economics professor and his two children.^[153] In a similar late-night raid on a residence hall, gunmen raided a dormitory near the Federal University of Lafia and abducted four students.^[154] SAR reported similar incidents of abductions targeting members of the higher education community from Federal University Gusau,^[155] DS Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic,^[156] Delta State University,^[157] and Arthur Jarvis University.^[158]

Non-state groups and individuals also carried out violent politically- and ideologically-motivated attacks on higher education community members. On January 10, 2022, suspected Boko Haram members attacked the Nigerian Army University Biu’s Tukur Yusufu Buratai Institute for War and Peace, killing at least two employees and burning cars and offices on the campus.^[159] On May 12, a group of students at Shehu Shagari College Of Education Sokoto, stoned and beat to death Deborah Samuel (also known as Deborah Yakubu), a Christain student, after she allegedly made a comment in a WhatsApp group chat that classmates perceived as insulting the Prophet Muhammed.^[160] On March 21, members of the Ife community stormed Obafemi Awolowo University and reportedly assaulted security guards and students while protesting the appointment of a non-native as vice-chancellor.^[161]

State security authorities also used force, including live ammunition, in an apparent attempt to quash student protests. On September 20, 2021, security forces opened fire and used tear gas when they clashed with Plateau State Polytechnic students protesting the sudden postponement of exams; one student was shot and killed and several others sustained injuries.^[162] Three days later, police opened fire on students from Abia State Polytechnic protesting the alleged rape of a student by a police officer.^[163] On May 17, 2022, Nigerian soldiers fired live ammunition in an apparent attempt to disperse university students protesting an ongoing faculty strike that effectively forced several universities to suspend activities.^[164] (The next month, the government of Edo State ordered the suspension of all union activities in response to the strike.)^[165] SAR reported additional incidents of police using force against students from Kwara State University^[166] and the University of Maiduguri.^[167]

Occupied Palestinian Territory

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), campus integrity and safety, academic freedom, and student activism were undermined by attacks and raids on campus, frequently by Israeli soldiers; detentions of student leaders; and efforts to restrict academic travel into the West Bank.

On August 5, 2022, amidst mounting tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinian militant groups, the Israeli military conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, damaging a branch of Al-Quds Open University in northern Gaza, injuring hundreds, and killing several students.^[168] The students killed in the airstrike include Osama Abdul Rahman Al Suri and Tamim Ghassan Hegazy, both of the University of Palestine; Doniana Adnan Al-Amour, of Al-Aqsa University; Ahmed Adeeb Afana, of Al-Quds Open University; and Ziyad Ahmed Al-Mudallal, of Israa University. Eight universities in the Gaza Strip announced their temporary closure due to the air strikes.

Israeli forces raided higher education institutions and used force against student protesters, resulting in injuries, detentions of students, disruptions academic activity, and the undermining of campus integrity.^[169] In one of the most striking incidents from this reporting period, as many as 100 Israeli soldiers raided Birzeit University in the early morning of December 14, 2021.^[170] Once inside, the soldiers beat and detained several campus guards, removed the Palestinian flag from the center of campus, conducted raids on various faculties, and used force, including live rounds and tear gas, to disperse civilians and students who engaged them in clashes. On March 9, 2022, three Palestinians were injured and dozens more suffered from respiratory issues after Israeli military forces raided the campus of the Palestine Technical University, in Kadoorie, during a memorial service for Ammar Shafiq Abu Afifeh, a Palestinian who was shot by the Israeli military days earlier.^[171] On May 17, the eve of student elections at Birzeit University, undercover Israeli forces arrested eight senior members of the Hamas-affiliated Islamic bloc, after which one of the detained students was then beaten in prison.^[172] Israeli forces also reportedly sent several other Birzeit University students and their families threatening messages that characterized their affiliation with and potential votes for the Islamic bloc as illegal.

Security forces under the Palestinian Authority (PA) also detained and used force against student activists and campus protesters. On June 8, 2022, for example, plainclothes PA security forces clashed with students affiliated with the Islamic bloc who were gathered at An-Najah National University to protest an attack on an Islamic bloc student representative.^[173] Roughly two weeks later, on June 25, PA forces detained four Palestine Polytechnic University students affiliated with the Islamic bloc, including its coordinator, Ibrahim Al-Nawaja.^[174] At Hebron University, PA forces detained student leader Laith Halayka as he was leaving campus, reportedly due to his student union work.^[175]

In February 2022, Israeli authorities announced a government directive that restricts international scholar and student travel to and work in the West Bank.^[176] The “Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Area,” which has since been revised and was scheduled to go into effect on October 20, 2022, inter alia, limits the duration of international scholars’ and students’ residency in the West Bank and places burdensome requirements on applicants and future permit holders, including requirements to leave the West Bank for 9 months after their first 27 months and possible financial guarantees of up to 70,000 NIS (roughly $20,000 USD). The original directive sought to limit the number of foreign faculty and students permitted to study and research long-term at West Bank higher education institutions to 100 and 150 annually, respectively; however, this was later struck from an updated directive published in September, following significant local and international outcry, including from the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, the Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, SAR, and others.^[177] Under the directive, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit within the Defense Ministry, would be vested with the authority to review and process permit applications, including, among other things, required documentation of foreign lecturers’ and researchers’ “education and training,” a “questionnaire covering [their] curriculum vitae and any familial and spousal connections in the Area,” and a document signed by the employer explaining and attesting to applicants’ “professional duties in question and [their] contribution to academic learning, to the Area’s economy or its development.”

Members of the higher education and human rights communities have expressed serious concerns over the directive, particularly around COGAT’s role in reviewing scholar and student applications and the risk that applicants may be reviewed in an opaque and potentially arbitrary and inconsistent manner. The directive’s requirements and the risk of improper or arbitrary vetting of scholars’ and students’ applications will impair the ability of Palestinian higher education institution to recruit and retain international scholars and students, compounding longstanding concerns of restrictions on academic travel into and within the OPT.^[178]

Pakistan

Over the past year, police used force against members of the higher education community carrying out peaceful protests, extremism threatened campus safety, and Baloch students faced a disturbing pattern of detentions and disappearances.

SAR reported police using violent force to quell university students’ and staff members’ peaceful expressive activity. For example, on September 8, 2021, police baton-charged and detained as many as 50 students protesting alleged irregularities in medical school entrance exams.^[179] On February 15, 2022, police used force, including baton charges, against students protesting in-person exams on the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir campus.^[180] On March 1, police used baton charges and criminal charges against students protesting the apparent abduction of a classmate from Quaid-i-Azam University.^[181] Days later, on March 7, police baton-charged and tear-gassed University of Punjab staff members demanding the payment of a so-called disparity reduction allowance; some protesters reportedly responded by throwing rocks at police.^[182]

On April 26, 2022, a suicide bomber carried out a targeted attack at the University of Karachi, killing three Chinese teachers employed by the university’s Confucius Institute and their Pakistani driver.^[183] Those killed in the attack include the Confucius Institute’s founder, Huang Guiping, and his fellow teachers, Ding Mupeng and Chen Sai. A fourth teacher, Wang Yuqing, was injured in the attack. The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack and commented that it targeted the Institute as a “symbol of Chinese economic, cultural and political expansionism.”

Prior to and, particularly following, the bombing at the University of Karachi, there has been a reported increase in disappearances of Baloch university students in Pakistan. According to the International Forum for Rights and Security, a Canada-based NGO, 48 Baloch students were disappeared in Pakistan from January to May 2022.^[184] The group notes that thousands of Baloch individuals have been disappeared by Pakistani authorities since the early 2000s, with students being one of the most targeted groups.^[185] Two of those students, Irfan Rasheed and Qambar Saleemwere, both of the University of Karachi, went missing on May 11.^[186] It does not appear that any further information has been reported about their whereabouts or the reason for their arrest. On June 7, unidentified individuals reportedly abducted two Baloch students from the University of Karachi, Doda Ellahi and Gamshad Baloch, at their homes.^[187] On June 14, one day after police used force against and arrested a number of people who protested their disappearance, Ellahi and Baloch returned home.

Philippines

(Scholars at Risk kindly thanks Sol Iglesias, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines, and Gerald John Guillermo, a Juris Doctor student at the University of the Philippines College of Law, for researching and drafting this summary on the Philippines.)^[188]

Attacks and pressures on academic freedom in the Philippines escalated in the months around the June 2022 transition from the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) to that of his successor Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., son and namesake of the late dictator, and Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio, Duterte’s daughter. These have included the threat of red-tagging, anti-terrorism legislation, and censorship that undermine academic freedom and freedom of expression.

During this period, concerns grew of scholars and academic institutions being the targets of a decades-long practice known as “red-tagging,” whereby perceived opponents of the government are labeled as communists or terrorists. International governmental bodies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and European Parliament, have recognized the practice as a threat to civil society and freedom of expression in the Philippines.^[189] The academic community’s concerns over red-tagging are in response to violent attacks and even extrajudicial killings—in February 2022, soldiers killed two volunteer teachers who had been red-tagged and three others at a school for lumad (indigenous peoples) children^[190]—as well as targeted harassment and intimidation that members of the education community have suffered. For example, shortly after the May 9 presidential election, Lorraine Badoy, the spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), insinuated that Jean Encinas-Franco, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines-Dilman, may be a communist, given Franco’s comments to the media that support for opposition candidates may endure beyond the polls.^[191] Badoy’s comments were followed by internet users harassing Encinas-Franco and her family as well as false news reports that she had been fired from the University of the Philippines due to her media statements on YouTube vlogs. The university and media outlets corrected the disinformation.^[192] Similarly, in October 2021, Badoy made an unsubstantiated claim that professor and former dean of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law Antonio La Viña was a communist and, with the Save our Schools Network (SOS), led a network of terrorist training camps.^[193] In July 2022, online trolls harassed historians like Ambeth Ocampo of the Ateneo de Manila University for confronting historical revisionism that glorifies the Marcos dictatorship.^[194]

In addition to these attempts to discredit and harass individual members of the higher education community, the renewed concerns over red-tagging also stem from the government’s abrogation of its 1989 accord with the University of the Philippines in January 2021, dismantling guarantees against unwarranted military and police presence on the university’s campuses and, most importantly, prohibiting the military and police from interfering with any peaceful protests within the premises.^[195] Shortly after the government abrogated the accord, the NTF-ELCAC and other officials red-tagged four major universities as communist recruitment grounds, further raising concerns about threats against those university communities and undermining public trust in higher education more generally.^[196]

Compounding concerns over red-tagging is a controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that was largely upheld by the Supreme Court in December 2021 following multiple legal challenges. Members of the higher education community argue that the law contains vague and overly broad provisions on the definition of terrorism and related acts, inimical to academic freedom and human rights.^[197] For example, Section 9 provides a 12-year prison sentence for anyone deemed to be inciting others to commit terrorist acts through such means as speeches, writings, or banners even “without taking any direct part in the commission of terrorism”. Thus, teaching about dissent, activism, and revolution may be considered incitement to terrorism under the new law. Scholars are also concerned about the inclusion of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which regulates all public and private institutions of tertiary education, and the Department of Education in the Anti-Terrorism Council that the law creates. The involvement of education authorities is an unprecedented inclusion of the academe and schools into the security sector’s purview, creating a chilling effect on teaching, research, and activism. Given the current climate of red-tagging and other campaigns vilifying academics as terrorists or traitors as described above, state security forces may be emboldened to prosecute scholars and students under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Recent threats to academic freedom in the Philippines also include the censorship of books. On September 2, 2021, three public universities removed books with allegedly subversive content from their libraries and turned the materials over to the military.^[198] The CHED urged other universities to do the same.^[199] Meanwhile on August 9, 2022, the board of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF, or Commission for the Filipino Language), under the Office of the President, issued a memorandum and, the following day, a resolution to stop the publication and distribution of five books it deemed as having “subversive themes, explicit Anti-Marcos and Anti-Duterte contents,” inciting terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Act.^[200] In an August 16 memorandum, the KWF chairperson created an ad hoc review committee, including an NTF-ELCAC representative, to assess the 5 books and 11 additional ones.^[201] Since then, three out of five commissioners have withdrawn their signatures from the original August 9 memorandum, but it is unclear if this lifts the books’ censorship and review.^[202] Censorship and other restrictions on scholars’ and students’ access to information, including books and other sources, undermine academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and by extension the future of quality higher education that can serve the public.

Russia

Russian authorities cracked down on scholars and students for their views, and increased state control over higher education institutions. Efforts to quell dissent and criticism of the government intensified with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Higher education institutions punished outspoken and anti-Kremlin scholars and students including through dismissals, expulsions, and non-renewal of contracts.^[203] On February 25, 2022, the prestigious Higher School of Economics, for example, refused to renew the contract of Dmitry Dubrovsky, an internationally-renowned scholar and a critic of the Kremlin (the state would soon after label Dubrovsky a “foreign agent”).^[204] Three days later, as Russia’s invasion into Ukraine accelerated, the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics expelled students Polina Lysenko and Antonina Begacheva for social media comments about Russia’s war in Ukraine; the university’s head of security flagged the comments for the vice-rector.^[205] Participation in anti-war protests served as the basis for an order by state education to expel 13 St. Petersburg State University students on March 9.^[206] (Within the first six months of the war, there were estimates of hundreds of student expulsions.^[207]) On April 19, Volgograd State University (VSU) fired Roman Melnichenko, a long-time lecturer in the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law, for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war shortly after state legal proceedings and a VSU investigation were opened against him for allegedly distributing false information. Russian authorities briefly arrested and charged Melnichenko with “dissemination of false information” for the post. A court convicted Melnichenko, who pleaded not guilty, and fined him $500 USD.^[208] SAR is concerned that thousands of Russian academics who signed an open letter opposing the war are also at risk of university disciplinary action or worse, including arrest and prosecution, for speaking out like the above scholars and students.^[209]

To avoid retaliation, including possible prosecution, many Russian scholars and students have fled the country since February 2022. SAR has received over 200 requests for assistance from Russian applicants since then, with many reporting fear of being targeted, including with arrest under Russia’s “fake news law,” for their signatures to open letters and petitions against Russia’s war against Ukraine. Some applicants reported having been arrested and detained for involvement in anti-war protests. Male applicants also reported risk due to the recent military conscription efforts. Russian students who fled in the spring or were already outside the country have faced visa and admissions hurdles, depending on how some states’ government and university officials interpret and apply sanctions against Russia.^[210]

Russian scholars have faced hurdles to their research, publications, and academic exchange due to sanctions and boycott efforts by governments and higher education institutions outside Russia.^[211] These have included cancellations of and bans on partnerships and collaborative projects with Russian-based institutions and academics, but also refusals to publish research from Russian scholars. Decisions that go beyond decoupling from Russian institutions and/or scholars found to be complicit or supportive of the Kremlin may undermine the academic freedom of those who oppose the war and may threaten important links that can promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.^[212]

Russian state actors have also used their authority to clamp down on scholars’ academic activity and control students’ views. In March 2022, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education ordered a prohibition on scholars participating in international conferences and suspended the indexing of their scientists’ work in international databases.^[213] These moves risk further endangering the progress Russia’s scholars and scientists had made in recent years.^[214] In June, Russian universities learned that they would be required to have in place rectors for “students’ moral development,” a move described as the “re-Sovietisation of Russian universities.”^[215]

Sri Lanka

Faculty strikes and student-organized marches put the higher education community, particularly students, at the forefront of mass anti-government protests that stemmed from the country’s economic crisis and led to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 14, 2022.

State authorities attempted to prevent the protests with the imposition of a state of emergency, nationwide curfews, prevention orders, and the use of force. On April 3, 2022, for example, police attempted to stop students from carrying out a peaceful protest from the University of Peradeniya campus and resorted to firing water cannons and tear gas when some students attempted to break through a police barrier.^[216] On April 13, an elected official with the ruling party assaulted a group of University of Kelaniya students who were setting up a small stage during the course of a protest.^[217] On April 23, police reportedly requested a court prevention order barring a protest organized by the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF), the largest student union in the country and one of the major convenors of the anti-government protests.^[218] A court rejected this request; however, police ultimately secured a court order to prevent some student leaders from accessing roads leading to the protest site.^[219] In back-to-back protests on May 5 and 6, police fired water cannons and teargas at students who marched to parliament with the IUSF. SAR reported similar incidents of police using force against students following President Rajapaksa’s resignation and under the Wickremesinghe government.^[220]

Police also detained and arrested leaders within the student protest movement. On July 27, for example, unidentified individuals pulled from a bus Veranga Pushpika, a former Ruhuna University student who remains active in the IUSF, and then detained him incommunicado for several hours.^[221] On August 18, police detained 20 protesters during an IUSF protest. Police released 16 of them on bail the next day; however, they transferred three student leaders—Wasantha Mudalige (or “Vasantha Mudalike”), convenor of the IUSF, Hashantha Jawantha Gunathilake, a member of the Kelaniya University Students’ Union, and Galwewa Siridhamma Thero, convenor of the Inter-University Bhikku (Buddhist Monks) Federation—to the Terrorism Investigation Department and held them without access to their lawyers.^[222] On August 22, authorities detained them under Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), by which authorities can hold detainees for 90 days without evidence or the opportunity for detainees to apply for bail. PTA detention orders can be renewed for up to one year. Considering Sri Lanka’s history of state sanctioned abductions^[223] and more recent abuse of the PTA, the students’ arrests are worrying and appear intended to intimidate the politically-active student body. Both the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and the Federation of University Teachers Association have raised serious concerns over the detentions of student leaders and issues of due process.^[224]

Turkey

Police frequently used force against and arrested students peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly over a wide range of issues. In several incidents, police arrested scores of students peacefully protesting a lack of affordable student housing.^[225] At Ankara University’s Cebeci Campus, on November 8, 2021, police beat and arrested 11 students protesting the 40^th anniversary of the founding of Turkey’s Council on Higher Education (YÖK), which has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom and institutional autonomy.^[226] On May 20, 2022, police arrested at least 33 students who peacefully assembled on the Boğaziçi University campus for an annual LGBTQ+ Pride Parade.^[227]

Kurdish students came under attack for their ethnicity in two instances. On January 9, 2022, a group of 30 people armed with knives and machetes prevented three Kurdish students from entering the Faculty of Law at Ankara University, apparently on the basis of the students’ ethnicity.^[228] The assailants, who reportedly included alumni, chased after the students and attacked them in front of a police station, stabbing one of them in the leg. On February 22, a group of 30 people armed with knives, sticks, and brass knuckles entered the Akdeniz University campus and beat three more Kurdish students who were sitting in a campus cafe.^[229] All three students were hospitalized.

Faculty and administrators at Boğaziçi University (BU) opposed to a controversial rector appointment in early 2021 were subjected to disciplinary action. Since January 2021, students and faculty have protested President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s appointment of a political ally to the position of rector of BU, often leading to use of force and arrests by police. On September 28, 2021, BU announced the cancellation of classes taught by Özcan Vardar, an award-winning film editor and part-time lecturer at BU since 2013, who reportedly participated in the protests.^[230] That same month, the university announced the cancellation of classes taught by jazz professor Seda Binbaşgil, who had taught at the university for 16 years and also protested the appointment.^[231] On January 18, 2022, YÖK ordered the dismissal of three of BU’s deans, apparently for their participation in protests against the university’s rector.^[232]

Ukraine

In late February 2022, Russian forces invaded and began waging a war against Ukraine that has had disastrous humanitarian implications, as well as grave consequences for the higher education community, notably the destruction and occupation of higher education infrastructure and the forced displacement of scholars and students.

Throughout the conflict, Russian forces have launched attacks, including airstrikes and shellings targeting civilian infrastructure, including higher education facilities. Among the institutions that have sustained damage from such attacks are V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University,^[233] Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology,^[234] Chernihiv Polytechnic National University,^[235] Sukhomlynskyi Mykolaiv National University,^[236] Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding,^[237] O.M. Beketov Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy,^[238] and Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University.^[239] In Kharkiv alone, military officials reported at least seven higher education institutions that suffered damage during the month of March.^[240] While civilian casualties were not reported in most of the incidents captured by SAR, the attacks resulted in substantial damage to campus infrastructure. The Kyiv School of Economics has calculated that Ukrainian higher education institutions suffered roughly $2.648 billion USD in damage since the start of the war.^[241]

Russian forces have also invaded and taken over Ukrainian higher education institutions. On May 27, 2022, it was reported that Russian occupying forces invaded and seized control of Dmytro Motornyi Tavria State Agrotechnological University and Bohdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, and announced that the two universities would be merged into a new “Melitopol State University.”^[242] The Russian-installed governor of Zaporizhzhia, where the universities are located, said that the merged higher education institution would adapt to the system used by the Russian Federation.^[243] In mid-June, Russian soldiers took over Kherson State University (KhSU) and detained the vice-rector, Maksym Vinnyk; they reportedly released him roughly one week later.^[244] The Russian soldiers were reportedly accompanied by two Ukrainians who work in education and were described as having collaborated with Russian forces in the region; one of aforementioned individuals, Tetyana Tomilina, was appointed rector of the university. According to the Center for Journalistic Investigations, the administration of KhSU had transitioned to remote education and moved management operations to a city in western Ukraine in April.^[245] SAR also reported campus seizures and interference by Russian occupying forces at Kherson National Technical University^[246] and Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University,^[247] where Russian soldiers had previously detained Ivan Mrynskyi, dean of the agronomy faculty.^[248]

Since the invasion, SAR has received over 250 applications from Ukrainian scholars and students. Scholar applicants reported fleeing violence following the Russian invasion, seeking support and assistance in the countries to which they have fled, predominantly in Europe. Those who remained in Ukraine reported conflict-related violence. Male applicants inside the country reported their inability to leave due to the imposition of martial law and conscription.

United States of America

Scholars and students experienced a range of pressures during this reporting period, including the threat of violence, disciplinary actions, and legislation restricting academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

In early 2022, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the United States were targeted with bomb threats disrupting classes, prompting campus lockdowns, and forcing law enforcement to respond.^[249] Howard University and Morehouse College were among at least 20 HBCUs targeted with such violent and racist threats. While explosive devices were not found in these reported instances, the apparent efforts to intimidate members of HBCU communities have taken a toll on campuses, straining mental health and forcing security enhancements.^[250] Months later, violent threats expanded beyond HBCUs, targeting community colleges and the University of California, Berkeley, where officials locked down campus and canceled classes for a day.^[251]

During this reporting period, universities took disciplinary actions against scholars for their academic work and views, and sought to interfere in their academic activity. This included reports of the University of Florida barring three UF professors from testifying as expert witnesses in a lawsuit to protect voting rights;^[252] Old Dominion University placing an assistant professor of sociology and criminology on administrative leave following public pressure and threats directed at the scholar’s work on “minor-attracted people;”^[253] Collin College declining to renew a scholar’s contract for his public and private commentary on diverse issues including the removal of Confederate statues and the college’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic;^[254] and Oklahoma Christian University firing a graphic design professor who invited a guest speaker—a former faculty member and alumnus who is openly gay—to speak in one of his classes.^[255]

Lawmakers at the state level pushed legislation that restricts higher education institutions from teaching or hosting discussions of so-called “divisive concepts,” often meaning race, gender, and sexuality.^[256] PEN America, a US-based NGO that has spearheaded efforts to counter these educational “gag orders,” documented more than 70 state bills restricting academic activity at higher education institutions since January 2021; 7 of those have been signed into law, while 5 were noted as pending.^[257] Florida’s state legislature, for example, passed House Bill 7, which prohibits teaching and discussion of topics and ideas that its proponents disfavor, including in this case what the office called “corporate wokeness” and the area of study known as Critical Race Theory.^[258] The law lists a number of specific “concepts” disfavored by the bill’s proponents and prohibits higher education institutions or staff from providing training or instruction that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels [students or employees] to believe” such concepts. Although the law provides that faculty may discuss these concepts, “provided such training or instruction is given in an objective manner without endorsement of the concepts” (emphasis added), this provision only invites government intrusion into the classroom to police the objectivity of future discussions. In a lawsuit challenging the law, the court questioned the adequacy of this provision to protect such discussions, writing, “…lacking explicit standards to circumscribe enforcement of ‘objectivity,’ [the government] can weaponize this term to further discredit the prohibited concepts. The [law] thus ‘impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to [the government] for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application.’”^[259] Under the law, violation of the above provisions amounts to discrimination and can result in substantial financial penalties for educational institutions found to be in violation (and indirectly threatening the positions of faculty involved). Objections to the Florida law and similar pending and enacted legislation in other states do not turn on the particular list of disfavored topics, but rather the use of state authority to dictate what topics may or may not be discussed or taught and to police and impose sanctions on institutions and faculty deemed by the state to have violated such dictates. Such laws raise serious academic freedom and institutional autonomy concerns, notably that they directly interfere in academic conduct and will likely have a severe chilling effect on curriculum development and classroom discussions on a range of topics. As a result, such laws risk undermining quality higher education in the United States.

Venezuela

(Scholars at Risk kindly thanks Mayda Hočevar, Director of the Human Rights Observatory at the Universidad de Los Andes, for contributing information that served as the basis for this summary update on Venezuela. Learn more about the Observatory here.)

In Venezuela, the government continued to enact policies and take actions that undermine academic freedom and the future of the country’s public, autonomous universities.

On September 16, 2021, Venezuela’s National University Council (CNU) made controversial leadership appointments at Simón Bolívar University (USB). The CNU had convened to appoint an interim rector following the death of the former rector, Enrique Planchart. However, in addition to appointing an interim rector, the council also replaced USB’s academic and administrative vice-chancellors, both unexpected and apparently unnecessary appointments.^[260] Faculty were outraged by the appointments, which were reportedly made to academics with close ties to the CNU, an institution controlled by President Nicolás Maduro’s government. The president of USB’s faculty association speculated that the surprise appointments were actually part of a years-long plan by the CNU to start filling key leadership roles at Venezuela’s autonomous universities.^[261]

The National Assembly reformed the Organic Law of Science, Technology, and Innovation in ways that threaten to politicize and harm higher education and scientific research.^[262] Specifically, the reformed law requires that members of the higher education and scientific communities, inter alia, frame all research and development projects according to the objectives of Venezuela’s Economic and Social Development Plan, obtain approval from the Ministry of Popular Power for Science and Technology, and register their projects with the same Ministry. The law calls for a requirement that university students’ education is aligned according to the “priorities and needs of the country.” The law also applies to international researchers, requiring them to obtain ministerial approval for research projects, which must also be aligned with the objectives of the Economic and Social Development Plan. Academic groups worry that the reforms will further centralize control over scientific research within Venezuela’s executive branch, increase ideological constraints on the sector, and undermine international academic activity in Venezuela.^[263] Academics have also expressed concern that the law’s omission of a budgetary allocation for scientific research will worsen the disastrous financial state of the Venezeulan higher education sector, as discussed further below.^[264]

Venezuelan political figures allied with President Maduro publicly disparaged members of the academic community. In September 2021, anthropologist Lusbi Alberto Portillo filed a criminal defamation complaint against Ómar Prieto Fernández, governor of Zulia, who publicly accused Portillo of being an agent for the United State’s Central Intelligence Agency, apparently based on Portillo’s statements regarding coal mining in Zulia.^[265] Portillo claimed that the accusations endangered his personal safety and that of his family. In his program on state television, Diosdado Cabello, the vice-president of President Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, called unspecified members of the Academy of Physical, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences “traitors” while referring to their work relating to COVID-19.^[266]

Continuing a years-long pattern of budget cuts, the government reportedly denied adequate funding for Venezuela’s autonomous universities for the 2021-2022 academic year. In some cases, the government approved less than 10% of funding that autonomous universities had requested to cover operating expenses, while the government continues to favor and develop a system of parallel universities beholden to President Maduro.^[267] The cuts reportedly forced administrators to ration the funding for payroll and building maintenance.^[268] In the case of the Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), several graduate programs did not receive equipment and no scholarships were offered to students.^[269] Venezuela’s opposition party criticized the state of faculty salaries—reported to range from $7-11 USD per month—calling them “miserable and deathly.”^[270] Reports on the economic impact revealed faculty struggling to pay for basic living expenses and elderly, retired academics reliant on university pensions suffering in particular. In one case, emergency responders found Pedro Salinas, a retired ULA professor, in his home in a state of severe malnutrition.^[271] Government efforts to undermine university autonomy and the so-called “budget asphyxiation” of public universities risk further “flights” of faculty and students from Venezuelan higher education institutions.^[272]

^[1] See table of incidents at the end of this report.

^[2] Visit www.scholarsatrisk.org/academic-freedom-monitoring-project-index/.

^[3] Visit www.v-dem.net/academic_freedom.html.

^[4] See also Katrin Kinzelbach, Ilyas Saliba, Janika Spannagel, and Robert Quinn, Free Universities: Putting the Academic Freedom Index into Action (March 11, 2021), www.gppi.net/2021/03/11/free-universities.

^[5] Learn more at www.scholarsatrisk.org/actions/academic-freedom-monitoring-project/.

^[6] SAR AFMP, November 12, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-12-ghazni-university/.

^[7] SAR AFMP, January 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-08-kabul-university/; and SAR AFMP, March 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-04-unknown/.

^[8] SAR AFMP, February 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-alberoni-university/.

^[9] SAR AFMP, April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-27-balkh-university/.

^[10] “Female students join male peers as Afghan universities reopen,” Reuters, February 2, 2022, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/female-students-join-male-peers-afghan-universities-reopen-2022-02-02/; “Afghan public universities reopen with gender segregated classes,” Al Jazeera, February 26, 2022, www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/26/afghan-main-universities-reopen-but-few-women-return; UN Women, “Gender Alert No. 2: Women’s rights in Afghanistan one year after the Taliban take-over,” August 15, 2022, www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2022/08/gender-alert-no-2-womens-rights-in-afghanistan-one-year-after-the-taliban-take-over.

^[11] Shadi Khan Saif, “Taliban splits university week for gender separation,” University World News, April 29, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220429090043804.

^[12] Ibid.

^[13] SAR AFMP, April 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-04-various-institutions/.

^[14] SAR AFMP, May 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-18-kabul-polytechnic-university/.

^[15] SAR AFMP, April 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-02-bamyan-university/.

^[16] Heather Barr, “Taliban Close Girls’ Secondary Schools in Afghanistan, Again,” Human Rights Watch, March 23, 2022, www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/23/taliban-close-girls-secondary-schools-afghanistan-again; UN Women; Emma Graham-Harrison, “Taliban policies risk de facto university ban for Afghan women, say officials,” The Guardian, August 1, 2022, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/01/taliban-policies-risk-de-facto-university-ban-for-afghan-women-say-officials; Human Rights Watch, “Afghanistan: Toll of Ban on Girls’ Secondary Education, July 13, 2022, www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/13/afghanistan-toll-ban-girls-secondary-education.

^[17] Emma Graham -Harrison, “Taliban policies risk de facto university ban for Afghan women, say officials,” The Guardian, August 1, 2022, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/01/taliban-policies-risk-de-facto-university-ban-for-afghan-women-say-officials.

^[18] Radio Free Europe, “Taliban’s New Chaperone Rule Deprives Afghan Women Of Foreign Scholarships,” July 8, 2022, gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-women-universities-chaperones-/31935115.html; UN Women; Reuters, “Taliban ban women in Afghanistan from flying without male chaperone,” March 27, 2022, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghanistans-taliban-ban-women-flying-without-male-chaperone-sources-2022-03-27/.

^[19] “Taliban adds more compulsory religion classes to universities in Afghanistan,” Agence France Presse via Alarabiya, August 16, 2022, english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/08/16/Taliban-adds-more-compulsory-religion-classes-to-universities-in-Afghanistan-; Shadi Khan Saif, “Under the Taliban, university access for girls is drying up,” University World News, August 20, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220819153430690.

^[20] SAR AFMP, April 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-06-badakhshan-university/.

^[21] See Moloy Saha and Iqbal Mahmud, “BCL blamed for ruining campus atmosphere,” New Age Bangladesh, October 7, 2022, www.newagebd.net/article/183107/bcl-blamed-for-ruining-campus-atmosphere

^[22] See Promila Kanya and Nusmila Lohani, “BCL committees: Private universities have every reason to be worried,” The Business Standard, September 8, 2022, www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/bcl-committees-private-universities-have-every-reason-be-worried-492162; Anupam Debashis Roy, “Should student politics extend into private universities?,” The Daily Star, September 9, 2022, www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/should-student-politics-extend-private-universities-3114416.

^[23] SAR AFMP, January 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-15-sylhet-shahjalal-university-of-science-and-technology/.

^[24] SAR AFMP, February 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-24-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-science-and-technology-university/.

^[25] SAR AFMP, May 23, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-23-university-of-rajshahi/.

^[26] “Two injured as Chhatra League attacks Chhatra Dal at RU,” Prothom Alo, May 23, 2022, en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/politics/two-injured-as-chhatra-league-attacks-chhatra-dal-at-ru.

^[27] SAR AFMP, May 24, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-24-university-of-dhaka/.

^[28] SAR AFMP, March 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-16-chandina-redwan-degree-ahmed-college/.

^[29] SAR AFMP, December 16, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-16-shanghai-aurora-college/.

^[30] SAR AFMP, December 16, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-16-qingdao-university/.

^[31] SAR AFMP, March 31, 20222, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-31-ludong-university/.

^[32] SAR AFMP, July 19, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-19-tsinghua-university/.

^[33] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-24-various-institutions/.

^[34] Emily Feng, “China tightens restrictions and bars scholars from international conferences,” National Public Radio, www.npr.org/2022/03/30/1089631713/china-tightens-restrictions-and-bars-scholars-from-international-conferences.

^[35] Vincent Ni, “‘They were fooled by Putin’: Chinese historians speak out against Russian invasion,” The Guardian, February 27, 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/28/they-were-fooled-by-putin-chinese-historians-speak-out-against-russian-invasion; “5 professors from top Chinese universities wrote an open letter condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, marking a departure from China’s pro-Russian online sentiment,” Insider, March 2, 2022, www.insider.com/nationalist-china-pro-russian-sentiment-online-anti-war-voices-ukraine-2022-3.

^[36] Vincent Ni (February 27, 2022).

^[37] Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, “十九届中央第七轮巡视完成反馈,” September 5, 2022, www.ccdi.gov.cn/toutiao/202109/t20210905_249547.html; William Zheng, “China’s top universities told to stop slacking off on Communist Party ideology,” South China Morning Post, September 7, 2021, www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3147779/chinas-top-universities-told-stop-slacking-communist-party; and Jing Liu, “Chinese universities ticked off for ideological education ‘gaps,’” Times Higher Education, September 14, 2021, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/chinese-universities-ticked-ideological-education-gaps.

^[38] William Zheng (September 5, 2021) and Jing Liu (September 14, 2021).

^[39] Mimi Leung, “Political education to include Party view on Ukraine war,” University World News, March 31, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220331080046105; Pola Lem, “China schools lecturers on ‘correct thinking’ over Ukraine war,” Times Higher Education, April 4, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-schools-lecturers-correct-thinking-over-ukraine-war.

^[40] Mimi Leung (March 31, 2022).

^[41] SAR AFMP, January 15, 2014, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2014-01-15-central-university-nationalities/.

^[42] SAR AFMP, February 15, 2020, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2020-02-15-unaffiliated/.

^[43] SAR AFMP, October 4, 2018, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-10-04-unaffiliated/.

^[44] SAR AFMP, December 1, 2017, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2017-12-01-xinjiang-university/.

^[45] SAR AFMP, January 29, 2018, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-01-29-xinjiang-pedagogical-university/.

^[46] SAR AFMP, November 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-01-wollo-university/.

^[47] “Wollo University would need two years to be operational again, University Vice-President,” Ethiopia Observer, December 14, 2021, www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2021/12/14/it-could-take-two-years-to-rebuild-wollo-university/.

^[48] SAR AFMP, December 20, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-20-woldia-university/.

^[49] SAR AFMP, November 3, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-03-bahir-dar-university/.

^[50] SAR AFMP, November 17, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-17-addis-ababa-university/.

^[51] Andrew Harding, “Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict: Mass arrests and ethnic profiling haunt Addis Ababa,” BBC, March 21, 2021, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59347230.

^[52] SAR AFMP, March 13, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-13-addis-ababa-university/.

^[53] SAR AFMP, June 25, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-25-addis-ababa-university/.

^[54] Ethiopia Peace Observatory (EPO), “EPO Weekly: March 12-18, 2022,” March 18, 2022, epo.acleddata.com/2022/03/23/epo-weekly-12-18-march-2022/.

^[55] See Francis Kokutse, “Act to create merger undermines academic freedom, say staff,” University World News, July 21, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220719154206529; and Kemiso Wessie, “Ghana media educators oppose merger,” Wits Journalism, September 5, 2022, wits.journalism.co.za/2022/09/05/ghana-media-educators-oppose-merger/.

^[56] “President assents to University of Media Arts and Communication Bill” Graphic Online, May 8, 2021, www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/president-assents-to-university-of-media-arts-and-communication-bill.html.

^[57] Francis Kokutse (July 21, 2022).

^[58] Ibid.

^[59] As reported in University World News’ coverage, the petitioners noted that the “UMAC Act […] reflects portions of the [Public University Bill], which was rejected by the academic community for its undue control and interference in the management of public universities by the government. See Francis Kokutse (July 21, 2022)

^[60] See “Ghana” in SAR, Free to Think 2020 (November 2020), www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2020/.

^[61] SAR, “Ghana: Concerns about the destructive impacts of the proposed Public University Bill 2020,” October 9, 2020, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2020/10/ghana-concerns-about-the-destructive-impacts-of-the-proposed-public-university-bill-2020/.

^[62] See “Academic Freedom Repression Under China’s Central Government” in SAR, Free to Think 2020 (November 2020), www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2020/. See also James Griffiths, “As Hong Kong’s academic year begins, it’s unclear what can legally be said in a classroom – and whether student activism is a thing of the past,” CNN, September 3, 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/09/03/asia/hong-kong-security-law-education-universities-intl-hnk-dst/index.html; Frances Cheung and Takeshi Kihara, “Brain drain: Hong Kong political crackdown sparks scholar exodus,” Nikkei, June 26, 2022, asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Hong-Kong-security-law/Brain-drain-Hong-Kong-political-crackdown-sparks-scholar-exodus.

^[63] Mimi Leung and Yojana Sharma, “Compulsory National Security Law courses begin across HE,” University World News, September 22, 2021, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210922152328446; Jessie Pang and Sara Cheng, “EXCLUSIVE-New Hong Kong university classes set out dangers of breaking security law,” Reuters, November 5, 2021, www.reuters.com/article/us-exclusive-hongkong-security-universit/exclusive-new-hong-kong-university-classes-set-out-dangers-of-breaking-security-law-idUSKBN2HQ0KC.

^[64] Candice Chau, “University of Hong Kong makes national security law course a mandatory graduation requirement,” Hong Kong Free Press, July 25, 2022, hongkongfp.com/2022/07/25/university-of-hong-kong-makes-national-security-law-course-a-mandatory-graduation-requirement/; Mimi Leung, “National security education compulsory for undergraduates,” University World News, August 17, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220817081736131.

^[65] Ibid.

^[66] Pola Lem, “University of Hong Kong wants Tiananmen ‘Pillar of Shame’ gone,” Times Higher Education, October 8, 2021, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-hong-kong-wants-tiananmen-pillar-shame-gone.

^[67] Ibid.

^[68] Mike Ives, “Hong Kong Removes Statue That Memorialized Tiananmen Victims,” The New York Times, December 23, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/world/asia/hong-kong-tiananmen-statue.html.

^[69] Sammy Heung, “US human rights professor denied visa by Hong Kong immigration authorities for university teaching position,” South China Morning Post, February 2, 2022, www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3165584/us-human-rights-professor-denied-visa-hong-kong.

^[70] “US human rights law scholar says Hong Kong gov’t denied him visa to teach at HKU,” AFP via Hong Kong Free Press, February 2, 2022, hongkongfp.com/2022/02/02/us-human-rights-law-scholar-says-hong-kong-govt-denied-him-visa-to-teach-at-hku/.

^[71] SAR AFMP, September 20, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-20-hong-kong-baptist-university-hong-kong-polytechnic-university/.

^[72] “HKBU students’ union editorial board resigns en masse slamming school intervention,” The Standard, January 29, 2022, www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/186600/HKBU-students’-union-editorial-board-resigns-en-masse-slamming-school-intervention; Selina Chang, “Members of student publication resign en masse citing pressure from Hong Kong Baptist University,” Hong Kong Free Press, January 31, 2022, hongkongfp.com/2022/01/31/members-of-student-publication-resign-en-masse-citing-pressure-from-hong-kong-baptist-university/.

^[73] SAR AFMP, February 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-21-city-university-of-hong-kong/.

^[74] Mimi Leung, “University student union disbands amid civil society meltdown,” University World News, October 7, 2021, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211007140203859; Kelly Ho, “‘Resist till the end’: City University of Hong Kong students’ union seeks to operate off campus following eviction,” Hong Kong Free Press, February 16, 2022, hongkongfp.com/2022/02/16/resist-till-the-end-city-university-of-hong-kong-students-union-seeks-to-operate-off-campus-following-eviction/; and Lea Mok, “Hong Kong PolyU’s student body to freeze assets amid pressure from university authorities,” Hong Kong Free Press, June 24, 2022, hongkongfp.com/2022/06/24/hong-kong-polyus-student-body-to-freeze-assets-amid-pressure-from-university-authorities/.

^[75] William Yiu, “Chinese University of Hong Kong students get management’s blessings for new union, vow to stay clear of politics,” South China Morning Post, August 27, 2022, www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3189587/chinese-university-hong-kong-students-get-managements.

^[76] SAR AFMP, September 14, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-14-various-institutions/.

^[77] SAR AFMP, April 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-09-various/.

^[78] SAR AFMP, October 27, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-27-university-of-delhi/.

^[79] SAR AFMP, December 17, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-17-pondicherry-university/.

^[80] SAR AFMP, June 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-21-various/.

^[81] SAR AFMP, May 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-06-sharda-university/.

^[82] SAR AFMP, September 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-02-central-university-of-kerala/. See also SAR AFMP, May 17, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-05-17-central-university-of-kerala/.

^[83] SAR AFMP, October 29, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-29-jawaharlal-nehru-university/.

^[84] SAR AFMP, May 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-27-mangalore-university/.

^[85] Sanath Prasad, “Karnataka: Six college girls suspended for wearing headscarf in classroom,” Indian Express, June 3, 2022, indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/karnataka-six-students-suspended-for-wearing-hijab-despite-mangalore-university-order-7949779/.

^[86] Scholars at Risk et al., “Open Letter Against National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) Restrictions (2022-2023 Guidelines),” March 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/03/open-letter-against-national-overseas-scholarship-nos-restrictions-2022-2023-guidelines/.

^[87] Soutik Biswas, “Filippo Osella: The UK academic who was deported from Kerala,” BBC, March 29, 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60894743.

^[88] SAR AFMP, April 22, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-22-various/.

^[89] SAR AFMP, September 13, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-13-sebelas-maret-university/.

^[90] SAR AFMP, December 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-01-unknown/; and SAR AFMP, December 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-01-unknown-2/.

^[91] Amnesty International, “Indonesia: Immediately release Papuan students charged with treason,” December 3, 2021, www.amnesty.org.au/indonesia-immediately-release-papuan-students-charged-with-treason/.

^[92] SAR AFMP, December 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-01-unknown/.

^[93] SAR AFMP, April 7, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-07-various-institutions/; SAR AFMP, April 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-18-various-institutions/.

^[94] SAR AFMP, March 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-17-state-islamic-institute-ambon/.

^[95] “Rektor IAIN Ambon Bekukan LPM Karena Beritakan Pelecehan Seksual,” Antara, March 17, 2022, www.antaranews.com/berita/2765861/rektor-iain-ambon-bekukan-lpm-karena-beritakan-pelecehan-seksual.

^[96] Ibid.

^[97] See SAR and Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom, “Repression of Indonesia’s Higher Education Community Threatens Future Progress,” May 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/05/repression-of-indonesias-higher-education-community-threatens-future-progress/.

^[98] SAR AFMP, September 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-01-nicolaus-copernicus-university/.

^[99] SAR AFMP April 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-20-iran-university-of-science-and-technology/.

^[100] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-16-allameh-university/.

^[101] SAR AFMP, December 7, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-07-yale-university/.

^[102] SAR AFMP, August 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-27-various/.

^[103] SAR AFMP January 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-21-sharif-university-of-technology/.

^[104] SAR AFMP, January 3, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-03-university-of-tehran/. See also “University professors, students urge return of Reza Omidi,” Iran Front Page, January 30, 2022, ifpnews.com/university-professors-students-urge-return-of-reza-omidi/.

^[105] Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, “Letter objecting to recent dismissal of Iranian university professors,” March 11, 2022, mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2022/03/11/letter-objecting-to-recent-dismissal-of-iranian-university-professors.

^[106] SAR AFMP, September 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-shahid-beheshti-university/.

^[107] SAR AFMP, September 4, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-04-islamic-azad-university/.

^[108] Anthony Mwangi, “Speaker shelves varsities bill as MPs fault changes,” People Daily, June 10, 2022, www.pd.co.ke/news/speaker-shelves-varsities-bill-as-mps-fault-changes-131504/; Faith Nyamai, “Bill giving CS powers on varsities fails to pass,” Nation, June 11, 2022, nation.africa/kenya/news/education/bill-giving-cs-powers-on-varsities-fails-to-pass-3844974; Wachira Kigotho, “MPs reject bill aimed at curtailing university autonomy,” University World News, June 14, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220614092839317.

^[109] For a copy of the legislation, as submitted to the National Assembly in July 2021, see www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2021-08/The%20Universities%20%28Amendment%29%20Bill%2C%202021.pdf.

^[110] Mwangi (June 10, 2022), Nyamai (June 11, 2022), and Kigotho (June 14, 2022).

^[111] Mwangi (June 10, 2022) and Kigotho (June 14, 2022).

^[112] Mwangi (June 10, 2022), Nyamai (June 11, 2022), and Kigotho (June 14, 2022).

^[113] Ibid.

^[114] Mark Aspinwall, “Mexican universities are part of the solution, not the problem,” Times Higher Education, June 27, 2019, www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/mexican-universities-are-part-solution-not-problem; Erica Hellerstein, “The global attack on science,” Coda Story, July 8, 2021, www.codastory.com/waronscience/attacks-hard-sciences/; “In Mexico, education and science under attack by AMLO’s government,” Yucatan Times, January 16, 2022, www.theyucatantimes.com/2022/01/in-mexico-education-and-science-under-attack-by-amlos-government/.

^[115] SAR AFMP, September 22, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-22-various/.

^[116] Héctor Vera, “Unrest grows about treatment of researchers and cronyism,” University World News, June 21, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210621134039710.

^[117] Javier Aparicio, “Comunidad académica bajo asedio,” Excélsior, September 23, 2022, www.excelsior.com.mx/opinion/javier-aparicio/comunidad-academica-bajo-asedio/1473111; quote retrieved from David Agren, “Prosecutors in Mexico seeking arrest warrants for more than 30 scientists,” The Guardian, September 24, 2022, www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/24/scientists-mexico-arrest-warrants.

^[118] Elizabeth Mistry, “Standoff after new leader imposed on Mexican economics institute,” Times Higher Education, December 14, 2021, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/standoff-after-new-leader-imposed-mexican-economics-institute.

^[119] Ibid.

^[120] Leila Miller, “A top university in Mexico becomes a battleground over academic freedom,” Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2021, www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-12-15/la-fg-mexico-cide-strike.

^[121] “Highly-rated university, think tank — seen as neoliberal — gets new director,” Mexico News Daily, December 1, 2021, mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cide-think-tank-neoliberal-conacyt/.

^[122] Leila Miller (December 15, 2021).

^[123] “Destituyen a coordinadora de Maestría en Periodismo y Políticas Públicas del CIDE,” El Siglo de Torreón, May 15, 2022, www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/noticia/2022/destituyen-a-coordinadora-de-maestria-en-periodismo-y-politicas-publicas-del-cide.html; “Periodistas y docentes del CIDE exigen transparentar nombramientos, destituciones y respetar estatutos internos,” Animal Politico, May 24, 2022, www.animalpolitico.com/2022/05/docentes-cide-transparentar-nombramientos-destitucion/; “Cancelan la maestría de periodismo del CIDE; avisan a profesores un día antes,” Proceso, August 19, 2022, www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2022/8/19/cancelan-la-maestria-de-periodismo-del-cide-avisan-profesores-un-dia-antes-291842.html; Mariana Lebrija Clavel, “Asamblea Académica del CIDE lamenta suspensión de la Maestría en Periodismo: La comunidad fue notificada tardíamente,” El Universal, August 23, 2022, www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/asamblea-academica-del-cide-lamenta-suspension-de-la-maestria-en-periodismo-la-comunidad-fue-notificada-tardiamente

^[124] See Rémy Pigaglio, “Au Maroc, l’espoir d’en finir avec le chantage sexuel dans les universités,” La Croix, April 29, 2022, www.la-croix.com/Monde/Au-Maroc-lespoir-den-finir-chantage-sexuel-universites-2022-04-29-1201212733.

^[125] “#MeToo wave in Morocco over ‘sex for grades’ scandal,” France24 and Agence France Presse, January 23, 2022, www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220123-metoo-wave-in-morocco-over-sex-for-grades-scandal; “Maroc : des étudiantes dénoncent le “chantage sexuel” de professeurs,” Africanews and AFP (AFP), January 24, 2022, fr.africanews.com/2022/01/24/maroc-des-etudiantes-denoncent-le-chantage-sexuel-de-professeurs/.

^[126] “Morocco sex for grades: Hassan I University lecturer jailed,” BBC, January 13, 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59970326.

^[127] France24 and AFP (January 23, 2022); and Africanews and AFP (January 24, 2022).

^[128] France24 and AFP (January 23, 2022); and Ghufrane Mounir, “Morocco: Women students break their silence on ‘sex for grades’ scandal,” Middle East Eye, January 27, 2022, www.middleeasteye.net/news/morocco-sex-grades-scandal-female-students-break-silence.

^[129] Ghufrane Mounir (January 27, 2022).

^[130] France24 and AFP (January 23, 2022).

^[131] See “Myanmar” in SAR, Free to Think 2021 (December 2021), www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2021/#myanmar; Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Universities, professors and students still under attack,” University World News, January 28, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2022012812432689.

^[132] SAR AFMP, September 19, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-19-technological-university-dawei/.

^[133] SAR AFMP, September 19, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-19-sagaing-university-of-education/.

^[134] SAR AFMP, April 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-21-dagon-university/.

^[135] SAR AFMP, August 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-20-yadanabon-university/.

^[136] See AAPP’s data at airtable.com/shr9w3z7dyIoqdUv4/tbl8hVtSci8VifbO9. Note: the figure cited is a result of filtering the data by age (over 18 years old, but including “unknown”), category (“All Burma Federation of Student Unions,” “Assistant Lecturer,” “Lecturer,” “Professor,” “Rector,” “Student,” and “Teacher”).

^[137] Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, “Daily Briefing in Relation to the Military Coup,” August 31, 2022, aappb.org/?p=22888.

^[138] Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Universities, professors and students still under attack,” University World News, January 28, 2022, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20211022092939112; “Student Activist Dies in Myanmar Junta Custody,” The Irrawaddy, December 29, 2021, www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/student-activist-dies-in-myanmar-junta-custody.html; “Student detainees in Myanmar allegedly beaten, kept in solitary confinement,” Radio Free Asia, July 21, 2022, www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/student-prisoners-07212022185946.html; “Myanmar Students Union Fears for Tortured Prisoners,” The Irrawaddy, December 15, 2021, www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-students-union-fears-for-tortured-prisoners.html.

^[139] “Inside the junta’s war on student unions,” Frontier Myanmar, May 18, 2022, www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/inside-the-juntas-war-on-student-unions/.

^[140] See reports of military forces occupying higher education facilities: Khin Yi Yi Zaw, “Three resistance fighters killed as serious battles rage in Kalay, Sagaing Region,” Myanmar Now, August 7, 2022, myanmar-now.org/en/news/three-resistance-fighters-killed-as-serious-battles-rage-in-kalay-sagaing-region; Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, “The Impacts of Attacks on Education and Military Use in Myanmar,”  September 9, 2022, protectingeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/ImpactofAttacksMyanmar2022.pdf.

^[141] Readers can access the data on ACLED’s website, here: acleddata.com/data-export-tool/. The incidents that make up the figure cited here have the following event identifiers: MMR24435, MMR25568, MMR27461, MMR29967, MMR28668, MMR31333, MMR31505, MMR32158, MMR32064, MMR32407, MMR32957, MMR27757, MMR32471, MMR29075, MMR28320, MMR35938, MMR36948, MMR37128, MMR36223, MMR37505, MMR38008, MMR31784, MMR28669, MMR29224, MMR27729, MMR31484.

^[142] Naw Say Phaw Waa (January 28, 2022); “​​Low college and university enrollment under Myanmar Military Council,” Mizzima Daily, May 15, 2022, mizzima.com/article/low-college-and-university-enrollment-under-myanmar-military-council.

^[143] “Thousands suspended at Myanmar universities as junta targets education,” Reuters, May 10, 2021, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thousands-suspended-myanmar-universities-junta-targets-education-2021-05-10/.

^[144] “Junta drops medical school entry standards amid widespread boycott,” Frontier Myanmar, August 5, 2022, www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/junta-drops-medical-school-entry-standards-amid-widespread-boycott/.

^[145] UN-OHCHR, “Myanmar: UN experts condemn military’s ‘digital dictatorship,’” June 7, 2022, www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/06/myanmar-un-experts-condemn-militarys-digital-dictatorship.

^[146] SAR AFMP, December 31, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-13-hispanic-american-university/; and SAR AFMP, February 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-various/.

^[147] Yubelka Mendoza and Maria Abi-Habib, “Nicaragua Seizes Universities, Inching Toward Dictatorship,” The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/world/americas/nicaragua-universities-ortega-dictatorship.html; and Sofia Moutinho, “Government attacks on higher education in Nicaragua put research—and researchers—at risk,” Science, April 26, 2022, www.science.org/content/article/government-attacks-higher-education-nicaragua-put-research-and-researchers-risk

^[148] Ismael Lopez, “Nicaragua approves education reform seen as move to destroy university autonomy,” Reuters, March 31, 2022, www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-approves-education-reform-seen-move-destroy-university-autonomy-2022-03-31/; “The Ortega regime approved an educational reform that will weaken the autonomy of universities in Nicaragua,” Infobae, March 31, 2022, www.infobae.com/en/2022/04/01/the-ortega-regime-approved-an-educational-reform-that-will-weaken-the-autonomy-of-universities-in-nicaragua/; and Sofia Moutinho (March 31, 2022).

^[149] Ibid.

^[150] “CNU obliga a universidades a informar sobre movimientos migratorios de su personal,” Confidencial, August 5, 2022, www.confidencial.digital/nacion/cnu-obliga-a-universidades-a-informar-sobre-movimientos-migratorios-de-su-personal/.

^[151] OHCHR, “Oral update on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua,” June 16, 2022, www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/06/oral-update-situation-human-rights-nicaragua.

^[152] SAR AFMP, September 28, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-28-kogi-state-university/.

^[153] SAR AFMP, November 2, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-02-university-of-abuja/.

^[154] SAR AFMP, January 13, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-13-federal-university-of-lafia/.

^[155] SAR AFMP, February 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-01-federal-university-gusau/.

^[156] SAR AFMP, February 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-ds-adegbenro-ict-polytechnic/.

^[157] SAR AFMP, April 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-09-delta-state-university/.

^[158] SAR AFMP, July 19, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-19-arthur-jarvis-university/.

^[159] SAR AFMP, January 10, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-10-nigerian-army-university-biu/.

^[160] SAR AFMP, May 12, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-12-shehu-shagari-college-of-education-sokoto/.

^[161] SAR AFMP, March 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-21-obafemi-awolowo-university/.

^[162] SAR AFMP, September 20, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-20-plateau-state-polytechnic/.

^[163] SAR AFMP, September 23, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-23-abia-state-polytechnic/.

^[164] SAR AFMP, May 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-17-various-institutions/.

^[165] SAR AFMP, June 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-08-various-institutions/.

^[166] SAR AFMP, September 10, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-10-kwara-state-university/.

^[167] SAR AFMP, October 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-04-university-of-maiduguri/.

^[168] SAR AFMP, August 5, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-05-al-quds-open-university/.

^[169] For additional reports of Israeli forces raiding Palestinian campuses or taking action against Palestinian students, see SAR AFMP, September 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-27-birzeit-university/; SAR AFMP, January 10, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-10-birzeit-university/; SAR AFMP, January 11, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-11-birzeit-university/; SAR AFMP, February 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-15-al-quds-university/; SAR AFMP, March 5, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-05-al-quds-university-abu-dis/; SAR AFMP, March 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-06-palestine-technical-university-al-arroub/; April 12, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-12-palestine-technical-university-kadoorie/; SAR AFMP, April 16, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-16-al-quds-university/; SAR AFMP, May 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-18-palestine-technical-university-kadoorie/.

^[170] SAR AFMP, December 14, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-12-14-birzeit-university/.

^[171] SAR AFMP, March 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-09-palestine-technical-university-kadoorie/.

^[172] SAR AFMP, May 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-17-birzeit-university/.

^[173] SAR AFMP, June 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-08-an-najah-university/.

^[174] SAR AFMP, June 25, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-25-palestine-polytechnic-university/.

^[175] SAR AFMP, June 29, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-29-hebron-university/.

^[176] A copy of the most recent edition of the directive, as of October 2022, can be found at www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Procedure-for-entry-and-residence-of-foreigners-in-the-Judea-and-Samaria-area-Aug-2022.pdf. For a copy of the original directive, issued in February 2022, see www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Procedure-for-entry-and-residence-of-foreigners-in-the-Judea-and-Samaria-area-Feb-2022.pdf. See also SAR’s letter to Israeli authorities, “Protect and promote international academic travel to the West Bank,” April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/04/protect-and-promote-international-academic-travel-to-the-west-bank/.

^[177] See HaMoked, “HaMoked demands the Minister of Defense amend a draconian new procedure for the entry of foreigners to the oPt: the procedure would severely infringe on the right to family life and academic freedom of Palestinian universities, and harm the local economy,” March 24, 2022, hamoked.org/document.php?dID=Updates2304; Middle East Studies Association’s Committee on Academic Freedom, “Letter protesting new Israel Government directive regarding selection of international scholars and students to teach and study in Palestinian Universities,” April 5, 2022, mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2022/04/05/letter-protesting-new-israel-government-directive-regarding-selection-of-international-scholars-and-students-to-teach-and-study-in-palestinian-universities; and SAR’s letter to Israeli authorities, “Protect and promote international academic travel to the West Bank,” April 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/04/protect-and-promote-international-academic-travel-to-the-west-bank/.

^[178] See “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” in SAR, Free to Think 2021 (December 2021), www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2021/#israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory; and SAR, “Concerns About Restrictions on Scholars’ Ability to Travel to the West Bank,” September 5, 2019, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2019/09/concerns-about-restrictions-on-scholars-ability-to-travel-to-the-west-bank/.

^[179] SAR AFMP, September 8, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-08-various/.

^[180] SAR AFMP, February 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-15-university-of-azad-jammu-and-kashmir/.

^[181] SAR AFMP, March 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-01-quaid-i-azam-university/.

^[182] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/university-of-punjab-2022-03-07/.

^[183] SAR AFMP, April 26, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-26-university-of-karachi/.

^[184] International Forum for Rights and Security, “Forcible Disappearances of Baloch Students,” July 6, 2022, iffras.org/forcible-disappearances-of-baloch-students/.

^[185] Ibid.

^[186] SAR AFMP, May 11, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-11-university-of-karachi/.

^[187] SAR AFMP, June 7, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-07-university-of-karachi/.

^[188] SAR would also like to recognize the following organizations for their efforts to protect and promote academic freedom in the country: Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom (link), SHAPE-SEA (link), Tanggol Kasaysayan (“Defend History;” link), Tanggol Wika (“Defend Language;” link), Alliance of Concerned Teachers (link), Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (link), and Akademiya at Bayan Kotra Disimpormasyon at Dayaan (“Academe and Nation Against Disinformation and Fraud;” link).

^[189] See United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Situation of human rights in the Philippines,” June 29, 2020, www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/PH/Philippines-HRC44-AEV.pdf; UN, “Philippines: UN rights office appalled over simultaneous killings of ‘red-tagged’ activists,” March 9, 2021, news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1086782; European Parliament, “​European Parliament resolution of 17 February 2022 on the recent human rights developments in the Philippines” February 17, 2022, www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0049_EN.html.

^[190] Froilan Gallardo, “Lumad teacher Chad Booc, 4 others slain in Davao de Oro – military,” Rappler, February 25, 2022, www.rappler.com/nation/lumad-teacher-booc-others-slain-davao-de-oro-military/; International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, “Justice to the Victims of the New Bataan 5 Massacre!,” March 16, 2022, ichrp.net/justice-to-the-victims-of-the-new-bataan-5-massacre/; University of the Philippines (Diliman), “Statement of the UP Diliman University Council on the Deaths of Chad Booc and the New Bataan 5,” May 4, 2022, upd.edu.ph/statement-of-the-upd-university-council-on-the-deaths-of-chad-booc-and-the-new-bataan-5/.

^[191] See screenshot of Badoy’s comments posted to Facebook, available at drive.google.com/file/d/1-R2HB-Ah3LiVYEWdJFhOUz2iGRqVuTh6/view. For more on the NTF-ELCAC, see JC Gotinga, “Duterte’s final gambit to end insurgency: task force vs communists,” Rappler, May 14, 2020, www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/260706-duterte-final-gambit-task-force-against-communists/.

^[192] “Philippine university did not fire professor for ‘belittling’ the country’s president-elect,” AFP-Philippines, June 29, 2022, factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32D94JU.

^[193] 802nd Infantry (Peerless) Brigade, 81D, Philippine Army (via Facebook), “SMNI WATCH | Laban Kasama Ang Bayan. Full Interview with Brigadier General Zosimo Oliveros,” October 27, 2021, www.facebook.com/academicsunite/photos/a.240315861134668/240315824468005/; and Tony La Viña, “Badoy and Carlos, on red-tagging,” Manila Standard, June 14, 2022, manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/eagle-eyes-by-tony-la-vina/314235850/badoy-and-carlos-on-red-tagging.html.

^[194] Jaehwa Bernando, “Academics defend historian Ambeth Ocampo vs ‘smear campaign,’” ABS-CBN, July 11, 2022, news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/11/22/history-is-not-gossip-academics-defend-historian-ambeth-ocampo.

^[195] Ramon Guillermo, “‘Bringing University to Heel?’ An Unprecedented Attack on Academic Freedom in the Philippines,” Forsea, February 1, 2021, forsea.co/an-unprecedented-attach-on-academic-freedom-in-the-philippines/.

^[196] “Top universities denounce red-tagging of schools,” Rappler, January 24, 2021, www.rappler.com/nation/top-philippine-universities-denounce-red-tagging-schools/.

^[197] Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas, “Educators to Supreme Court: Anti-terror law violates academic freedom,” GMA News, September 1, 2020, www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/753760/educators-to-supreme-court-anti-terror-law-violates-academic-freedom/story/; and Academics Unite for Democracy and Human Rights (via Facebook), “300 academics condemn DILG terrorist-tagging of teachers’ union, join global call to stop attacks on activists,” March 17, 2021, www.facebook.com/academicsunite/photos/a.240315861134668/240315824468005/.

^[198] Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, “Groups warn of ‘dangerous precedent’ after State U ‘surrenders’ Peace talks books,” ABS-CBN News, September 13, 2022, news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/13/21/groups-alarmed-as-state-u-tosses-books-on-peace-talks.

^[199] Kimberlie Quitasol, “CHED memo on purging of ‘subversive’ books an ‘attack on academic freedom’ – groups,” Inquirer, October 28, 2021, newsinfo.inquirer.net/1507405/ched-memo-on-purging-of-subversive-books-hit.

^[200] KWF, “Statement of Condemnation on the Illegal Acts of the Chairman of the Komisyan sa Wikang Filipino, Arthur P. Casanova on Endorsement, Publication, and Proliferation of Subversive Books,” August 10, 2022, drive.google.com/file/d/1u17y7o5PABvtU-Axp4ZTglhrOT6aogoI/view; KWF, “Pagpapatigil sa mga Subersibong Aklat ng KWF Publikasyon” (Halting of Subversive Books of KWF Publication), August 9, 2022, drive.google.com/file/d/1Z9D7lsFDv4Mr2pDOwe8YS0hY7s_oRVWU/view?usp=sharing; Jane Bautista, “​​Language agency joins book purge, tags 5 ‘subversive’ works,” Inquirer, August 12, 2022, newsinfo.inquirer.net/1645315/language-agency-joins-book-purge-tags-5-subversive-works.

^[201] KWF, Memorandum dated August 16, 2022, available at drive.google.com/file/d/1WG0tBPff0sZEHuxNSNI5LMCCwaKYNKJF/view.

^[202] Abby Boiser and Julie Aurelio, “KWF memo banning ‘subversive books voided”, Inquirer, September 27, 2022, newsinfo.inquirer.net/1670948/kwf-memo-banning-subversive-books-voided/amp?fbclid=IwAR0cBh6GrDImAEf2kMJ3S3sFqIZY_peabVL2tTcUzBQ9E_omvkoJ-fPszF

^[203] See Yanina Sorokina, “The Decline of HSE: Top Russian University Stifles Dissent Amid Ukraine War,” The Moscow Times, May 19, 2022, www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/05/19/the-decline-of-hse-top-russian-university-stifles-dissent-amid-ukraine-war-a77443; “Russia: Educators fired, students indoctrinated — academia is the latest victim of the ongoing crackdown,” Amnesty International, May 12, 2022, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/russia-educators-fired-students-indoctrinated-academia-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-ongoing-crackdown/.

^[204] SAR AFMP, February 25, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-25-higher-school-of-economics/.

^[205] SAR AFMP, February 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-28-plekhanov-russian-university-of-economics/.

^[206] SAR AFMP, March 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-09-st-petersburg-state-university/.

^[207] Pola Lem, “Russian universities expelling large numbers of anti-war students,” Times Higher Education, April 12, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russian-universities-expelling-large-numbers-anti-war-students.

^[208] SAR AFMP, April 19, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-19-volgograd-state-university/.

^[209] “Открытое письмо российских ученых и научных журналистов против войны с Украиной,” T-Invariant, February 2022, t-invariant.org/2022/02/we-are-against-war/.

^[210] Lubos Palata, “Czech Republic: Russian university students face restrictions,” Deutsche Welle, July 6, 2022 www.dw.com/en/czech-republic-russian-university-students-face-restrictions/a-62388131; Abigail Lindblade, “Russian students face obstacles in Czech Republic,” The PIE News, July 27, 2022, thepienews.com/news/russian-students-facing-obstacles-czech-republic/; and Ben Upton, “Dissident student: Estonia’s Russian visa ban a ‘death sentence,’” Times Higher Education, August 11, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dissident-student-estonias-russian-visa-ban-death-sentence.

^[211] Simon Baker, “Do academic boycotts work?,” Times Higher Education, March 9, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/do-academic-boycotts-work; Karin Fischer, “The Ukraine Dilemma: U.S. Colleges Debate Whether to Sever or Sustain Ties With Russia,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2022, www.chronicle.com/article/the-ukraine-dilemma-u-s-colleges-debate-whether-to-sever-or-sustain-ties-with-russia; Tom Williams, “Digital Universities UK: cut ties with Russian universities, says UK government minister,” Times Higher Education, March 15, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/digital-universities-uk-cut-ties-russian-universities-says-uk-government-minister;

^[212] See also United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, “Unilateral sanctions threaten scientific research and academic freedom: UN experts,” July 7, 2022, www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/07/unilateral-sanctions-threaten-scientific-research-and-academic-freedom-un.

^[213] “Russian authorities declare moratorium on publication of materials in int’l scientific publications,” Interfax, March 21, 2022, interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/77134/; “Russia tells its academics to avoid international conferences this year,” Reuters, March 21, 2022, www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-tells-its-academics-avoid-international-conferences-this-year-2022-03-21/; Pola Lem, “Russia bars academics from international conferences,” Times Higher Education, March 22, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russia-bars-academics-international-conferences.

^[214] See Benjamin Plackett, “The future of research collaborations involving Russia,” Nature, March 18, 2022, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00761-9.

^[215] “Минобрнауки рекомендовало всем вузам ввести должность проректора по воспитанию,” TASS, May 17, 2022, tass.ru/obschestvo/14643681; Pola Lem, “Rectors for moral development ‘sign of Russia’s re-Sovietisation,’” Times Higher Education, June 22, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/news/rectors-moral-development-sign-russias-re-sovietisation.

^[216] SAR AFMP, April 3, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-03-university-of-peradeniya/.

^[217] SAR AFMP, April 13, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-13-university-of-kelaniya/.

^[218] “Undergrad protesters surround Sri Lanka PM’s residence; demand resignation,” Economynext, April 24, 2022, economynext.com/undergrad-protesters-surround-sri-lanka-pms-residence-demand-resignation-93430/; “IUSF protest enters Galle Face despite barricades,” The Morning, April 25, 2022, www.themorning.lk/iusf-protest-enters-galle-face-despite-barricades/.

^[219] Ibid.

^[220] SAR AFMP, May 19, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-19-various/; SAR AFMP, July 8, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-08-university-of-kelaniya/; SAR AFMP, August 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-18-various/; and SAR AFMP, August 30, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-30-various-institutions/.

^[221] Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya, “Police arrest IUSF activist Veranga Pushpika,” Daily Mirror, July 27, 2022, www.dailymirror.lk/top_story/Police-arrest-IUSF-activist-Veranga-Pushpika/155-241908; and Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka: Heightened Crackdown on Dissent,” August 2, 2022, www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/02/sri-lanka-heightened-crackdown-dissent.

^[222] SAR AFMP, August 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-18-various/.

^[223] See Global Human Rights Defence, Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka (February 2022), ghrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Enforced-Disappearances-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf; and Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka: ‘Disappearances’ by Security Forces a National Crisis,” March 6, 2008, www.hrw.org/news/2008/03/06/sri-lanka-disappearances-security-forces-national-crisis.

^[224] Bar Association of Sri Lanka, “BASL concerned over Police arrests and detentions,” Newswire, August 11, 2022, www.newswire.lk/2022/08/11/basl-concerned-over-police-arrests-and-detentions/; and Federation of University Teachers Association, “FUTA strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest and detention of protesters,” August 23, 2022, www.dailymirror.lk/news-features/FUTA-strongly-condemns-the-arbitrary-arrest-and-detention-of-protesters/131-243535

^[225] SAR AFMP, September 20, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-20-various/; SAR AFMP, September 22, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-22-various-2/; SAR AFMP, September 28, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-28-various/; and SAR AFMP, September 28, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-28-various-2/.

^[226] SAR AFMP, November 8, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-08-ankara-university-cebeci/.

^[227] SAR AFMP, May 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-20-bogazici-university/.

^[228] SAR AFMP, January 9, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-09-ankara-university/.

^[229] SAR AFMP, February 22, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-22-akdeniz-university/.

^[230] SAR AFMP, September 28, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-28-bogazici-university/.

^[231] SAR AFMP, September 1, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-09-01-bogazici-university/.

^[232] SAR AFMP, January 18, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-18-bogazici-university/.

^[233] SAR AFMP, March 2, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-02-v-n-karazin-kharkiv-national-university/.

^[234] SAR AFMP, March 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-06-kharkiv-institute-of-physics-and-technology/.

^[235] SAR AFMP, March 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-14-chernihiv-polytechnic-national-university/.

^[236] SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-sukhomlynskyi-mykolaiv-national-university-admiral-makarov-national-university-of-shipbuilding/.

^[237] Ibid.

^[238] SAR AFMP, July 23, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-23-o-m-beketov-kharkiv-national-university-of-urban-economy/.

^[239] SAR AFMP August 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-17-petro-mohyla-black-sea-national-university/.

^[240] Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, “Близько 60 шкіл Харківської області пошкоджено внаслідок ворожих обстрілів,” March 21, 2022, kharkivoda.gov.ua/news/114972.

^[241] Kyiv School of Economics, “Assessment of damages in Ukraine due to Russia’s military aggression as of September 1, 2022,” kse.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ENG-Sep22_Working_Sep1_Damages-Report.docx.pdf.

^[242] SAR AFMP, May 27, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-05-27-dmytro-motornyi-tavria-state-agrotechnological-university-bohdan-khmelnytsky-melitopol-state-pedagogical-university/.

^[243] Center for Journalistic Investigations, “Окупанти в Запорізької області заявили про створення єдиного «університету»,” May 29, 2022, investigator.org.ua/ua/news-2/243426/.

^[244] SAR AFMP, June 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-14-kherson-state-university/.

^[245] Center for Journalistic Investigations, “Російські окупанти захопили Херсонський державний університет і викрали його проректора Максима Вінника,” June 14, 2022, investigator.org.ua/ua/news-2/243889/.

^[246] SAR AFMP, July 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-28-kherson-national-technical-university/.

^[247] SAR AFMP, August 1, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-01-kherson-state-agrarian-and-economic-university/.

^[248] SAR AFMP, June 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-06-04-kherson-state-agrarian-and-economic-university/.

^[249] SAR AFMP, January 4, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-04-various/; SAR AFMP, January 31, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-31-various-institutions/; SAR AFMP March 14, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-14-morehouse-college/.

^[250] See Sara Weissman, “‘An Assault on Many Fronts,’” Inside Higher Ed, April 8, 2022, www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/04/08/hbcu-bomb-threats-take-toll-mental-health.

^[251] SAR AFMP, April 21, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-21-university-of-california-at-berkeley/; Sara Weissman, “‘The Cheapest Form of Terrorism,” Inside Higher Ed, July 14, 2022, www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/07/14/bomb-threats-disrupt-campuses-across-country.

^[252] SAR AFMP, October 29, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-10-29-university-of-florida/.

^[253] SAR AFMP, November 16, 2021, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-11-16-old-dominion-university/.

^[254] SAR AFMP, January 28, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-01-28-collin-college/.

^[255] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-03-07-oklahoma-christian-university/.

^[256] See Nick Anderson and Susan Svrluga, “College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory,” The Washington Post, February 19, 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/19/colleges-critical-race-theory-bills/; Colleen Flaherty, “‘An Affront to Open Discourse,’” Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2022, www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/09/aacu-and-pen-america-oppose-divisive-concepts-bans; Sylvia Goodman, “Researchers Did a Deep Dive Into Efforts to Restrict Critical Race Theory. Here’s What They Found.,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 3, 2022, www.chronicle.com/article/researchers-did-a-deep-dive-into-efforts-to-restrict-critical-race-theory-heres-what-they-found.

^[257] See PEN America Index of Educational Gag Orders, available at docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Tj5WQVBmB6SQg-zP_M8uZsQQGH09TxmBY73v23zpyr0/. See also PEN America’s report, Educational Gag Orders, available at pen.org/report/educational-gag-orders/.

^[258] Office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, “Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation to Protect Floridians from Discrimination and Woke Indoctrination,” April 22, 2022, www.flgov.com/2022/04/22/governor-ron-desantis-signs-legislation-to-protect-floridians-from-discrimination-and-woke-indoctrination/. Note: Critical Race Theory is a decades-old academic movement focusing on the relationship between race, racism, and power. It is important to note that conservative politicians in the United States often employ the label “critical race theory” broadly, going well beyond any definition that members of the academic movement of the same name would recognize. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a critical race theorist and a law professor at the University of California Los Angeles and Columbia University, has stated, “They’ve lumped everything together: critical race theory, the 1619 project, whiteness studies, talking about white privilege,” . . . “What they have in common is they are discourses that refuse to participate in the lie that America has triumphantly overcome its racist history, that everything is behind us. None of these projects accept that it’s all behind us.” See Fabiola Cineas, “Critical Race Theory, and Trump’s War On It, Explained,” Vox, September 24, 2020, www.vox.com/2020/9/24/21451220/critical-race-theory-diversity-training-trump.

^[259] Honeyfund Inc. v. DeSantis, Case No. 4:22-cv-227-MW-MAF (N.D. Fla.), p. 37, available at s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22140127/preliminary-injunction-order-honeyfund-v-desantis.pdf. See also Hank Reichman, “The First Amendment ‘Upside Down’ in Florida’s Stop WOKE Act,” Academe Blog, August 19, 2022, academeblog.org/2022/08/19/the-first-amendment-upside-down-in-floridas-stop-woke-act/.

^[260] “CNU designó nuevas autoridades de la USB con el voto salvado de las universidades autónomas,” El Carabobeño, September 16, 2021, www.el-carabobeno.com/cnu-designo-nuevas-autoridades-usb-voto-salvado-autonomas/; “CNU designó nuevas autoridades de la USB pese al voto salvado de la propia casa de estudios,” El Nacional, September 16, 2021, www.elnacional.com/venezuela/cnu-designo-nuevas-autoridades-de-la-usb-pese-al-voto-salvado-de-la-propia-casa-de-estudios/; Karina Villarreal, “Universidad Simón Bolívar: claves para comprender la alarma ante la designación de los vicerrectores por parte del CNU,” El Nacional, September 17, 2021, www.elnacional.com/venezuela/universidad-simon-bolivar-claves-para-comprender-la-alarma-ante-la-designacion-de-los-vicerrectores-por-parte-del-cnu/.

^[261] Karina Villarreal (September 18, 2021).

^[262] For a summary of the reforms (in Spanish), see Asamblea Nacional, “Exposición de motivos del proyecto de reforma de ley orgánica de ciencia, tecnologia e innovacion,” www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/storage/documentos/leyes/ley-de-reforma-parcial-del-decreto-con-rango-valor-y-fuerza-de-ley-organica-de-ciencia-tecnologia-e-innovacion-20220318163210.pdf. Analysis can found at Daniel Bustamante, “Reforma a la Ley Orgánica de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación politiza y centraliza aún más la investigación,” April 19, 2022, www.analitica.com/actualidad/actualidad-nacional/educacion/reforma-a-la-ley-organica-de-ciencia-tecnologia-e-innovacion-politiza-y-centraliza-aun-mas-la-investigacion/; Espacio Publico, “Analysis of the reform project of the Organic Law of Science, Technology and Innovation,” May 16, 2022, espaciopublico.ong/analisis-de-la-reforma-de-la-ley-organica-de-ciencia-tecnologia-e-innovacion/

^[263] “Alertan que reforma a la Ley Orgánica de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación politiza y centraliza aún más la investigación,” Monitoreamos, April 19, 2022, monitoreamos.com/venezuela/alertan-que-reforma-a-la-ley-organica-de-ciencia-tecnologia-e-innovacion-politiza-y-centraliza-aun-mas-la-investigacion.

^[264] Alejandro Gutiérrez S., Rafael Almeida, Mayda Hocevar, Ramón Pino, Raúl Estévez, Oscar Aguilera, and Inés Lares, “Estudio de la propuesta de Reforma de la Ley Orgánica de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación 2021.”

^[265] “Profesor Lusbi Portillo acude a la Fiscalía General de la Nación a exigir se le investigue,” Aporrea, September 4, 2021, www.aporrea.org/ddhh/n367530.html.

^[266] “Con El Mazo Dando – Programa 378,” March 16, 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqk5u8B_91I; and Leonardo Garcia, “Médicos Unidos rechaza ofensas de Cabello: Ocultaron y manipularon cifras de Covid-19 a su conveniencia,” Noticiero Digital, March 17, 2022, noticierodigital.com/2022/03/medicos-unidos-rechaza-ofensas-de-cabello-ocultaron-y-manipularon-cifras-de-covid-19-a-su-conveniencia/.

^[267] “Presupuesto 2022 no cubre funcionamiento de universidades autónomas,” Notas Administrativas, January 22, 2022, notiadmin.ucv.ve/?p=11874; “Aula Abierta: La ULA no recibe ni el 1% del presupuesto para su funcionamiento,” El Nacional, September 11, 2022, www.elnacional.com/venezuela/aula-abierta-la-ula-no-recibe-ni-el-1-del-presupuesto-para-su-funcionamiento/; and Juan Carlos Navarro, “Latin America University Rankings 2022: down but not out – a view from Venezuela,” July 12, 2022, www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latin-america-university-rankings-2022-down-not-out-view-venezuela.

^[268] Kharelys Mendez, “UCV INDIGENTE: 12.000 dólares mensuales salvarían sus instalaciones de las ruinas +Fotos, “ September 2, 2021, www.caraotadigital.net/venezuela/ucv-indigente-12-000-dolares-mensuales-salvarian-sus-instalaciones; and Caroline Mayor, “¿Por qué alertan que las universidades en Venezuela están en riesgo?,” Voice of America, February 21, 2022, www.vozdeamerica.com/a/venezuela-universidades-en-riesgo/6452050.html.

^[269] Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes (ODHULA), “Reporte mensual: Situación de las universidades en Venezuela. Marzo 2022,” April 3, 2022, www.uladdhh.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/3.-Reporte-marzo-2022-SITUACION-DE-LAS-UNIVERSIDADES-EN-VENEZUELA.pdf

^[270] “Los docentes venezolanos viven en “condiciones infrahumanas”, según oposición,” La Vanguardia, February 2, 2022, www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20220202/8028033/docentes-venezolanos-viven-condiciones-infrahumanas-oposicion.html.

^[271] Stephania Taladrid, “Aging and Abandoned in Venezuela’s Failing State,” The New Yorker, April 12, 2022, www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/aging-and-abandoned-in-venezuelas-failing-state.

^[272] See Caroline Mayor (February 21, 2022).

The data reflected in Free to Think 2022 presents a distressing phenomenon of attacks on higher education communities around the world. Violent attacks on the university space; wrongful imprisonments and prosecutions; the use of force against students; terminations and expulsions; travel restrictions; threats to institutional autonomy; and other pressures violate the rights and safety of countless individuals. These attacks undermine academic freedom and the right to ideas, and they deprive society of the benefits provided by quality higher education.

Recognizing these incidents—despite variations in target, type of attack, and location—as a single global phenomenon is a critical first step in devising solutions. The next step is to encourage a robust response at the international and state levels, from within higher education itself, and from civil society and the public at large. While action may look different for different parties, everyone has the capacity to help. SAR invites readers to consider the following opportunities to act and to propose their own novel approaches.

Intergovernmental Organizations

Intergovernmental, regional, and supranational bodies should develop policies, structures, and guidelines to protect and promote academic freedom regionally and globally. For example, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in coordination with a Specialized Academic Network of university and NGO partners, released in December 2021 a set of Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy.^[1] The IACHR and regional advocacy partners are now focused on the practical implementation of these Principles at the international, national, local, and institutional levels.^[2] In 2021, the European Union introduced a new recital into the rules for participation in Horizon Europe (the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion) stipulating that “the Programme should promote the respect of academic freedom in all countries benefiting from its funds.”^[3] In January 2022, the European Commission released a working document with guidelines on dealing with foreign interference targeting EU research organizations and higher education institutions.^[4]

Through multistate bodies or supranational groups, states should join together to provide funding opportunities to support higher education institutions, NGOs, and other organizations seeking to help at-risk scholars and students. For example, the EU-funded Inspireurope+ project is a multi-partner initiative coordinated by SAR Europe to strengthen support in Europe for researchers at risk. In July 2022, as part of the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission announced MSCA4Ukraine, a €25 million fellowship program for displaced researchers from Ukraine.^[5]

States

States should raise awareness of attacks on higher education by publicly acknowledging them, including through written statements. States should, for example, consider hosting high-profile side events on academic freedom at state convenings, such as part of the UN Human Rights Council.

Governments should assess their own country’s respect for academic freedom by consulting the Academic Freedom Index (AFi), a research tool co-developed by the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the V-Dem Institute, the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI), and SAR that measures levels of respect for academic freedom in 177 countries and territories. The AFi aims to inform stakeholders, provide monitoring yardsticks, alter incentive structures, challenge university rankings, facilitate research, and ultimately promote academic freedom. The annual AFi report has already been widely cited by media, academics, policymakers, and inter-state agencies. States should consult Free Universities: Putting the Academic Freedom Index Into Action, a joint report by GPPI and SAR that introduces the AFi, for guidance on interpreting and using the data to safeguard and strengthen respect for academic freedom and institutional autonomy and, in doing so, improving higher education quality.^[6]

States should highlight attacks on higher education within their own reporting on human rights issues, nationally and internationally. The United States Department of State, for example, includes a section on “Academic Freedom and Cultural Events” within their annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.^[7]

States should publicly commit to protecting higher education from attack by endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, through which states express political support for and commit to implementing the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict.^[8] States that have already endorsed the Declaration—114 as of this report—should encourage the rest of the international community to take this step.

States should further express concern about attacks on higher education communities through inquiries posed to other states regarding national conditions for academic freedom and higher education. The UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States and invites states to comment on or inquire into other states’ efforts to protect higher education communities. SAR routinely participates in the UPR process, urging states to ask questions of states under review about recent attacks on higher education or academic freedom-related concerns, and seeking formal state recommendations to their peers in support of academic freedom. This past year, SAR made submissions, including Academic Freedom Monitoring Project data, regarding Brazil,^[9] India (in partnership with McGill University’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism),^[10] Indonesia (in partnership with the Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom – KIKA),^[11] Israel,^[12] and Pakistan. In February 2020, six states made recommendations regarding academic freedom and protections for academics as part of Turkey’s review.

States should also review reports on topics related to academic freedom and share findings with government counterparts and the public. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression presented a report on academic freedom to the 75^th Session of the General Assembly in October 2020.^[13] The report describes the legal framework around academic freedom, the various forms of restrictions and attacks on academic freedom, and recommendations for states, international organizations, the higher education community, and civil society. The Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy lays out a similar framework to the one in the UN Special Rapporteur’s report.^[14] States should work with civil society and intergovernmental organizations to support the principles and respond to and implement the recommendations in both reports.

Where possible, states or state agencies should establish funding mechanisms to support at-risk or displaced scholars and students. Several national efforts—the Philipp Schwartz Initiative and the Hilde Domin Programme in Germany, the PAUSE program in France, the Students-at-Risk program in Norway, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida)-funded program for researchers from Afghanistan in Sweden, and a human rights defenders stream of the Government-Assisted Refugees Program in Canada—offer direct funding to scholars and students to continue their academic work in safety.^[15]

Higher Education Institutions

Universities, colleges, and community colleges should join the SAR Network to demonstrate solidarity for colleagues worldwide who suffer direct attacks, and to contribute to efforts to address the causes of and the fallout from attacks on higher education.

Institutions should support scholars impacted by attacks by offering positions of academic refuge to these individuals through SAR, the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), PAUSE, the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, or similar programs. This past year, SAR members created more than 170 temporary positions in response to events facing scholars around the world, including the situations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Ukraine. Sixty of these positions were for scholars from Afghanistan. Institutions can also offer remote fellowships to scholars unable to travel, or to those seeking to remain in-country. For example, with funding from three private foundations, Universities Denmark launched a fellowship program including remote options for researchers still in Ukraine.^[16]

Leaders of higher education institutions should condemn attacks on the sector, regardless of where they occur. In doing so, higher education leaders prevent the normalization of attacks, signaling that an attack on one scholar is an attack on all.

Institutions should promote understanding and respect for core higher education values like academic freedom, institutional autonomy, accountability, equitable access, and social responsibility, including by proactively developing a set of ritualizing practices on their campuses. This means creating and repeating regular, visible, and meaningful opportunities for everyone to discuss these values and their meaning in practice in the community. SAR can help with materials for trainings and workshops on academic freedom.

Higher education institutions and national and regional higher education networks, such as national SAR sections, should also speak out about attacks and the need to protect at-risk scholars, including by addressing concerns to relevant state and non-state stakeholders. For example, the rector of Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria has repeatedly called for the release of Ahmed Samir Santawy, a postgraduate student at CEU who had been imprisoned in Egypt since February 1, 2021. On July 30, 2022, Mr. Santawy was released from prison by a presidential pardon; as of this report, he is subject to a travel ban, restricting him from leaving Egypt and returning to Vienna to resume his studies. In August 2021, following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, SAR Canada issued a statement urging the Canadian government and higher education institutions to “take action to secure the lives and careers of Afghanistan’s scholars, students, and civil society actors.”

Associations, Societies, and Research Organizations

Associations, societies, and research organizations should seek opportunities to engage displaced or at-risk scholars in their activities. The American Chemical Society (ACS), for example, announced in April 2022 a pilot program that provides SAR and IIE-SRF scholars access to ACS products, programs, and services, including membership, in an effort to help chemistry scholars and practitioners be successful in their new locations.

Associations, societies, and research organizations should help scholars in their own fields access relocation and other support and, similarly, help their members access information on supporting these scholars. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) launched a Safe Passage Fund to support the Polish Academy of Sciences as it helps fleeing Ukrainian scholars and their families relocate in Poland and neighboring countries. In March and April 2022, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies organized a series of webinars on hosting at-risk scholars from Ukraine, and published a webpage with resources for scholars seeking help.

Associations, societies, and research organizations should conduct and encourage research into the root causes of attacks on higher education and efforts to protect academic freedom. The Global Observatory on Academic Freedom (GOAF), housed at Central European University in Austria, for example, conducts and organizes research on “rethinking the concept of academic freedom, a concept whose crisis we are witnessing throughout the world.” GOAF is also conducting a Global Mapping of Regulatory Frameworks on Academic Freedom, a compendium of legal frameworks that includes a searchable database of legislation on academic freedom. Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Research and Education in ASEAN/Southeast Asia (SHAPE-SEA), housed at Thailand’s Mahidol University, brings together scholars to encourage research and hold discussions on regional academic freedom concerns, promote academic freedom in the region, and support at-risk members of the higher education community.

Associations and societies should engage in advocacy to advance academic freedom at the institutional, national, regional, and international levels. The Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA), for example, is a hemisphere-wide effort led by SAR, the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre, and the University of Monterrey, Mexico, that seeks to increase awareness and advocacy in defense of academic freedom across the Americas, aimed at developing and concretizing relevant human rights standards, both as a means of protecting higher education spaces in the western hemisphere and modeling best practices elsewhere.^[17] Over the past year, CAFA has organized webinars to identify key opportunities and concerns in the region, and will host its inaugural conference in Monterrey, Mexico, in November 2022. SAR Europe convenes the European Coordinating Committee for Academic Freedom Advocacy, whose aim is to coordinate advocacy aimed at strengthening respect for and encouraging action to protect academic freedom within and outside Europe.^[18] Membership comprises a broad set of key actors, including representatives from human rights and related NGOs, universities, associations, and higher education networks across Europe. In May 2022, the Indonesian Caucus for Academic Freedom (KIKA) and SAR made a joint submission to the UN’s UPR review of Indonesia, detailing threats to academic freedom in the country. In August 2022, a KIKA representative and SAR traveled to Geneva to meet with states on the issue. Beginning in October 2022, the European Students’ Union (ESU) is organizing “Academic Freedom – Time to Act!,” a series of workshops that aim to deepen knowledge on defending, monitoring, and promoting academic freedom at the European, national, or local levels. Following these workshops, participants will develop advocacy plans to promote academic freedom within their own higher education sectors and institutions.

Faculty and Students

Faculty should include academic freedom in their course curricula. For example, faculty at the University of Trento, Italy developed a module–including a course, public events, and workshops–on the state of academic freedom in Europe.

Faculty, staff, and students should learn more about academic freedom, including by enrolling in courses at their own institutions. In January 2022, the University College Cork, Ireland introduced a module on “The Idea of the University and the Value of Academic Freedom” including 12 seminars on academic freedom-related topics. The free online course, “Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters,” is available to everyone and explores the meaning of academic freedom and how it relates to other core higher education values.^[19]

Law faculty can lead Academic Freedom Legal Clinics, through which students engage governmental mechanisms to report on and seek interventions regarding attacks on the higher education community, holding governments accountable for their actions and words in support of–or against–increased protections for academic freedom. Clinics contribute to monitoring and reporting in partnership with SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project and conduct legal analysis at the local, regional, or global level, or advocacy in response to particular attacks. Clinics have developed submissions for the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Universal Periodic Review process, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, among others.

Faculty at SAR member institutions can also lead Student Advocacy Seminars, through which students conduct research and advocacy in support of a wrongfully imprisoned scholar or student. This past year, over 320 students from 16 seminars acted in support of 10 Scholars in Prison cases.^[20] Through organizing awareness-raising advocacy initiatives, developing reports, and partnering with seminars at other campuses, students gain a deeper understanding of the value of the academic freedom they enjoy and the risks scholars and students around the world face in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Students also have the chance to put their advocacy skills into practice at SAR’s Student Advocacy Days. Students participated in virtual presentations and workshops as part of Student Advocacy Days in Canada and Europe, and traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in in-person trainings and meetings with US Congressional offices. By engaging in these experiential activities, faculty train the next generation of human rights and higher education defenders through hands-on research and advocacy work.

Faculty and researchers can support at-risk or displaced scholars on campus by serving on a SAR committee at their institution, through which they provide assistance to hosted scholars and seek opportunities to engage them in on-campus activities.

Student groups and academic departments can invite threatened scholars to speak to the campus community, including virtually, through the Vivian G. Prins/Scholars at Risk Speaker Series, a speakers’ bureau that provides higher education institutions the opportunity to learn from current and formerly at-risk scholars.

Media

The media has a central role in raising awareness about the phenomenon of attacks on the higher education sector through investigative reporting, interviews, and public discussions.

In addition to documenting attacks, members of the press can explain the causes and impacts of such attacks beyond their direct victims, including impacts on cross-border education and research, and on the economic, political, and security conditions in the countries and territories in which attacks occur.

Press and artistic freedom advocates can partner with SAR on advocacy initiatives that seek greater protections for the intellectual, creative, and expressive freedoms these groups need to thrive.

Civil Society and the Public

Attacks on higher education shrink the space for everyone to think, question, and share ideas. Civil society and members of the public should actively support academic freedom. For example, the UK-based Academic Freedom and Internationalisation Working Group is a coalition of concerned academics, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group, and relevant civil society representatives focused on strengthening protection for academic freedom and scholars exercising it within the context of the internationalization of UK higher education.

Civil society and the public should learn more about academic freedom. One way is by enrolling in “Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters,” a free online course.

Those in industry or other nonacademic research careers can offer expertise and employment opportunities to displaced scholars through programs, trainings, and workshops such as those organized by Inspireurope.

Everyone can play a key awareness-raising role over social media by sharing Free to Think 2022, using the hashtags #AcademicFreedom and #Free2Think2022 in their posts, following @ScholarsAtRisk on Twitter and Facebook, and reposting SAR’s social media posts.

^[1] Organization of American States, “IACHR Issues Declaration of Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy,” December 9, 2021, www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/331.asp.

^[2] See Organization of American States, “IACHR Announces Selection of Academic Centers and Universities for the Second Academic Network,” July 12, 2022, www.oas.org/en/IACHR/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2022/155.asp.

^[3] See Regulation (EU) 2021/695 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing Horizon Europe – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, laying down its rules for participation and dissemination, and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1290/2013 and (EU) No 1291/2013, OJ L 170, 12.5.2021, p. 1.

^[4] See Publications Office of the European Union, “Tackling R&I foreign interference,” op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-law-and-publications/publication-detail/-/publication/3faf52e8-79a2-11ec-9136-01aa75ed71a1 (January 18, 2022).

^[5] See SAR Europe, “MSCA4Ukraine,” sareurope.eu/msca4ukraine/.

^[6] See Katrin Kinzelbach, Ilyas Saliba, Janika Spannagel, and Robert Quinn, Free Universities: Putting the Academic Freedom Index Into Action (March 2021), www.gppi.net/media/KinzelbachEtAl_2021_Free_Universities_AFi-2020.pdf; and Global Public Policy Institute, “The Academic Freedom Index Explained,” August 10, 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTPYMUU-xQ.

^[7] For more details and for the most recent set of reports, see www.state.gov/reports-bureau-of-democracy-human-rights-and-labor/country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/.

^[8] See GCGPEA, “Safe Schools Declaration and Guidelines on Military Use,” protectingeducation.org/gcpea-publications/safe-schools-declaration-and-guidelines-on-military-use/.

^[9] SAR, “Brazil: Decline in Academic Freedom Requires UN’s Attention,” April 20, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/04/brazil-decline-in-academic-freedom-requires-uns-attention/.

^[10] SAR, “Repression of Anti-CAA Protesters and Kashmiri Community Mar Academic Freedom Conditions in India,” May 26, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/05/repression-of-anti-caa-protesters-and-kashmiri-community-mar-academic-freedom-conditions-in-india/.

^[11] SAR, “Repression of Indonesia’s Higher Education Community Threatens Future Progress,” May 17, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/05/repression-of-indonesias-higher-education-community-threatens-future-progress/.

^[12] SAR, “Israel: SAR files submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review,” October 11, 2022,  www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/10/israel-sar-files-submission-to-the-un-universal-periodic-review/.

^[13]  David Kaye, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye,” July 28, 2020, digitallibrary.un.org/record/3883914?ln=en.

^[14] Organization of American States, “IACHR Issues Declaration of Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy,” December 9, 2021, www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/331.asp.

^[15] Learn more about these programs on the following websites: Philipp Schwartz Initiative (www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/philipp-schwartz-initiative); Hilde Domin Programme (www.daad.de/en/study-and-research-in-germany/ scholarships/hilde-domin-programm/); PAUSE program (www.programmepause.fr); Students-at-Risk (www.studentsatrisk.no); Swedish International Development Agency’s temporary academic sanctuary program (www.gu.se/en/news/researchers-from-afghanistan-receive-academic-sanctuaries-in-sweden); Canada’s Government-Assisted Refugees Program (www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2021/07/ providing-protection-to-human-rights-defenders-at-risk.html).

^[16] The Scholars at Risk Denmark Section’s “call for applications” is now closed. For a posting advertising the “call for applications,” visit euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/827836.

^[17] Visit www.udem.edu.mx/en/institutional/coalition-academic-freedom-americas-cafa.

^[18] Visit sareurope.eu/what-we-do/promote-academic-freedom/european-advocacy-committee/.

^[19] The online course was created by SAR and the University of Oslo as part of an Erasmus+-funded “Academic Refuge” project. Visit www.futurelearn.com/courses/academic-freedom/.

^[20] See our inaugural Student Advocacy Seminar end-of-year report: SAR, “SAR Student Advocacy Seminars Advocated for 10 Unjustly Imprisoned Scholars and Students in the 2021-22 Year,” October 6, 2022, www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/10/sar-student-advocacy-seminars-advocated-for-10-unjustly-imprisoned-scholars-and-students-in-the-2021-22-year/

Free to Think 2022 demonstrates a global problem of attacks on higher education. These attacks are diverse in their form, perpetrator, and immediate impact, but they all share a motivation to punish and silence ideas. If we value new voices and ideas, if we embrace higher education as an engine for economic, social, political, and cultural development, we must act.

We have the capacity. Existing legal standards protect academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and other core higher education values.

We must have the will. Working with partners in government, higher education, and civil society around the world, we must apply and strengthen those standards, to demand accountability for violations and to prevent future attacks.

We must do more. Securing the future of academic freedom and higher education demands greater ingenuity and engagement from all sectors of society. SAR calls on everyone to join us in protecting those at risk, promoting academic freedom, and defending everyone’s freedom to think, question, and share ideas.

The Scholars at Risk (SAR) Academic Freedom Monitoring Project aims to identify, assess, and track incidents involving one or more of six types of conduct that may constitute violations of academic freedom and/or the human rights of members of higher education communities. 

The Monitoring Project is led by SAR staff working in partnership with higher education professionals, researchers, students participating in SAR’s Academic Freedom Legal Clinics, and advocates around the world serving as volunteer researchers. Anonymity of researchers is maintained where warranted by personal security or other concerns.

Monitoring Project staff and volunteer researchers identify and research incidents based on a system developed by SAR. Volunteer researchers may focus on researching a particular country or region for which they have expertise. All reports are reviewed by SAR secretariat staff before they are published to the Monitoring Project website. Volunteers also work with SAR to advise and develop advocacy responses to patterns of attacks found at the country level as well as severe, acute pressures on higher education communities.

The Monitoring Project reports incidents involving six types of conduct:

Killings/Violence/Disappearances

Relevant incidents include killings and disappearances either in retaliation for particular academic content or conduct, or the targeting of members of higher education communities, including higher education leaders, faculty, staff, and students. Disappearance includes arrest, detention, abduction, or other deprivation of liberty by government or quasi-government officials, or by groups or individuals acting on behalf of, or with support, consent, or acquiescence of the government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law. Violence includes violent physical assaults causing serious harm to individual members of higher education communities, including beatings, shootings, or other injuries with weapons, and torture, as well as threats of violence.

Wrongful Imprisonment

Relevant incidents include the arrest, interrogation, detention, and/or prosecution of scholars, students, or other members of higher education communities on false or otherwise wrongful grounds or charges, directly relating to, or in retaliation for, the expression of academic opinions or other professional or student activity, as well as in retaliation against other exercise of fundamental human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of association. The latter may include incidents of scholars, students, or other members of higher education communities engaging in protected free expression, such as writing a letter to a newspaper or participating in a protest rally, even if such letter or rally is unrelated to the individual’s higher education sector status. (These incidents may not qualify as violations of academic freedom directly, but may still constitute violations of the human rights of members of higher education communities which in turn may indirectly impair academic freedom.)

Wrongful Prosecution

Relevant incidents include administrative, civil, or criminal proceedings against higher education leaders, academic and nonacademic staff, or higher education students involving false or otherwise wrongful grounds or charges directly relating to, or in retaliation for, the expression of academic opinions or other professional or student activity, or in retaliation for other exercise of fundamental human rights including freedom of expression and freedom of association. (Note that charges may be grounded in local law but nevertheless violate recognized international human rights standards because they punish protected activity.) Relevant incidents may also include, among others, proceedings for so-called “reputational harms” (e.g. ‘insulting the State’ or ‘offending national leaders’) which may subject individuals to substantial monetary penalties or imprisonment, restrictions on travel during pendency of any action or after conviction, bankruptcy, loss of political rights (including right to hold or run for elective office) and loss of position at state enterprises, including universities. Also included should be documented incidents where state or other entities use the threat of defamation or similar legal action to intimidate and silence academic personnel or students, even if such an action is never formally commenced (e.g., a state minister makes a public speech threatening prosecution of a scholar or expulsion of students for publishing an article). Such proceedings may be brought on behalf of individuals and institutions including governments and other state entities (such as the military), officials, private citizens, state religions, and nations themselves. When reporting on incidents of this type, researchers are encouraged to identify and if possible attach copies of the legal provisions providing the basis for any charges or threatened charges and evidence, such as any photographs of incidents or copies of any allegedly offending statements or publications.

Travel Restrictions

Relevant incidents include improper travel restrictions on higher education leaders, academic and nonacademic staff, and higher education students in connection with academic content or conduct. These include, but are not limited to, legal, administrative, or physical restrictions on travel within a state; restrictions on travel between states; arbitrary restrictions on a scholar or student’s ability to obtain a visa or other entry or exit documents; denial of future permissions for travel; and retaliation for attempting to travel or after return from travel. Travel restrictions may be imposed by government authorities of the scholar or student’s home state, government authorities of the state to be visited, and/or higher education institutions, leadership or professional associations.

Loss of Position

Relevant incidents involving higher education leaders or academic staff include discharge, demotion, loss of promotion or other professional penalty for a scholar’s academic work and exercise of other fundamental human rights, including statements made in the classroom, writings, research, professional association/union activity, engagement with (and criticism of) higher education leadership or education policy, etc. Relevant incidents involving students include dismissal or expulsion from studies based on academic work or student activities, including statements made in the classroom, writings, research, student association/union activity, engagement with (and criticism of) higher education leadership or education policy, etc. The offending penalties may be imposed by state authorities, higher education institutions, or other higher education-related authorities.

Other Incidents

Researchers are encouraged to report incidents which do not fit squarely within one or more of the five defined types of conduct yet are of such importance, scale, scope, and/or duration that they have already, or have the potential to impair significantly higher education functions, academic freedom, or the exercise of human rights by members of higher education communities. Such incidents may include occupation or closing of higher education campuses; destruction of higher education facilities, materials, or infrastructures; systematic or prolonged harassment or threats against members of higher education communities; systematic limits on access to higher education; and/or systematic discrimination based on gender, race or other grounds in access to, employment within, or other elements relating to higher education. The “other” type acknowledges that it is not easy to anticipate all relevant types of attacks that the Monitoring Project might expose and leaves room for researchers to include significant incidents that do not fit squarely elsewhere. Over time, regular reports of similar kinds of conduct in the “other” type may justify adding an additional delimited type.

Volunteer researchers submit reports to SAR on a rolling basis. Volunteers are encouraged to focus on the defined types of attacks, but are also instructed to exercise an “inclusion preference,” reporting corroborated incidents that may be difficult to fit within the aforementioned types, but that raise significant concerns about the security and freedom of higher education communities. This allows the broadest collection of initial data, data that over time will help support analysis of scope and frequency. In all cases, SAR staff provide a secondary level of review and work within the limits of available resources, and with individual monitors, to corroborate reported incidents and to evaluate when an incident rises to the level of reportable “attack” for project purposes. Sources typically include local, national, and international media outlets and, where possible, primary sources such as interviews with victims, witnesses, or bystanders, and court, government, or university documents. Incidents corroborated by sufficient reliable sources are deemed “verified” and published as warranting public attention, including via email digests, website, social media, and summary reports.

Incident reports, links, and references are provided to assist users in evaluating alleged reports and do not necessarily represent the views of SAR, volunteer researchers, or respective members and partners of the SAR Network. SAR will not knowingly report or disseminate information that is false or uncorroborated. SAR welcomes submissions of additional corroborating, clarifying, or contradictory information that may be used to further research or otherwise improve data reported.

The below table includes 391 attacks arising from 318 verified incidents in 65 countries and territories, as reported by Scholars at Risk’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project from September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022. Note that the total number of attacks exceeds the total number of incidents reported because one incident may involve more than one type of conduct.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) gratefully acknowledges the members of higher education communities worldwide who have inspired us through their courage and dedication. We acknowledge especially the researchers contributing to the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project by reporting and analyzing incidents, and helping to develop advocacy responses, and to everyone who provided information, drafted text, and offered important feedback on the countries highlighted in this summary and in the full online edition of Free to Think 2022. We thank the Office of the Provost and New York University for hosting SAR, Maynooth University, Ireland, for hosting SAR Europe, and the many other member institutions, associations, partners, and individuals that contribute to our work beyond the monitoring project. These include especially the Vivian G. Prins Foundation for core support for services for threatened and refugee scholars, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Foundations, the Mellon Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Winston Foundation, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the Microsoft Corporation, Freedom House, our anonymous donors, the members of SAR’s Board and Ambassadors Council, and the many friends of SAR who help us each day to protect more scholars.

This report is the result of research conducted by the monitoring project and our publication partners, and thus may not reflect the views of individual network members, institutions, or participating individuals. SAR invites comments on this report or inquiries about our work at scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu.

For use or information, contact Scholars at Risk at scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu.

Report graphics and layout by Susannah Hainley.

Cover/Hero Image: The Faculty of Economics building at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University was destroyed by a missile fired by Russian armed forces on March 2, 2022. Higher education institutions have suffered significant damage since Russia’s invasion in late February 2022. Photo: GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images.