2023
Free to Think
Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project
Executive Summary
Around the world, scholars and university students face frequent and pervasive attacks on their academic freedom and the autonomy of the institutions where they work. They occur in closed, authoritarian societies, where dissent is viewed as destabilizing and the right to think and speak freely is routinely oppressed; and in situations of armed conflict and political crisis, where particular forms of higher education may come under attack. They are also becoming troublingly common in open, democratic, stable societies, where illiberal actors are using the language of rights, freedom, and excellence to push forward their own agendas and erode academic freedom and the autonomy of higher education institutions.
These attacks imperil both the lives and livelihoods of scholars and students. They upend scholars’ careers, jeopardize students’ futures, and they result in death, injuries, and the deprivation of liberty. Even more, they threaten the foundations of democratic society and social progress. They shrink the space for free discussion and the sharing of ideas, and they degrade the quality of teaching, research, and discourse on campus. 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: the suppression of dissent and spread of illiberalism
Free to Think 2023 documents 409 attacks on scholars, students, and their institutions in 66 countries and territories, from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.[1] It highlights situations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Mexico, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States.
During the reporting period, violent and coercive attacks tore apart higher education communities, disrupting academic activity, and undermining academic freedom and institutional autonomy, making them the most concerning trends from this reporting period. Foremost among such attacks was Iran’s violent response to nationwide protests that followed the death on September 16, 2022, of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the “morality police” for allegedly not wearing her hijab in compliance with government standards. The Iranian government has long suppressed dissent among scholars and students;[2] however, the new movement that emerged during autumn 2022 has been the longest, continuous protest of the past forty years, and the Iranian regime’s response to it has been extreme.[3] Hundreds of students have been arrested, imprisoned, suspended, or expelled—some facing multiple penalties—and dozens of professors have been fired.[4] Many of those scholars not fired for their political dissent or their support for protesting students have resigned their positions in protest, fled the country, or been silenced into self-censorship; many have been replaced by government supporters.[5]
Crackdowns also occurred in China, where the government used an extensive surveillance apparatus, including student informants, to suppress dissent both at home and abroad.[6] In Afghanistan, the Taliban enacted a full ban on women’s higher education, including barring women from taking university entrance exams.[7] Taliban forces responded with repression and violence to students and professors who protested their educational policies,[8] including by evicting female students from their dorms in one case,[9] by locking them in their dorms in another,[10] and by arresting or killing scholars who vocalized their opposition.[11] In Myanmar, armed conflict and political arrest—ongoing since a February 2021 coup ushered in a new military junta—have devastated the higher education sector. Students and scholars involved in the political opposition faced arrests and detentions, and the junta issued severe sentences—including death, life imprisonment, decades-long sentences, some including hard labor—to those arrested previously.[12]
The spread of illiberalism was also among the most significant threats to scholars and academics. Around the world, executive authorities and lawmakers used the powers of their respective offices in ways that undermine institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and quality higher education. While such efforts did not necessarily target individual scholars or students, they laid the groundwork for attacks on higher education by providing a veneer of legitimacy for curtailing and punishing those who engaged in disfavored academic work or expression. Perhaps nowhere among open societies was this trend more striking than in the United States, where lawmakers at the state level pushed forward legislation intended to limit teaching and research, particularly that related to race, diversity, equity and inclusion, and gender.[13] In other open societies, including in Japan,[14] Australia,[15] and Sweden,[16] lawmakers advanced efforts to constrain the autonomy of academic institutions. In Hungary, illiberal trends affected higher education. The government used pension funds as an incentive to entice academics to work at private institutions where they could be fired at will, exerting pressure on them to self-censor and undermining academic freedom.[17]
In more closed contexts, governments used their powers to control higher education even more directly by closing or seizing control of universities. In Nicaragua, state authorities seized control of the Universidad Juan Pablo II and the Universidad Cristiana Autónoma de Nicaragua, both institutions affiliated with the Catholic church.[18] These attacks followed a pattern of similar seizures, which SAR has documented since 2021.[19] In March 2023, Russia’s government labeled the Moscow Free University as “undesirable,” a legal designation that opened the university and its staff members to sanctions. The designation prompted the university’s closure for the safety of its faculty, staff, and students.[20]
Scholars were targeted for killing because of their academic work. In Mexico, unidentified attackers killed two environmentalists and researchers working in Tlalmanalco de Velázquez, Mexico. The attacks occurred within hours of each other.[21] At Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan, an unidentified individual violently attacked Shinji Miyadai, a sociology professor well known for his research and public commentary on the Aum Shrinrikyo doomsday cult and the Unification Church, which has strong ties to the country’s ruling party.[22]
Higher education institutions experienced violent attacks in the context of new and continuing armed conflicts. In April 2023, a civil war broke out between two branches of the state security forces in Sudan—the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Amidst the violence, higher education institutions experienced widespread looting, bombings, and closures,[23] in one case, destroying a trove of important cultural, historical, and political documents on Sudan.[24] Ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine resulted in both targeted and indiscriminate destruction to education facilities. By mid-January 2023, around 90 separate missiles had struck universities since the beginning of the conflict.[25] In Afghanistan, institutions of higher education experienced deadly attacks. In September 2022, a suicide bomber killed 53 students and injured 110 others at the Kaaj Educational Center in Kabul. Most of those killed or injured were girls and young women from ethnic minority Hazara community, which has long been persecuted by both the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province.[26] In Somalia, the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab killed 121 people and wounded hundreds of others in two car bombings targeting the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Education.[27] Unidentified individuals struck universities with explosives, arson, and other weapons in Colombia: for instance, in February 2023, a group of hooded individuals detonated small explosive devices at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, causing the suspension of classes and injuring two people.[28] In Ethiopia, airstrikes by government military forces injured one person and damaged facilities at Mekelle University in September 2022 during ongoing fighting in the Tigray region.[29]
State authorities detained, prosecuted, and used other coercive legal measures to punish and restrict scholars’ academic activity, extramural expression, and associations. Undercover police in the Philippines arrested Melania Flores, a professor at the University of the Philippines and the immediate former president of the All UP Academic Employees Union, at her on-campus residence on spurious charges that she had failed to remit a former home helper’s social security contributions. The charges were later dismissed after state pension authorities indicated that they no longer wished to pursue the case.[30] Belarusian authorities detained several dozen employees of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) who allegedly participated in a Telegram group chat called “scientists against violence,” which the Belarusian government has labeled “extremist.”[31] In South Korea, police searched the property of Dae-il Jeong—who researches North Korean Juche ideology at the Korea Institute for National Unification—and confiscated Jeong’s cellphone, computers, research materials, and a copy of a memoir written by former North Korean President Kim Il-sung.[32]
Again, as in Free to Think 2022, attacks on student expression were among the most frequent forms of attacks reported in the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, comprising roughly 47 percent of this year’s incidents. In addition to the widespread violence against persecution of students in Iran, discussed above, state security forces in Sri Lanka fired teargas and water cannons at students peacefully demonstrating against the imprisonment of their peers. In one case, this use of force was deadly, killing a campus security guard.[33] In India, police and security forces arrested students at Jamia Millia Islamia University and the University of Delhi for screening the banned BBC documentary, The Modi Question,[34] and higher education authorities suspended students who tried to show the film at Central University of Rajasthan and at the University of Delhi.[35] In another case, police forces detained the president and secretary of the University of Delhi branch of the All India Students Association in their homes during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apparently to prevent them from “creating a ruckus” or threatening the Prime Minister.[36] In Turkey, as during the previous reporting period, police forcibly prevented student expression, particularly that relating to LGBTQIA+ rights.[37] At Dhamar University in Yemen, the administration dismissed six students from the mechatronics department at the Faculty of Engineering after they protested issues including Houthi interference in the university.[38]
At the same time, student expression sometimes turned violent, with students attacking members of the higher education community or campus property. In Bangladesh, as reported in previous years, members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League—the student wing of the ruling party—frequently intimidated and beat other students in apparent retaliation for and to deter expression with which they disagreed.[39] In one case, members of the BCL assaulted a candidate for a teaching position at Chittagong University because they opposed his appointment.[40] A week later, they vandalized the office of the same university’s vice chancellor in retaliation for their preferred candidate not being appointed to a teaching position in the marine science department.[41] Students have also, at times, created enough disruption to prevent speakers on campus. In Australia, for instance, students shouted loudly enough to prevent the former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull from speaking at an event hosted by the Law Society at the University of Sydney. The in-person event was canceled and moved online.[42]
Higher education authorities in places across the world took disciplinary actions against faculty and students for their academic work, views, and extramural expressive activities. In addition to firing dozens of scholars in Iran, as mentioned above, in the United States, a number of professors lost their positions in apparent retaliation for their teaching or research. For example, Hamline University rescinded an offer to adjunct professor of art history, Erika López Prater, to teach during the spring 2023 semester, after a student complained about a painting of the Prophet Mohammed that she displayed in class.[43] López Prater has stated that she displayed the painting respectfully and notified students in advance that they could step out of class if they did not wish to view it.[44] An American Association of University Professors (AAUP) investigation found that “circumstantial evidence that strongly suggest[ed]” that the university had violated López Prater’s academic freedom,[45] and López Prater later filed a lawsuit against Hamline University.[46] In June 2023, four faculty members at South Asian University in India were suspended in retaliation for their support for students protesting a reduction in stipends, provoking an international outcry.[47] In Tunisia, the University of Manouba Scientific Council of Faculty Letters, Arts and Humanities stripped Habib Kazdaghli of his emeritus professor title because of his planned participation in an international conference in Paris that Israeli academics would also attend.[48] (Kazdaghli received SAR’s Courage to Think Award in 2014 for his academic work on contemporary minority rights, including Tunisia’s Jewish community, which had made him a target for extremists.)[49]
Higher education officials likewise impeded academic freedom by canceling events or forcing them to move off campus, deterring scholarly discussion and the free exchange of ideas. The rector of the University of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo asked the organizers of two lectures by Denis Mukwege—a gynecologist, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and an expected candidate for the 2023 presidential election—to move the events off campus. Mukwege was later unable to travel to the new event location.[50] The University of Belgrade in Serbia canceled a panel on academic exchange between Kosovo and Serbia after receiving backlash because the event materials did not include an asterisk next to Kosovo, the standard way to communicate Serbia’s nonrecognition of Kosovo.[51] Officials at the Universiti Malaya in Malaysia canceled a forum on free speech on campus because of the planned participation of an alumni speaker who had engaged in an act of protest during his graduation ceremony.[52]
Governments restricted and frustrated academics’ and students’ freedom of movement through targeted actions, policies, and practices that limit the academic movement of entire communities of students and scholars. Immigration authorities in Nicaragua denied passage to a group of 35 students and professors traveling through the country from the Autonomous University of Honduras to the University of Costa Rica for a socio-cultural exchange program.[53] Algeria’s Ministry of Higher Education banned Algerian scholars from attending academic conferences in Morocco and from publishing research in Moroccan journals after a Moroccan legal and judicial studies journal, Al-Bahit, published “anti-Algerian articles.”[54] In Israel, a new bill is under consideration that would deny recognition of degrees earned in Palestinian universities,[55] thereby undermining the academic freedom of Arab citizens of Israel, among others, to choose to study at Palestinian universities.[56]
This overview illustrates the wide range of attacks targeting scholars, students, and higher education institutions globally. While they, together with the others described in this report, are only a fraction of the attacks on higher education that have occurred over the reporting period, they point to the significance of the problem. Additional evidence on the scale of such attacks can be found in the large numbers of scholars and students seeking help. Over the last year, SAR and our partners who implement scholar support programs have continued to receive high volumes of requests for assistance, including but not limited to those seeking to escape the crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Myanmar, and Yemen. Together, these data indicate that attacks on higher education remain a widespread phenomenon.
Impact of Attacks
The attacks on higher education described in this report are indicative of deteriorating conditions for academic freedom. Declining levels of academic freedom are also evident in the most recent annual data from the Academic Freedom Index (AFi), which shows that at least 22 countries have much lower levels of academic freedom than 10 years ago and that more than half of the world’s population lives in areas where academic freedom is declining.[57] Significantly, nearly two-thirds of the countries featured in Free to Think 2023 are places where academic freedom has markedly declined, including Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, India, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States. In addition, five countries featured in this report are among the 10 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom globally, including China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, and Turkey.
Figure 1: 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 10 countries highlighted in Free to Think 2023, as shown in the chart above. Learn more about the AFi and the full 2022 dataset.
These attacks are destructive and damaging to higher education communities at the national, institutional, and individual levels. They are deadly. They chill free speech, encourage self-censorship, and deter scholars and students from researching, teaching, and expressing their ideas at all. They stifle 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 affect everyone.
Importantly, attacks on higher education are reflective of illiberalism, and they also lead to it, threatening the foundations of democracy. There is clear evidence illustrating the connection between academic freedom and democracy.[58] A robust civil society with an independent knowledge sector is an essential component of a free and democratic community. The free flow of information and ideas is essential for holding politicians and other leaders accountable.[59] Preventing and responding to attacks on higher education is, therefore, essential not just to protect individual scholars and students, but also for building a brighter future.
A Global Response
The data described in Free to Think 2023, while not exhaustive, illustrate a troubling phenomenon of attacks on higher education. These attacks are diverse. Some are deadly. Others, while less physical, exert coercive pressure that silences large numbers of scholars and students. They create a climate of fear. Together, they undermine academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Too often, those responsible are not held to account. Those who have carried out violence go unprosecuted. State actors abrogate the rights of scholars and students with impunity. Higher education authorities sanction, fire, or suspend scholars and students without cause or recourse.
Changing this requires a three-pronged approach of building awareness and understanding, building consensus, and implementing concrete protections for scholars, students, and higher education institutions. It requires improving our understanding of how attacks on higher education occur and why. This report is a key step in this direction, but too many attacks on higher education still go unreported and unrecognized.
Preventing attacks on higher education requires building consensus by creating normative change. We must insist on full recognition of the right of academic freedom for scholars and students. The international community has seen some progress in this regard. For example, the Joint Statement in support of Academic Freedom issued by 74 countries at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2023 recognizes that academic freedom is critical to scientific and technical progress and for the fulfillment of other related rights.[60] Nevertheless, rising illiberalism threatens this progress, and more must be done to secure the safety of scholars and students to research, teach, and learn freely.
Finally, promoting academic freedom requires more effective implementation. It requires that change occurs not merely at the level of policy, but also on the ground. For this to happen, we must have better practical guidance. There are a number of recent efforts to implement such guidance, including the draft Principles for Implementing the Right of Academic Freedom, released in March 2023 by an international Working Group on Academic Freedom, co-led by SAR;[61] the “Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy,”[62] and the European Strategy for Universities that was adopted in 2022, which recognizes the role of academic freedom in promoting European democratic values.[63] Yet, for these tools to be effective, they must be used. They should be viewed as resources for those fighting attacks on higher education wherever they occur.
With this report, SAR calls on states, higher education communities, and civil society around the world to do more. To reject violence and coercion aimed at restricting inquiry and expression; to protect threatened scholars, students, and higher education institutions; to fight illiberal policies and practices that constrain intellectual discourse, research and teaching; 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] This time period represents a shift from previous reporting periods, made to improve the annual production and dissemination of the report. The shift means that this edition of Free to Think overlaps with Free to Think 2022, which covered September 1, 2021, to August 31, 2022.
[2] “Purge Of Professors: Iran Axed Hundreds Of Academics In 17 Years,” Iran International, August 25, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202308241899.
[3] Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iran Protests 2022 – Detailed Report of 82 Days of Nationwide Protests in Iran, September-December 2022, https://www.en-hrana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/82-Day-WLF-Protest-in-Iran-2022-English.pdf.
[4] “Students Arrested and Banished, Professors Fired in Latest State Crackdown in Iran,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 1, 2023, https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/06/students-arrested-and-banished-professors-fired-in-latest-state-crackdown-in-iran/. Other groups have reported similar numbers. For example, HRANA reported in January 2022 that at least 637 students from 144 universities had been arrested. Miriam Berger, “Students in Iran are risking everything to rise up against the government,“ Washington Post, January 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/05/iran-protests-students-mahsa-amini/. “Over 400 Iranian University Students Suspended Or Expelled,” Iran International, April 12, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202304122405. Maziar Motamedi, “‘Academic decline‘: Why are university professors being expelled in Iran?,” Al Jazeera, August 30, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/30/academic-decline-why-are-university-professors-being-expelled-in-iran. Pola Lem, “Iran Forces Dissenters Out of Academe,” Times Higher Education, February 16, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/17/iran-forces-dissenters-out-universities.
[5] Pola Lem, “Iran Forces Dissenters Out of Academe,” Times Higher Education, February 16, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/17/iran-forces-dissenters-out-universities.
[6] Yojana Sharma, “New research exposes power of classroom informant system,” University World News, March 23, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230323135544104. Pola Lem, “Universities ‘in tricky position’ on Chinese student contracts,” Times Higher Education, January 24, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-tricky-position-chinese-student-contracts. Sophie Hogan, “Chinese students signing “loyalty” pledges before arrival in Sweden,” The Pie News, January 16, 2023, https://thepienews.com/news/chinese-students-signing-loyalty-pledges-arrival-sweden/.
[7] SAR AFMP, December 20, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-20-country-wide/. Riazat Butt, “Taliban warn women can’t take entry exams at universities,” Associated Press, January 28, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-colleges-and-universities-taliban-education-religion-66a66b52706e8190332625c8a42e51e3.
[8] SAR AFMP, December 22, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-22-unspecified-institutions/. SAR AFMP, December 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-24-mirwais-neeka-university/. SAR AFMP, December 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-24-unspecified-institutions/.
[9] SAR AFMP, October 9, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-09-kabul-university/.
[10] SAR AFMP, October 3, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-03-balkh-university/.
[11] SAR AFMP, February 3, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-03-various-institutions/. SAR AFMP, March 28, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-28-badakhshan-university/.
[12] Padone, “Teachers, students suffer opposing the military regime,” University World News, July 10, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230710160615705. Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Junta extends student prison terms as a ‘weapon’ of power,” University World News, October 6, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221006122016191. Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Shock as seven student protesters sentenced to death,” University World News, December 6, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221206140755812.
[13] Paul Basken, “Florida restricts teachings on race,” Times Higher Education, May 16, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/florida-restricts-teachings-race. Charles Homans, “The MAGA-fication of North Idaho College,” New York Times, March 6, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/us/politics/north-idaho-college-republicans.html. Marcela Rodrigues, “Gov. Abbott signs DEI bill into law, dismantling diversity offices at colleges,” Dallas Morning News, June 14, 2023, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/06/14/gov-abbott-signs-dei-bill-into-law-dismantling-diversity-offices-at-colleges/. “TN bill that allows students to report professors who teach ‘divisive concepts’ passes House and Senate,” WBIR, March 14, 2023, https://www.wbir.com/article/news/education/new-bill-would-strengthen-rules-over-what-can-be-taught-in-classrooms/51-ddd267e4-3d98-4de0-bb2e-3284740b4cb7. Kate Marijolovic, “This Ohio Bill Wouldn’t Just Ban Diversity Training. It Would Reshape Higher Ed.,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/this-ohio-bill-wouldnt-just-ban-diversity-training-it-would-reshape-higher-ed.
[14] Dennis Normile, “Plan to restructure Japan’s science academy draws protests from researchers,” Science, February 18, 2023, https://www.science.org/content/article/plan-restructure-japans-science-academy-draws-protests-researchers.
[15] John Ross, “Australian accord proposals ‘will tie administrators’ hands’,” Times Higher Education, July 26, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-accord-proposals-will-tie-administrators-hands.
[16] Ben Upton, “Swedish alarm over ministry-ordered security experts on boards,” Times Higher Education, May 8, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/swedish-alarm-over-ministry-ordered-security-experts-boards.
[17] Ben Upton, “Pensions ‘injustice’ pressures Hungary’s last public universities,” Times Higher Education, September 20, 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pensions-injustice-pressures-hungarys-last-public-universities.
[18] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-07-universidad-juan-pablo-ii-and-universidad-cristiana-autonoma-de-nicaragua/.
[19] See, for example, SAR AFMP, February 22, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-02-02-various/.
[20] Pola Lem, “Moscow’s Free University, branded ‘undesirable’ by Kremlin, closes doors,” Times Higher Education, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/moscows-free-university-branded-undesirable-kremlin-closes-doors.
[21] SAR AFMP, June 12, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-12-benemerita-autonomous-university-of-puebla-buap/. SAR AFMP, June 13, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-13-center-for-sustainability-of-the-sierra-nevada-incalli-ixcahuicopa-centli/.
[22] SAR AFMP, November 29, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-29-tokyo-metropolitan-university/.
[23] El Zahraa Jadallah and Tom Rhodes, “The war raging over Sudan’s present – and its past,” The Continent, Issue 128, June 10, 2023, https://www.thecontinent.org/_files/ugd/287178_0eeb3720763a488c8c3b735b9b78f002.pdf?index=tru, pp. 11-13.
[24] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-16-omdurman-ahlia-university/.
[25] Nathan M Greenfield, “Russia’s war against intellectuals is claiming more victims,” University World News, January 13, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230113072055354.
[26] SAR AFMP, September 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-30-kaaj-educational-center/.
[27] SAR AFMP, October 29, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-29-ministry-of-education-culture-and-higher-education/.
[28] SAR AFMP, February 15, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-15-university-of-antioquia/.
[29] SAR AFMP, September 13, 2022. https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-13-mekelle-university/.
[30] SAR AFMP, February 2, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-06-university-of-the-philippines/.
[31] SAR AFMP, October 10, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-26-national-academy-of-sciences-of-belarus/.
[32] SAR AFMP, July 29, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-29-korea-institute-for-national-unification/.
[33] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-3-7-university-of-colombo/.
[34] SAR AFMP, January 25, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-25-jamia-millia-islamia-university/. SAR AFMP, January 27, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-1-
[35] SAR AFMP, January 27, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-26-central-university-of-rajasthan/. SAR AFMP, March 10, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-10-university-of-delhi/.
[36] SAR AFMP, June 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-30-university-of-delhi/.
[37] See, for example, SAR AFMP, June 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-14-dokuz-eylul-university/. SAR AFMP, June 13, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-13-izmir-democracy-university/.
[38] SAR AFMP, February 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-14-dhamar-university/.
[39] See, for example, SAR AFMP, September 27, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-27-university-of-dhaka/. SAR AFMP, October 7, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-7-university-of-dhaka/. SAR AFMP, February 12, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-12-rajshahi-university/. SAR AFMP, February 22, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-22-rajshahi-college/. SAR AFMP, May 6, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-06-university-of-dhaka/. SAR AFMP, May 22, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-22-rajshahi-university/. SAR AFMP, June 19, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-19-university-of-chittagong/.
[40] SAR AFMP, January 23, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-23-chittagong-university/.
[41] SAR AFMP, January 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-30-chittagong-university/.
[42] SAR AFMP, September 1, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-9-1-university-of-sydney/.
[43] SAR AFMP, October 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-24-hamline-university/.
[44] SAR AFMP, October 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-24-hamline-university/.
[45] Ryan Quinn, “Report: Adjunct Who Showed Images of Prophet Was ‘Vilified’,” Times Higher Education, May 22, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2023/05/22/report-adjunct-who-showed-images-prophet-was. See the AAUP report: https://www.aaup.org/report/academic-freedom-and-tenure-hamline-university-minnesota.
[46] Isaac Roy, “Lawsuit against Hamline University narrowed but still moving forward,” Hamline Oracle, September 28, 2023, https://hamlineoracle.com/11550/news/lawsuit-against-hamline-university-narrowed-but-still-moving-forward.
[47] SAR AFMP, June 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-16-south-asian-university/.
[48] SAR AFMP, April 12, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-12-university-of-manouba/.
[49] Matthew Reisz, “Habib Kazdaghli: honoured by Scholars at Risk,” Times Higher Education, April 10, 2014, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/habib-kazdaghli-honoured-by-scholars-at-risk/2012520.article.
[50] SAR AFMP, August 18, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-18-university-of-kisangani/.
[51] SAR AFMP, March 15, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-15-university-of-belgrade/.
[52] SAR AFMP, October 14, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-14-universiti-malaya/.
[53] SAR AFMP, May 15, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-15-autonomous-university-of-honduras-university-of-costa-rica/,
[54] SAR AFMP, July 5, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-05-ministry-of-higher-education/.
[55] Ben Upton, “Israel’s right-wing coalition ‘already damaging science’,” Times Higher Education, February 22, 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/israels-right-wing-coalition-already-damaging-science.
[56] See, for example, Yaser Wakid, “Israelis Are Now the Majority at This Palestinian University,” Haaretz, May 22, 2018, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-03-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israeli-arabs-flock-to-west-bank-universities/0000017f-dc11-d856-a37f-fdd1fe0a0000.
[57] Katrin Kinzelbach, Staffan I. Lindberg, Lars Pelke, and Janika Spannagel, Academic Freedom Index 2023 Update (2023), FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and V-Dem Institute, DOI: 10.25593/opus4-fau-21630.
[58] Liisa Laakso, “Academic freedom and democracy in African countries: the first study to track the connection,” The Conversation, April 17, 2022, https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-and-democracy-in-african-countries-the-first-study-to-track-the-connection-186579.
[59] Darrell M. West, “Why academic freedom challenges are dangerous for democracy,” Brookings, September 8, 2022, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-academic-freedom-challenges-are-dangerous-for-democracy/.
[60] “Joint declaration on Academic Freedom,” 52nd Session of the Council on Human Rights, March 29, 2023, https://onu-geneve.delegfrance.org/Joint-declaration-on-Academic-freedom.
[61] The Principles can be downloaded in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish, and feedback can be provided here: https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/principles/.
[62] 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.
[63] European Commission, “European Strategy for Universities,” January 18, 2022, https://education.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2022-01/communication-european-strategy-for-universities-graphic-version.pdf,
Photo: ErikaWittlieb via Pixabay
Scholars in Prison
SAR’s Scholars in Prison Project directs advocacy efforts on behalf of wrongfully imprisoned and prosecuted scholars and students. Its goals are to garner public support within and outside the higher education community; to urge state authorities to uphold legal obligations related to humane treatment and due process; to ensure those imprisoned know that they are not forgotten, and that they have support from an international community of colleagues and friends; and, ultimately, to secure their release. With coordination from SAR’s Student Advocacy Seminars and Academic Freedom Legal Clinics, SAR sections, and partner organizations, SAR has the ability to advocate on behalf of imprisoned scholars through several different channels, including, but not limited to, raising cases with responsible governments and other international stakeholders, issuing public letters of appeal and statements, organizing social media campaigns, and building awareness through the press. Through the Scholars in Prison program, SAR invites everyone to join in advocating on behalf of wrongfully imprisoned scholars and students.
Over the past year, SAR has publicly supported the imprisoned scholars and students outlined below. Collectively, these individuals, imprisoned for their peaceful academic and expressive activities and associations, are subjected to judicial harassment; unfair or inadequate legal proceedings; lengthy pre-trial detention and/or sentences; abuse and torture in custody; denial of access to legal counsel, appropriate medical care, or family; and other forms of mistreatment. While these conditions and practices cause serious physical and psychological damage to the imprisoned students, scholars, and their family members, the effects go beyond those directly targeted. Their academic peers and colleagues also are put on high alert, sending a message to the wider higher education community and society at large that expressing ideas or raising questions can have dire consequences.
Abdul Jalil Al-Singace
Mechanical Engineering | Bahrain
Dr. Abdul Jalil Al-Singace is a scholar of mechanical engineering and a former fellow at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy Development and the Rule of Law. In March 2011, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with his pro-democracy and human rights activism. Since his arrest, Dr. Al-Singace has been subjected to mistreatment and torture, which have worsened his pre-existing health conditions, including post-polio syndrome, and caused new medical issues, including musculoskeletal issues, sickle cell disease, severe dehydration, fainting, shoulder infection, and two ruptured eardrums. His family reports that, despite raising his health issues and requesting to see medical specialists, Dr. Al-Singace has not been provided consistent or appropriate medical care. On July 8, 2021, Dr. Al-Singace began a hunger strike to protest ill treatment and demand prison authorities return a book that he wrote while in prison and that was subsequently confiscated. Since starting the hunger strike more than two years ago, Dr. Al-Singace’s health has rapidly deteriorated. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor expressed concern that “Mr Al-Singace is unable to walk or exercise properly because of his physical impairment(s) which deteriorated in detention. […] The treatments that are necessary to alleviate his condition have been repeatedly denied.”[1] His family continues to report that authorities deny him access to appropriate medical care, severely limit his access to visits and video calls with his family, and restrict access to religious programs and books.
Marfa Rabkova
International Law and European Union Law | Belarus
Marfa Rabkova is a third-year student at the International Law and European Union Law program at European Humanities University (EHU), Lithuania, who has been imprisoned in Belarus since September 17, 2020. In addition to her studies at EHU, Ms. Rabkova is the coordinator of the Volunteer Service at Human Rights Center Viasna. In that capacity, Ms. Rabkova monitored the nationwide 2020 protests calling for President Lukashenko’s resignation after claims of a fraudulent election spread. Authorities extended Ms. Rabkova’s pretrial detention multiple times and indicted her on several charges. On September 6, 2022, the Minsk city court sentenced Ms. Rabkova to 15 years in prison on 13 charges, including “participating in a criminal organization” and “inciting racial, national, religious or other social hostility by a group of individuals.” The trial was closed to the public and lasted for four months. On February 28, 2023, the Supreme Court of Belarus considered an appeal for Rabkova and ruled her sentence be reduced by three months from 15 years to 14 years and nine months.
Belarusian Students Case
Various Fields | Belarus
On November 12, 2020, the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus conducted a series of house raids and arrested 11 students from various universities in connection with the protests, including members of the Belarusian Students’ Association (BSA) and one professor. They include Alana Gebremariam, a member of BSA’s coordinating council and opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s representative for youth and student affairs; Ksenia Syramalot, BSA’s press secretary; Illia Trakhtenberg; Tanya Yakelchyk; Yahor Kanetski; Nastya Bulybenka; Vika Hrankouskaya; Kasia Budzko; Yana Arabeika; Masha Kalenik; Hleb Fitzner; and Professor Volha Filatchankava. On July 16, 2021, the students and professor were sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment, with the exception of Mr. Flitzner, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. The prison sentence took into consideration the days the students were in prison leading up to the trial; 1 day in pre-trial detention counted as 1.5 days in prison.[2] On November 30, 2022, after serving their prison sentences, the 11 students and one professor were released.
Ilham Tohti
Economics | China
Professor Tohti, an economics professor and public intellectual, promoted open dialogue between Uyghur and Han Chinese individuals through his website, Uyghur Online or Uighurbiz. net, and through proposals he submitted to the Chinese government. He has also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times and was awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2019.[3] On January 15, 2014, police raided Professor Tohti’s home, seized his personal belongings, and arrested him. In September 2014, the Urumqi Intermediate Court convicted him of separatism and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The charge apparently stemmed from his academic work and expression, as Chinese authorities have not publicly disclosed any evidence against Professor Tohti beyond his articles, interviews, and lectures. Prison authorities have denied him access to family visits and, since 2017, they have not disclosed Professor’s Tohti’s whereabouts or well-being.
Rahile Dawut
Uyghur Studies and Folklore | China
Professor Dawut, a world-renowned scholar of Uyghur studies, folklore and traditions, and professor at Xinjiang University in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), disappeared in China in December 2017. Over three years after her imprisonment, it was revealed that she had been sentenced and imprisoned, and on September 21, 2023, it was confirmed that she is serving a life sentence in prison for “endangering state security.” Her sentence includes the deprivation of political rights for life. State authorities have not provided information regarding Professor Dawut’s health, her ability to connect with family members, or her whereabouts.
Imprisoned Uyghur Scholars & Students
Various Fields | China
Since 2017, Uyghur scholars and students in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have been reported missing or detained, including at so-called “re-education camps.” Their detentions appear connected to a campaign by Chinese authorities targeting ethnic and religious minority communities. Geography scholar Tashpolat Tiyip and literary scholar Abdulqadir Jalaleddin are among them. Authorities have not disclosed the whereabouts or well-being of the scholars and students, and have reportedly prosecuted detainees through closed-door trials, during which detainees have been denied access to legal counsel and forced to retroactively choose a crime. On August 31, 2022, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner published a report that said the detentions in the XUAR “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”[4]
Patrick George Zaki
Women and Gender Studies | Egypt
Recently released from detention, Patrick George Zaki graduated this summer with an Erasmus Mundus–funded master’s degree in women and gender studies from the University of Bologna. Mr. Zaki is a researcher for the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and his work focuses on gender issues and human rights. Mr. Zaki was detained in Egypt from February 7, 2020 to December 7, 2021, in apparent retaliation for his academic research. On September 13, 2021, authorities charged Mr. Zaki with “spreading false news inside and outside of the country,” apparently based on an article he wrote about his experiences as a Coptic Egyptian. On December 7, 2021, the Second Division Mansoura Emergency State Security Misdemeanor Court ordered his release, pending trial, which was postponed several times. On July 18, 2023, Mr. Zaki was sentenced by the Egyptian court to three years in prison for “disseminating false news,” but was pardoned by the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the following day and released on July 20. Mr. Zaki returned to Italy the following week, after his paperwork was processed. He was able to receive his diploma in person after defending his master’s thesis over video conference on July 5, 2023. He graduated with distinctions.
Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba
English Literature | India
Professor Saibaba is an English literature professor who has been imprisoned since 2014 in apparent connection to his activism on behalf of vulnerable groups in India, such as tribal groups who suffer from poverty and human rights violations due to the prolonged conflict between India and the separatist Communist Party of India (Maoist). On March 7, 2017, despite lack of credible evidence, he was sentenced to life in prison on terrorism charges—charges Professor Saibaba denies. Professor Saibaba suffers from at least 19 medical conditions, including post-polio syndrome, which has left him in a wheelchair, and hypertension. It is reported that he’s been repeatedly denied appropriate medical care in prison. On October 14, 2022, the Bombay High Court acquitted Professor Saibaba, paving the way for his release from prison; however, the Maharashtra government filed a petition to the Supreme Court objecting to the acquittal. On April 19, 2023, the Supreme Court remanded Professor Saibaba’s case back to the High Court for a final hearing in accordance with the law; it was ordered that the case be completed before a new bench, in an attempt to ensure fairness. On August 21, 2023, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, said in a public statement: “His continued detention is shameful. It bears all the hallmarks of a State seeking to silence a critical voice.”[5]
Ahmadreza Djalali
Disaster Medicine | Iran
Dr. Djalali is a scholar of disaster medicine who was arrested while visiting Iran to participate in a series of academic workshops. In October 2017, after more than 17 months in jail, Dr. Djalali was convicted and sentenced to death for “corruption on earth,” a charge that appears to relate to his ties to the international academic community. Dr. Djalali has spent significant lengths of time in solitary confinement while awaiting the execution of his sentence, during which his health has significantly deteriorated. In May 2022, Iranian authorities began threatening to carry out Dr. Djalali’s execution. All appeals to his case were dropped in August 2023, further escalating the threat of execution. Dr. Djalali continues to be denied access to his lawyer and his family in Iran, calls to his wife and children in Sweden, and the medical care that he urgently needs.
Niloufar Bayani
Biology | Iran
Niloufar Bayani is a conservationist who was arrested in January 2018 alongside eight of her colleagues on charges of espionage while conducting field research on Asiatic cheetahs, one of the most endangered large cat species, for the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation. On November 23, 2019, authorities convicted and sentenced Ms. Bayani to 10 years in prison on charges of “contacts with the US enemy state” and “gaining illegitimate income,” in apparent retaliation for her ties to the international academic community and her time working at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Throughout her time in prison, Ms. Bayani has continued writing. In April 2023, Ms. Bayani and 20 women inmates published an open letter regarding the Iranian parliament’s recent decision to reassess Iran’s participation in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Most recently, on June 5, 2023, SAR published her manuscript “Climate Literacy in the Land of Oil: Interviews with female political prisoners in Evin,” written by Ms. Bayani between April 2022 and March 2023. The piece also included a heartfelt foreword written by her former colleagues at the UNEP acknowledging her immeasurable contributions to conservation efforts and calling for her release.
Nasser bin Ghaith
Economics | United Arab Emirates
Dr. bin Ghaith is an economist, former lecturer at the University of Paris IV Abu Dhabi, and prominent human rights defender who was arrested in 2015. Dr. bin Ghaith was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 on charges stemming from a series of tweets in which he criticized the Egyptian government’s human rights record. Since his imprisonment, Dr. bin Ghaith has undertaken several hunger strikes to protest his sentence, ill-treatment, and torture in prison. Despite his drastically worsening health, Dr. bin Ghaith reports that he has been denied medical care, including his much-needed blood pressure medication.
[1] UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Bahrain: UN expert alarmed by health of human rights defenders in prison,” September 15, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/bahrain-un-expert-alarmed-health-human-rights-defenders-prison.
[2] “10 political prisoners convicted in the “student case” are now released,” Voice of Belarus, November 30, 2022, https://www.voiceofbelarus.org/belarus-news/10-political-prisoners-convicted-in-student-case-released/.
[3] European Parliament, “Ilham Tohti wins 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought,” October 24, 2019, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/eu-affairs/20191018STO64607/ilham-tohti-wins-2019-sakharov-prize-for-freedom-of-thought.
[4] UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China,” August 31, 2022, www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ohchr-assessment-human-rights-concerns-xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region.
[5] UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “India must end inhumane detention of human rights defender GN Saibaba: UN expert,” August 21, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/india-must-end-inhumane-detention-human-rights-defender-gn-saibaba-un-expert.
Destroyed library at Omdurman Ahlia University in Sudan. Photo: Ayin Network
Regional Pressures on Higher Education Communities
Attacks on higher education communities occur across the globe. They violate the rights of those targeted and 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, Scholars at Risk (SAR) reported 409 attacks on higher education communities in 66 countries and territories around the world from July 2022 to June 2023. This year’s Monitoring Project data[1] shows attacks in what are generally considered to be open societies and with functioning democracies, like Canada, France, Sweden, and the United States, as well as in closed societies with more authoritative governments, like Afghanistan, China, and Iran. That attacks on higher education occur across contexts is evident from the AFi scores of the countries highlighted below. While the 2022 AFi data puts many of the countries that are highlighted below into the 10 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom, some of the highlighted countries, such as the United States, Colombia, and Mexico, rank comparatively higher. While this indicates that countries like the United States and Colombia may have stronger protections for academic freedom and institutional autonomy, as well as more avenues for redress, it also means that there are still actors in those countries that seek to constrain academic freedom despite these baseline protections.[2]
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 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.
Given resource constraints and challenges in gathering and verifying information, this report features only a representative and illustrative sample of the global state of attacks on higher education. Countries and territories not highlighted in Free to Think 2023 are not necessarily free of attacks on higher education communities or restraints on academic freedom, and countries highlighted in previous years but not included here have not necessarily seen improved conditions. Rather, decisions about highlighting the countries that follow were based on factors including severity of attacks, diversity of geography, political systems, and forms 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 and country-level expert assessments in the Academic Freedom Index, a tool co-developed by the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), the V-Dem Institute, and SAR.[3] SAR invites readers to contribute information on attacks on higher education communities wherever and whenever they occur. 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 Taliban intensified their efforts to bar women from accessing higher education, including by cracking down on professors and students speaking out against Taliban policies. In addition, instability in the security environment resulted in one devastating bombing of an institution of higher education. The attack, which killed dozens of students, targeted women from the minority Hazara community. These pressures contributed to declining levels of academic freedom seen since the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan government. According to the 2022 AFi, Afghanistan ranked in the 20 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom globally.[4]
Figure 2: According to the Academic Freedom Index (AFi), academic freedom continued to decline in Afghanistan in 2022.
Throughout the first half of the 2022-23 academic year, the Taliban took a variety of actions to curtail women’s higher education, culminating in an order signed by the Ministry of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem on December 20, 2022, suspending female education indefinitely. Nadeem explained the ban on Afghan television by stating that women’s education is against Afghan and Islamic views and that women students had failed to abide by Taliban policies on women’s education.[5] Previously, the Taliban had restricted women’s ability to take university entrance exams for certain subjects, including agriculture, economics, engineering, geology, journalism, and veterinary science,[6] and had violently enforced a conservative dress code for women studying in universities.[7] On January 28, 2023, the Taliban reinforced their ban on women’s higher education in a note sent to private universities stating that women could not take university entrance exams.[8] Despite reports of diverging opinions on women’s education among Taliban officials,[9] women continued to be barred from higher education when universities reopened after winter break in March 2023.[10]
The Taliban bans on women’s access to higher education prompted protest from students, professors, and activists—an outcry that was brutally silenced. For example, Ismail Mashal, a professor of journalism, was beaten and detained on February 2, 2023, for his public acts of protest against the ban on women’s higher education.[11] Likewise, on March 28, 2023, Taliban intelligence agents arrested Badakhshan University professor Sakhidad Sangin, apparently for reasons related to his opposition to the Taliban’s policies on women’s education.[12]
Student protests following the Taliban’s ban were similarly repressed. On December 24, Taliban forces shot into the air and beat several male students at Mirwais Neeka University who were boycotting final semester exams in protest of the ban on women’s higher education.[13] That same day, Taliban forces responded with violence against student demonstrators peacefully protesting the ban by chanting “education is our right” near the education office in Taloqan city in Takhar province. They detained approximately five women and two men.[14]
While women have found ways to subvert the ban on their education—for example, by taking online classes[15]—those working in Afghanistan’s higher education sector have expressed significant concern about the ban’s broad impact. For instance, private university managers, staff, and students predicted that they would not be able to stay open and would likely move their institutions abroad.[16] Already the Taliban’s policies on women’s education have had a damaging effect: in November 2022, no women were among the top 10 candidates who had taken the “Kankor,” the university entrance exams.[17] This contrasted sharply with the previous two years, when a woman had received the highest exam score.[18]
Taliban higher education policies not only violate the rights of women, but they also threaten academic freedom and the quality of higher education generally. During a speech at Herat University in December 2022, Minister of Education Nadeem suggested that Taliban members should not need to take the exams required to become university faculty. Instead, he said that Taliban commanders seeking university posts should be evaluated on their experience as fighters.[19] While the proposal has not become a law, such a policy would subvert university autonomy in a context where self-censorship and faculty shortages are already widespread.[20]
The Taliban also cracked down on dissent in higher education by retaliating against scholars whose work was critical of their policies and actions. On July 16, 2022, the body of Khost University law professor Mumtaz Sherzai was found, marked by evidence of torture, a day after he had gone missing. Under the prior Afghan government Sherzai had prosecuted cases relating to domestic and international terrorism.[21] On March 8, 2023, the Taliban arrested Rasul Abdi Parsi, a scholar of Islamic law and former Herat University lecturer, apparently in retaliation for social media posts Parsi had made criticizing the Taliban.[22]
An unstable security environment has affected higher education, with one major attack occurring on September 30, 2022, when a suicide bomber set off his explosives at the Kaaj Educational Center, which served male and female students, most from the Hazara community.[23] The attack killed 53 and injured 110. Students were taking a practice university entrance exam at the time of the attack. Among those students killed, 46 were girls and young women.
Widespread student protests that followed the bombing were brutally suppressed by the Taliban. For instance, on October 2, 2022, the Taliban fired shots and beat demonstrators as around 100 students, mostly women and Hazara, marched from Herat University to the provincial governorate offices in protest of the attack.[24] The Taliban arrested around 40 students protesting the bombing at Al-Biruni University two days later, on October 4.[25] The day following the Kaaj Educational Center bombing, female students at Balkh University were locked in their dormitory rooms to prevent them from joining protests against the attack.[26] Dozens of women students were evicted from their dorms at Kabul University for participating in protests between October 9 and 18.[27]
Bangladesh
As in years prior, Bangladesh saw assaults by members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the country’s ruling party, the Awami League, on other students and faculty members. These attacks targeted individuals and groups with opposing ideologies and political affiliations. According to the AFi, academic freedom remained relatively stable in Bangladesh, putting it in the 20 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom globally.
Several attacks by BCL members on students affiliated with other groups took place at the University of Dhaka. For example, on September 27, individuals suspected to be BCL members attacked members of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, a student group affiliated with the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. At least three students were hospitalized following the assault. [28] On October 7, 2022, during a memorial ceremony for a student beaten to death by the BCL in 2019, members of the BCL attacked members of the political student group Chhatra Odhikar Parishad with sticks and metal pipes. At least 12 people were injured and 15 detained.[29]
At Chittagong University, BCL members carried out multiple attacks, apparently intended to pressure the university into appointing candidates that the group favored. For instance, they assaulted Nur (“Noor”) Hossain, a candidate for a political science teaching position, on January 23, 2023. The attackers accused Hossain of being a former student member of Islami Chhatra Shibir—a rival group that is considered the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islamic political party, which is banned in Bangladesh—and of being responsible for attacks against BCL members at that time.[30] A week later, on January 30, 2023, BCL members vandalized the office of the Chittagong University vice chancellor. The attack was apparently conducted in retaliation for the university deciding not to appoint a former BCL leader, Raihan Ahmed, to a lecturer position in the marine science department.[31]
Years of consistent violence by BCL members have, at times, prompted calls for student groups and political organizations to be banned on Bangladesh’s campuses.[32] Such calls are understandable as they represent a desire to reduce—and indeed eliminate—violence on campus. However, students have a right to free expression on campus, and banning student groups all together would be a violation of that right.
State violence further compounded violence by BCL students. In one case, on August 18, 2022, Meftahul Maruf, a third-year political science student at Dhaka University, was held in prison overnight and interrogated for Facebook posts he had made commenting on a series of 2005 bombings. Prior to being arrested, BCL members confronted Maruf, accusing him of making anti-government comments. The provost of Maruf’s residence hall then brought Maruf to the local police station, where he was held.[33]
China
Chinese authorities repressed scholars and students for expressive activity critical of the Chinese government. An extensive national and international surveillance apparatus facilitated this repression. As in years prior, China had among the lowest levels of academic freedom globally, ranking among the 15 countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom, according to the 2022 AFi. (As in previous years, attacks on higher education in Hong Kong are highlighted in a separate section below. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China, but the attacks reported there stem from Hong Kong’s particular relationship with China, and are therefore featured separately.)
China has continued to imprison and prosecute prominent scholars, particularly those from the Uyghur community. In a recent development that occurred after the close of the reporting period for Free to Think 2023, the Dui Hua Foundation confirmed in September 2023 that Uyghur studies scholar Rahile Dawut, imprisoned since December 2017, had been sentenced to life imprisonment.[34] In April 2023, legal scholar and lawyer Xu Zhiyong, imprisoned since February 2020,[35] was sentenced to 14 years in prison.[36] Among the other scholars who remain imprisoned are economist Ilham Tohti,[37] geography scholar Tashpolat Tiyip,[38] and literary scholar Abdulqadir Jalaleddin.[39] There have been no updates on the whereabouts or conditions of these scholars during the last several years.
Surveillance by students threatened Chinese scholars’ academic freedom in the classroom, reportedly causing them to adhere to more “scripted” teaching methods.[40] An academic study published in March 2023 found that such surveillance in university lecture halls by student informants had become significantly more systematic and institutionalized since Xi Jinping became China’s president in late 2012, with rewards for informants more formalized and less covert.[41] Students’ posts on social media have also led to attacks on Chinese scholars. In one case, the administration of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics suspended Chen Saibin, a lecturer at the university’s School of Economics and Management, on March 8, 2023. The suspension was a response to remarks that he had made during a classroom lecture during which he commented on China’s dependence on food imported from the United States and Europe. Chen was suspended after students in the class posted some of his comments on social media.[42]
Concerns about surveillance by the Chinese government extended abroad. In January 2023, a Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, reported that Chinese PhD students enrolled in several Swedish universities and supported by funds from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) were required to sign contracts swearing loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, guaranteeing that members of their family would remain in China until the student returned home[43] and promising to report regularly to the Chinese embassy.[44] Such concerns have added to pressures on universities across Europe and the United States to break or review ties with Chinese institutions and to limit research collaborations with China (see the United States section below for more details).[45]
China also enacted its own restrictions limiting international research cooperation. As of April 1, 2023, foreign users of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, which is estimated to hold over 90 percent of scholarly articles published in the country, found their access to some of the portal’s resources cut off.[46] Academics with expertise on China have expressed concern that China’s actions would further isolate Chinese academics working either at home or abroad,[47] even as restrictions on United States and European research cooperation with counterparts in China grew. [48]
Chinese authorities also reinforced political and ideological indoctrination in universities. In April 2023, the Ministry of Education released plans to establish an “Ideology and Politics Index” that would rank universities according to their promotion of political and ideological education. Scholars expressed concern that the index would cause universities to compete with one another on ideological, rather than academic grounds, consolidating political education within the curricula and eroding academic quality.[49]
University authorities sanctioned students for their expressive action. In July 2022, Tsinghua University authorities notified two students of disciplinary action for distributing “unauthorized promotional materials” after they distributed LGBTQ+ flags at a campus supermarket counter. The penalty included exclusion from receiving awards or scholarships for the next six months. After the Ministry of Education refused to review their appeal, the two students filed a lawsuit against the government office for violating their educational rights.[50]
Colombia
SAR kindly thanks the Coalition for Academic Freedom (CAFA) for initial research and drafting of this section. SAR, along with the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Center and University of Monterrey, leads the Coalition.
In Colombia, university campuses remained sites of considerable protest, with issues under contention related directly to higher education, as well as to broader economic, social, and political challenges. Colombia ranked moderately in its levels of academic freedom during the reporting period, with the AFi placing it in the between the 40th and 50th percentiles. Nevertheless, conflicts in the wider society continued to play out on university campuses, in the form of riots, detonation of explosive devices, vandalism, and threats.
Incidents of violence affected campuses across the country. On February 15, 2023, at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, a group of hooded individuals detonated several small explosive devices at the university’s central plaza and in one of the restrooms, causing authorities to suspend classes and activate security protocols. Two people were injured.[51] Some incidents of violence were connected to days of social protest. On April 28, 2023, a national day of protest against the latest political and economic reforms of the government of President Gustavo Petro,[52] hooded demonstrators armed with hammers entered the Universidad Industrial de Santander, destroyed university infrastructure, and stole computer equipment, causing damages of approximately $1.2 billion pesos.[53] On June 8, 2023, the day of the “fallen student” in Colombia “in memory of the more than 600 students killed in 1929, 1954, 1973 and 2019,”[54] clashes outside the National University in Bogota between the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad and a group of hooded protesters left a police officer injured.[55] Similarly, at the Universidad del Tolima, a group of individuals attempted to set fire to the administrative building and the rector’s office,[56] causing the suspension of classes and the evacuation of all personnel.
In addition to riots and vandalism, death threats have disrupted Colombian university campuses. For instance, since the national protests of 2021 to this date, 13 students and 5 professors at Eafit University in Medellín have reported receiving “calls with funeral music and death threats” from alleged radicalized far-right groups. “I have met students who have left Medellín or who have come to the university with bulletproof vests because of this situation that puts our lives at risk on a daily basis. We cannot be safe even at the university,” one of the threatened students told a Colombian magazine.[57] The Prosecutor’s Office, the Medellín Mayor’s Office, and the National Police have been informed of the threats, and investigations are reportedly ongoing.
In addition, multiple cases of sexual harassment by professors of students came to light in 2023. In January, a prominent former academic withdrew his candidacy for a diplomatic appointment after being publicly accused of engaging in a pattern of sexual harassment of students during his decade as a university professor, first at the Javeriana University and then at the National University of Colombia.[58] In February, new reporting revealed a past pattern of behavior by a former professor and dean of the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, which had led to his termination years earlier.[59] In March, multiple accusations came to light involving a pattern of sexual harassment of female students by a professor at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá; the university indicated that it was investigating the claims.[60] And separately, five students alleged a seven-year pattern of sexual harassment by a prominent professor at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB); a university spokesperson indicated that investigations were ongoing.[61]
Two positive developments were recorded. In February 2023, in response to several allegations of sexual harassment filed in 2018, a National University disciplinary tribunal disqualified a philosophy professor from teaching for 20 years. This is the first case known at the National University where the institution has penalized one of its members for sexually harassing gay men.[62]
In April 2023, the Superior Court of Pasto, southern Colombia, issued a decision ordering the payment of reparations to a student of the Faculty of Medicine at the Cooperative University of Colombia (Pasto campus), who filed a sexual harassment complaint against a professor in 2012. The student filed a lawsuit in 2020. Her supporting evidence included a recording of the professor’s offer to improve her grades in exchange for sexual favors. The court ordered the university to pay damages to the student to compensate her for expenses she incurred when she was forced to abandon her program of study and move to another city to continue them and to publicly recognize the student’s courage in filing the complaint.[63]
Hong Kong
The reporting period saw actions that threatened the shared governance of universities in Hong Kong. In tandem with these actions, academic freedom declined in Hong Kong, following a trajectory that originated around 2018 and putting Hong Kong in the 20 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom globally.
Figure 3: According to the AFi, academic freedom has declined in Hong Kong since 2019.
In April 2023, a taskforce established to review governance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) recommended reducing student and academic representation on the university’s governing council and reserving two seats for lawmakers. Such a move would increase the degree of external influence in university governance.[64] By 2023, the number of academics in Hong Kong’s universities from mainland China also outnumbered those from Hong Kong. Some Hong Kong scholars expressed concerns that this could result in research that is increasingly dictated by China’s national priorities.[65]
Hong Kong students’ right to freedom of expression also continued to be suppressed. In 2022–23, campus protests were a relatively rare occurrence, a consequence of the 2020 National Security Law.[66] Nevertheless, in June 2023, the chancellor of the University of Hong Kong signed a proposal to increase efforts to discipline students who engaged in “conduct considered to be bringing the university into disrepute.” The vague nature of the proposal triggered concerns that it could be applied liberally in ways that could suppress free discussion among students in class and on campus.[67] Elsewhere, the Hong Kong Baptist University temporarily suspended a student group, the Communications Society, for a social media post commemorating a November 2019 police siege at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus.[68]
India
Violence against and academic penalties for student expression were prevalent in India during the reporting period. As reported in previous years, many of these incidents appeared to stem from an increasingly authoritarian political environment related to rising Hindu nationalism. Universities saw political interference in curriculum and threats to autonomy. According to the 2022 AFi, academic freedom remained relatively stable in India—albeit, low, with India ranking in the bottom 30 percent of countries globally.
Among the most notable violations of student expression was a series of repressive actions taken by university authorities and the police in response to the screening of a BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which had been banned in the country as “hostile propaganda.” The documentary focuses on the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in violence that took place in Gujarat in 2002, when Modi was chief minister of the state.[69] Throughout the beginning of 2023, administrators at multiple universities threatened or took disciplinary action against students who organized screenings of the documentary. At Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), students were threatened with disciplinary action on January 23, 2023, for holding a screening of the documentary despite administration efforts to prevent it.[70] Meanwhile, on January 27 authorities at Central University of Rajasthan suspended 11 students for 14 days for watching the documentary on their mobile phones.[71] On January 25, 2023, police detained at least a dozen students for a planned screening of the documentary at Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI).[72]
At the University of Delhi, the conflict over the documentary lasted throughout the spring semester. On January 27, police detained 24 University of Delhi (DU) students for attempting to screen the documentary at an event organized by the Students Federation of India (SFI).[73] On March 10, the DU barred two students from taking university exams for one year. The first, PhD candidate Lokesh Chugh, is the national secretary of the National Students’ Union of India. The university administration accused him of being responsible for the screening; Chungh denied being present and has been contesting the ruling in court. The second student, Ravinder Singh, is a master’s degree student in the department of philosophy, recent graduate of DU’s law faculty, and member of the left-wing group Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch. He was among the students detained on January 27.[74] Later that month, on March 24, police detained 11 students demonstrating against Chugh’s suspension and that of one additional student.[75]
The reporting period saw a couple of positive developments related to student expression. On February 4, 2023, Delhi’s Saket Court dismissed charges against Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam and 10 others who had been accused of inciting violence during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The ruling was viewed as bolstering students’ right to dissent.[76] In March 2023, JNU also reversed rules issued on February 3 that would have allowed the university to fine students for sit-in protests.[77]
Nevertheless, in several cases documented by SAR, police used force or detained students for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly through peaceful protests over, among other issues, sexual misconduct, minority rights, employment policies, student fees, and education policies. For example, on March 29, 2023, police detained 15 female Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW) students and members of the All India Students’ Association who were protesting the College’s failure to take action after several men scaled the boundary walls and harassed students at the annual Shruti cultural festival.[78] Two days later, on March 31, 2023, state and paramilitary forces detained students from IPCW, along with members of SFI and the All India Students Association who were nonviolently demanding that the principal of the IPCW resign because of the lack of action.[79]
In one case, faculty were penalized for supporting student expression. On October 13, 2023, students at South Asian University (SAU), an international university established by member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, began protesting for additional funding and more time to complete their degrees. The protests continued throughout October, and on November 4, 2022, the SAU administration expelled two students, suspended another two students for one year, and suspended a fifth student for the remainder of the semester.[80] After fifteen faculty members questioned the students’ expulsion, the administration opened an investigation into four faculty members who had expressed support for the student protesters, suspending them on June 16, 2023. Academics and intellectuals issued widespread condemnation of the suspension, with more than five hundred writing to the foreign ministers of the eight member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation urging intervention and the reversal of the suspensions.[81]
Several events provoked concern over government intervention into university autonomy in India. On October 23, the governor of Kerala state demanded the resignations of nine university vice chancellors saying that they had not been appointed properly.[82] In June 2023, Times Higher Education reported that new guidelines published by the University Grants Commission would now require all students at public universities to take a mandatory course on Indian knowledge systems—a move that observers criticized as an indoctrination effort.[83]
University complicity with the government was also a concern. In the face of ongoing questions regarding Prime Minister Modi’s educational qualifications, DU and Gujarat University refused to publicly provide evidence that Prime Minister Modi had indeed graduated from their institutions.[84] Meanwhile, in Manipur state, a government order issued on September 13, 2022, mandated that a state-appointed committee, headed by the state education minister and comprising university vice chancellors and higher education teachers, review and approve all books written on the state’s history, culture, tradition, and geography.[85]
Iran
Nationwide protests, led by students, broke out in Iran in September 2022. Now known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, named after the chants of Iranian student protesters, the demonstrations erupted after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died while in custody of Iran’s “morality police.” The demonstrations gained momentum during the last two weeks of September, peaked at the end of October, and continued throughout the remainder of the academic year.[86] Against the backdrop of these protests, Iran’s level of academic freedom—already low—declined further. The 2022 AFi placed Iran among the 15 countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom.
Figure 4: According to the AFi, academic freedom, already low in Iran, declined further in 2022.
The scale of the protests was notable, representing a broad cross-section of Iranian society.[87] In the higher education sector, demonstrations occurred both on elite campuses and on those with a more diverse student body. For example, protests occurred at the prestigious University of Tehran, which has long been a center for student unrest, and also at around 34 branches of Islamic Azad University, which includes hundreds of campuses in large cities and smaller towns.[88] By the end of 2022, the protest movement had become the longest continuous protests since the birth of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.[89]
The Iranian government’s response to the protests was violent and brutal. Iranian security forces, often in collaboration with members of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group affiliated with the Iranian regime, used excessive force to subdue protesters and arrested hundreds of students. By June 1, 2023, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) had identified more than 720 students who had been arrested by Iranian security forces since September 2022.[90] Security forces reportedly held many of these students for months or longer, refusing them access to lawyers.[91] Students also reported facing torture and sexual abuse while imprisoned.[92] Some students died due to the injuries that they sustained during protests.[93] For example, Iranian police shot and killed Morteza Shirmohammadi, a Tabriz University medical student, during protests on November 2, 2023.[94]
A few cases illustrate the type of violent force that was the common response to student protests. One of the earliest protests occurred on September 24, 2022, at the University of Tehran. After students gathered, chanting slogans and holding posters, security forces fired live ammunition and beat them with batons. Around 30 to 40 students were arrested and taken to unknown locations.[95] In another instance, on June 14, students at Tehran University of Art began a sit-in protesting the University’s policy mandating that women students wear the maghna’eh, a black cloth covering their head, face, and chest. On the first day of protest, university security guards threatened students, and the university cut off students’ access to food, water, and toilet facilities. The following day, security guards clashed with the demonstrating students. Some students were hospitalized. When students continued protesting the next day, on June 16, security forces beat students and arrested 10 protesters. In the days that followed the protests, security forces made threatening calls to students who had participated in protests, summoning some for interrogation.[96] These protests followed a crackdown by police and the administration at Tehran University of Art that had begun in November 2022.[97] The Armed Conflict Location and Events Data Project (ACLED),[98] which tracks real-time data on armed conflict, political violence, and protests, recorded 105 protests during the reporting period, including those at the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Art, although SAR was not able to independently verify all of them.
The arrests and detentions of Iranian students and scholars, while striking during the 2022–23 reporting period, was not a new phenomenon in Iran. Iranian, dual nationality, and some foreign scholars and students have faced wrongful detention for their scholarship and expression over the years. Significantly, in early 2023, the Iranian government released several dozen prisoners, including scholars, apparently in an effort to appease those protesting.[99] Among those released was a French-Iranian academic, Fariba Adelkhah, originally arrested in 2019. Despite her release, Iranian authorities initially refused to return her personal documents to her, making it impossible for her to travel.[100] (Adelkhah was finally allowed to leave Iran and returned to France in October 2023.)[101] Also released were Polish academic Maciej Walczak, who had been accused of spying in September 2021.[102]
However, other scholars remained in prison. Scholar of disaster medicine Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested in 2017 while in Iran for a series of academic workshops, remains in prison despite the deterioration of his health. Likewise, conservationist Niloufar Bayani, who was arrested in January 2018, remains in prison (see the Scholars in Prison section for more details on both Drs. Djalali and Bayani). Sociology professor Saeed Madani, arrested in May 2022, was sentenced to nine years in prison in December 2022.[103]
In addition to physical violence, arrests, and detentions, Iranian students have faced penalties, including bans from campus, suspensions, and expulsion by their university administrations for their participation in protests. For instance, on June 16, 2023, the disciplinary committee of Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University in Tabriz issued “final verdicts” suspending 20 students for their support for the ongoing protests over the female dress code at Tehran University of Art. By July 2023, The Guardian reported that at least 60 women students had been banned from their campuses for refusing to wear a hijab.[104] Other students were expelled apparently because of their participation in protests. For example, on September 25, 2022, the University of Tehran reportedly expelled Mohammad Javaheri, a graduate student, and reported him to state security forces. Police arrested Javaheri soon after.[105] On June 8, 2023, Shahriyar Shams reported that Azad University of Tehran, North Branch had expelled him from his undergraduate studies. Shams had previously been arrested on September 28, 2022, and November 4, 2022, for his participation in the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests.[106]
Iranian faculty who supported protesters were banned from teaching, forced into retirement, or lost their salaries, indicating that the Iranian government could be “cleansing” academia of dissent.[107] According to the CHRI, at least 60 professors had lost their jobs temporarily or permanently as of June 1, 2023.[108] For example, on January 26, 2023, the Iranian Students Union Council reported that Beheshti University Law School had dismissed Amir Nikpey, a legal sociology and anthropology professor for supporting student protesters.[109] In February 2021, Times Higher Education reported that at least nine political science professors at Islamic Azad university had been fired.[110] These actions severely undermine academic freedom and, according to one analysis, leave Iranian universities “resembl[ing] prisons,” with independent professors afraid to express their opinions while those connected to the regime receive research grants and travel opportunities.[111]
Importantly, while the purge of academics who dissent from the Iranian regime’s position has accelerated since the start of the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests,[112] such tactics are not new. According to Etemad, a reformist daily newspaper, Iranian universities dismissed at least 157 professors from the beginning of 2006 to August 2023.[113]
Mexico
In Mexico, the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continued to take legal actions that represent significant threats to academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Obrador’s government has consistently stigmatized the academic community and cut research funding.[114] In addition, violence by unidentified individuals damaged campus property, negatively affecting the academic environment. These actions contributed to a slow decline in academic freedom that has taken place over the last several years. According to the AFi, Mexico ranks in the bottom 50 percent of countries in its level of academic freedom.
Figure 5: According to the AFi, several indicators of academic freedom in Mexico, including freedom on academic exchange and dissemination and freedom of academic and cultural expression declined in 2022.
In April 2023, a new General Law of Humanities, Sciences, Technologies, and Innovation (HCTI) law directly infringed on university autonomy by centralizing science and technology research and education under presidential oversight.[115] The law threatens to legitimize greater government intervention that could restrict research that does not align with the administration’s agenda. Hundreds of scientists and about one-third of the members of Mexico’s Congress filed several lawsuits declaring the law unconstitutional for not following proper parliamentary procedures.[116]
Government and university authorities disparaged Mexican scholars and students for their environmental and human rights work.[117] On June 13, 2023, unidentified individuals attacked Álvaro Arvizu Aguiñiga, an environmentalist activist and researcher at the Sierra Nevada Research Center housed at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM); his wife, Rebeca López Reyes; and their colleague Carlos Vargas Cabrera. All three are directors of the environmental collective Center for Sustainability Incalli (CENTLI) in Tlalmanalco de Velázquez. The attack was apparently connected to Aguiñiga’s work defending water in the Popocatépetl volcanic area, which helped expose illegal water trafficking. Aguiñiga died in the hospital six days after the attack; Reyes and Cabrera survived.[118]
On October 24 and November 11, 2022, the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana (UCSJ) professors fired two professors apparently for supporting student protests against UCSJ’s handling of sexual assault cases. The professors were fired without an explanation.[119]
Violent attacks targeted universities, resulting in the destruction of university property, impeding academic activity, and making it temporarily impossible for teaching and learning to continue. On February 24, 2023, hooded men broke into the College for Science and Humanities of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and damaged campus property while a meeting between students and the university administration was taking place.[120] The attack followed one that occurred on December 9, 2022, when a group of approximately 12 unidentified assailants vandalized and looted UNAM offices. The individuals detonated explosives, stole computer equipment, broke windows, and set fires in rooms.[121] On September 9, 2022, more than three thousand people were evacuated from the Champila campus of Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, after a bomb threat was reported; ultimately leading to the detonation of two explosive devices.[122]
Myanmar
In Myanmar, violence related to the February 2021 military coup limited student expression and academic freedom and negatively affected the higher education sector more generally. The coup resulted in a dramatic decline in academic freedom. Consequently, Myanmar has among the lowest levels globally. Only North Korea ranks below it.
Figure 6: According to the AFi, academic freedom dropped steeply in Myanmar in 2021 and remains low.
Armed groups continued to occupy and attack higher education facilities in Myanmar. A review of data compiled by ACLED showed at least 25 incidents involving armed activity on or near higher education facilities or military occupation of such facilities during this reporting period. For example, on July 10, 2022, a group known as Generation Z Power reportedly detonated two grenades at the gates of the Mandalay University of Foreign Languages, apparently targeting Myanmar soldiers who were stationed on campus.[123]
University students and faculty involved in the civil disobedience movement faced arrest, imprisonment, and severe sentences. For example, on August 20, 2022, military forces detained seven Yadanabon University employees in their homes apparently because of their connection to the civil disobedience movement. Five were released the following day; it is unclear what occurred to the remaining two employees.[124] According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 140 students and educators were arrested from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023 (a number that includes individuals affiliated with secondary and primary educational institutions).[125]
Some students already imprisoned, sentenced, and convicted prior to the current reporting period saw additional charges made against them and their prison terms extended, in some cases up to life imprisonment and death.[126] For example, Yangon Insein Prison martial court on November 30, 2023, sentenced to death seven students from Dagon University[127] for allegedly being involved in the killing of Saw Moe Win, the manager of the state-owned Global Treasure Bank and a former army lieutenant colonel.[128] The students were under the age of 25 at the time of their sentencing.[129]
AAPP recorded 103 students and educators sentenced from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. The majority of these received lengthy prison sentences: Fourteen were sentenced to life imprisonment, and another 58 were sentenced to 10 or more years in prison. Two other students were sentenced to prison time with hard labor. The counter-terrorism law and section 505A of Myanmar’s penal code were the most common laws under which students and educators were sentenced.[130] The military junta added section 505A to the penal code just weeks after the February 2021 coup; it prohibits actions that are deemed to cause fear, spread false information, or agitate crimes against government employees.[131]
The armed conflict that has continued since the military coup has dramatically affected the higher education system. According to one report, the rate of students attending state-run universities has dropped by 70 percent since February 2021. The rate of students sitting for the matriculation exams required to attend higher education has reportedly dropped by 80 percent.[132] Many of these students are boycotting the government-run system, instead attending classes remotely or with interim institutions affiliated with the National Unity Government (NUG) or other opposition groups.[133] According to a survey conducted by the NUG’s Ministry of Education’s Interim Research Group, students and teachers opposed to the military junta have had their homes destroyed, lost family members, and suffered financial strain, and they live in fear of being arrested.[134]
Nicaragua
SAR kindly thanks the Coalition for Academic Freedom (CAFA) for initial research and drafting of this section. SAR, along with the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Center and University of Monterrey, leads the Coalition.
Following widespread, anti-government demonstrations in Nicaragua in 2018, universities, scholars, and students, along with members of civil society, certain religious figures, and others associated with the protests, have been consistently and aggressively targeted by the ruling Ortega regime. Hundreds of students have been arbitrarily expelled from academic programs in connection with their public expression.[135] Hundreds more have also been forced into exile.[136] The Ortega regime has ordered or forced the closure and confiscation of dozens of Nicaraguan higher education institutions, both public and private, including foreign universities.[137] The country’s precipitous decline in academic freedom, which began in 2018, has continued during this reporting period, placing Nicaragua among the 15 countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom globally, according to the AFi.
Figure 7: According to the AFi, academic freedom dropped steeply in Nicaragua in 2018 and has remained low.
Universities that have effectively been shuttered or otherwise had their legal status stripped include many of those that served as refuges for protesters in 2018. Among those universities are the Universidad Hispanoamericana (UHISPAM), Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (UPOLI), Universidad Católica Agropecuaria del Trópico (UCATSE), Asociación Universidad de Estudios Humanitarios (UNEH), Asociación Universidad Popular de Nicaragua (UPONIC), and Asociación Universidad Paulo Freire (UPF).[138] In March 2023, the government closed two universities linked to the Catholic Church, the Juan Pablo II University and the Autonomous Christian University of Nicaragua (UCAN),[139] as well as the Universidad Panamericana and the Universidad del Pacífico.[140]
Most recently, on August 15, 2023, the Ortega regime ordered the confiscation and closure of the Jesuitic Central American University in Managua (UCA). The UCA provided essential support for the 2018 protests and was considered one of the last-standing hubs for freedom and democratic thought in the country.[141] The regime ordered its closure after claiming that the institution has been a center for the organization of terrorist activities.[142] The Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the Nicaraguan government to reverse its decision against the UCA, which violates the Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy.[143]
A week after the order to close the UCA, four student activists who publicly criticized the closure—Joseling Mayela Campos Silva, Josseth Miranda, Adela Espinoza Tercero, and Gabriela Morales—were arrested.[144] Josseth Miranda was released on August 21, while the other three student activists remain in prison.[145]
In addition to the closure and confiscation of universities, in February 2023 the regime released from custody and deported 222 political prisoners, including student leaders Lesther Aleman, Max Jerez, Mildred Rayo, and Miguel Flores.[146] The political prisoners were flown to the United States, where they entered the country on temporary humanitarian visas. The Nicaraguan Judicial Council declared them traitors, and the National Assembly stripped them of their Nicaraguan nationality, leaving them stateless or at risk of statelessness. (Spain and several Latin American countries responded by offering them citizenship.)
In March 2022, grave concern about widespread human rights violations led the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN).[147] In a statement issued in September 2023, GHREN chair Jan-Michael Simon laid out the state of affairs in stark terms: “We have observed the intentional and severe deprivation of economic and social rights, in particular the right to education and academic freedom. Today, the university sector of Nicaragua as a whole no longer has independent institutions. Nicaragua is being stripped of its intellectual capital and critical voices, leaving the country’s prospects and development on hold.[148]
Russia
SAR kindly thanks Dmitry Dubrovsky and Verena Podolsky from the Center of Independent Social Research for contributing to the research and writing of this section.
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has put significant pressure on Russian scholars, students, and higher education institutions. Over the course of the reporting period, the Russian government increasingly sought to control the content of higher education and to quell dissent within academia. After the start of the war in February 2022, academic freedom declined further from already low levels. This decline was driven by Russia’s increasing restrictions on the freedom of academic and cultural expression. The AFi put Russia in the 20 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom.
The Ministry of Higher Education increasingly moved away from a liberal education model and towards a more militarized one. At the end of 2022, the government announced that, beginning September 2023, all Russian universities and secondary schools will have a required course on the fundamentals of military training, including regulations of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, the methods of conducting modern arms combat, and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, among other topics.[149] Previously, in October 2022, it had been announced that Russian universities would also introduce a course called “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood,” intended to “scientifically” promote the idea of a “special Russian path” and justify the military aggression against Ukraine.[150] The course will be divided into five parts: “What is Russia?,” “Russian state – civilization,” “Russian worldview and values of Russian civilization,” “Political structure”, and “Challenges of the future and the development of the country”.[151] Also at the end of 2022, the Russian government issued a directive to establish 16 new military training centers (VUC) at federal universities.[152]
Russian authorities continued to label organizations, including higher educational institutions, as “undesirable,” resulting in their closures. On March 31, 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office declared the activities of the Free University, one of the few autonomous universities in Russia, undesirable, saying it “[popularized] the activities of organizations recognized as extremist in Russia” and imposed an “ultraliberal model of democracy” on students. The labeling as undesirable makes it almost impossible to teach students in Russia, who could be accused of “cooperating” with an undesirable organization, which, under the law, risks penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment. Ultimately, on April 2, 2023, the University decided to suspend teaching courses to protect faculty and students from possible retribution.[153] On March 20, 2023, it was reported that Russia’s Ministry of Justice filed a motion to permanently shut down the Sova Center for Information and Analysis (SOVA Center), a human rights research and advocacy organization, for its violation of Russia’s law as an undesirable organization.[154] In April, the Moscow City Court ordered SOVA to shut down. (Following the end of the current reporting period, on August 17, 2023, the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld the MCC order, forcing SOVA to close.)[155] Smolny College, the Liberal Arts department of Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU), ended its liberal arts program and announced that a new curriculum would replace it to comply with federal accreditation standards.[156] This comes after Smolny’s partner university Bard College, in the United States, was forced to cut relations after Russia labeled Bard as an “undesirable organization.” [157]
The Russian parliament adopted proposals to strengthen a ban on any discussion and sharing of information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their human rights.[158] The new and more restrictive ban, signed in early December 2022, applies to both scientific research and educational institutions.[159] Later that month, fearing repercussions under the ban, Logos, a Russian philosophy journal, retracted a publication on lesbian fashion by Reina Lewis, a professor of Cultural Studies at the London College of Fashion at University of the Arts London, demonstrating the cross-border impacts on scholarship that can result from domestic restrictions on academic freedom.[160]
The increasingly restrictive laws and regulations are directly impacting faculty members. Some professors have been fired for their public dissent or labeled as “foreign agents” or “anti-war activists” intent on discrediting the Russian government. For example, on October 26, 2022, St. Petersburg State University (SPSU) fired Denis Skopin, a professor of political science, after he protested the government’s mobilization of military-age men in Russia.[161] In March 2023, Pyatigorsk State University fired and fined Elena Kabakova, an associate professor of mathematics, under regulations prohibiting the discrediting of the military. The firing occurred after a student wrote an article denouncing Kabakova, claiming that she had expressed anti-war views to students during class, including by making statements disapproving of a student’s parents decision to fight in Ukraine on behalf of Russia. Kabakova denied any such discussion and insisted she only discussed mathematics during class time.[162]
Against this backdrop of significant repression, during the first half of 2023, the prosecutor’s office initiated a new case against Alexander Shiplyuk, head of Siberia’s Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) and two others for allegedly delivering classified information to China.[163]
Russia has also experienced significant brain drain among academics. For example, approximately 60 percent of employees at the Institute of Humanitarian Historical and Theoretical Research at the Higher School of Economics quit after the invasion in Ukraine. Likewise, almost all foreign and many Russian professors and students reportedly left the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, a university focused on partnerships with foreign educational institutions, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[164]
Students also faced pressure to enlist in the Russian army and to refrain from expressing dissent. In November 2022, it was reported that Russian authorities at the Southern Federal University were pressuring African international students to enlist in the Russian military or Wagner Group to fight in Ukraine by threatening those who refused with increased tuition fees or having their scholarships revoked.[165] Students at other universities have apparently reported receiving summons delivered to their dorm rooms.[166] Students who resist or protest against the war are targeted by police or subjected to pressure from university administrations, often resulting in their expulsion on fabricated grounds.[167] On May 19, 2023, police raided a student dorm at Komsomolsk-on-Amur Technical University and beat up around 100 Tajik students, causing some serious injuries.[168] Russian authorities claimed one of the students was under suspicion of financing terrorism. [169]
Conversely, children of those participating in the “Special Military Operation” (SVO), are becoming a special protected category within universities: President Putin signed a law[170] granting quotas for education in institutes to children of “participants in Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.” Russian universities also have reportedly become sites of “active assistance” in collecting funds and materials for the war.[171] While individuals have a right to use university spaces for political and social organizing, the suppression of one viewpoint (in this case, anti-war organizing) and privileging of another (pro-war organizing) are concerning and undermine academic freedom.
Sudan
A civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has taken a severe toll on the higher education sector. While these effects were not reflected in the 2022 AFi, the Index placed Sudan in the 30 percent of countries with the lowest levels of academic freedom.
In the early days of fighting, students and faculty members reported being forced to flee or being trapped, unable to flee, with no food, water, or electricity.[172] There were also reports of fighters killing, injuring, and sexually violating students and professors.[173] Observers warned that Sudan could face a severe shortage of faculty for the next school year because of the numbers that had fled the country.[174]
According to one estimate, armed fighting and looting damaged 104 government and private higher educational facilities and research centers during the first five months of fighting.[175] In at least one case, Sudanese Armed Forces appeared to target an institution of higher education, bombing the International University of Africa’s campus on June 4, 2023, during clashes with the RSF. Ten people from the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed; it was unclear whether they were students.[176]
Looters targeted Sudan’s cultural and political heritage sites, including universities.[177] A particularly devastating case of looting occurred in May 2023, when it was reported that the library archives at the Muhammad Omar Bashir Centre for Sudanese Studies at Omdurman Ahlia University had been looted and set on fire. The archives, containing a large collection of original volumes and documents on Sudanese politics, history, and culture, were destroyed. The director of the center alerted the RSF, which controlled the area of the University, about the looting, but the troops reportedly did nothing to stop it.[178]
Sri Lanka
University students intensified their participation in the nationwide protest movement against the country’s economic crisis and engaged in frequent protests against the imprisonment of student leaders. Following the outbreak of the current wave of protests in 2021, Sri Lanka saw slight declines in academic freedom—particularly in the freedoms to research and teach and of academic and cultural expression—in 2022. The AFi placed Sri Lanka in the bottom 40 percent of countries.
The 2022–23 academic year began with the imprisonment of three student leaders in August 2022: Wasantha Mudalige (or “Vasantha Mudalike”), convenor of the Inter University Students’ Federation (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.[179] The three students were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which allows for detention for up to a year without trial.[180] The call for their release became a rallying cry for students in subsequent protests.[181] The Tangalle Magistrate’s Court released Gunathilake on October 7, 2022, after determining there was insufficient evidence to continue holding him.[182] The Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court granted Thero bail on December 6, 2022, after he had been detained for over 90 days.[183] Mudalige was released on bail and cleared of terrorism charges on February 1, 2023,[184] after pressure from human rights groups.[185]
State security forces responded to student protesters with water cannons and teargas. SAR reported 15 of these incidents during the reporting period. In some cases, police methods cause injury or death. For example, on March 7, 2023, Sri Lankan police fired teargas and water cannons at students taking part in a peaceful demonstration organized by the IUSF on the University of Colombo’s campus. The protesters’ demands included political reforms, economic assistance, and the release of imprisoned IUSF students. Several members of the university community were hospitalized, including some who had not taken part in the protests. A university security guard, Priyantha Wanninayake, died after inhaling teargas.[186]
Turkey
An increasingly authoritarian environment threatened academic freedom and university autonomy in Turkey. According to the AFi, academic freedom in Turkey remained stable in 2022, with Turkey ranking in the bottom 15 countries globally. Turkey’s AFi ranking declined steeply after 2016, when the Turkish government began to crackdown sharply on dissent. As SAR has reported in previous editions of Free to Think, the ongoing crackdown began in January 2016, when a group of scholars known as “Academics for Peace” signed a “Peace Petition” condemning Turkish military actions in the Kurdish regions of the country, and escalated after an attempted coup later that year.
Following the re-election of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, academics expressed concerns about increasing self-censorship, a climate of fear, and the exodus of scholars from the country.[187] A report by the Turkish Information Foundation published in April 2023 found that the number of scholars who have left the country has increased since 2015, around the time that Erdoğan’s government began to crack down on the university sector.[188] A report published by the European University Association in March 2023 found that Turkey’s universities were the least autonomous among the 35 European countries examined.
As in previous years, police used force to break up student protests and detain protesters. For example, on February 17, 2023, police detained 22 Dokuz Eylul University students who were protesting the government’s decision to move classes online and to use state-run university dormitories as shelters for victims of the massive earthquake that hit southern Turkey on February 6.[189] During the summer of 2023, police cracked down on at least 5 pride events held by students. [190] For example, on June 9, police detained around six Middle East Technical University (METU) students who were preparing to lead a march celebrating the culmination of Pride Week. The march went forward despite the detentions, but police detained 10 more students afterwards. Two students reportedly received head injuries in the process of being detained.[191]
University officials also cracked down on student expression, including in several incidents that took place at Boğaziçi University (BU). As reported previously, BU had come under increased state control since February 2021, when President Erdoğan first appointed a political ally to the position of rector.[192] On July 4, 2022, several students received emails from the BU administration notifying them that their alumni cards had been canceled indefinitely for disturbing “the peace and security of the university with demonstrations and actions on campus.”[193] On August 3, 2023, the BU administration suspended the BU cinema club’s activities for a period of one month. The suspension came the month after the university refused the club permission to show three films involving themes related to gender and sexuality.[194]
Academics in Turkey continued to face arrests, dismissals, and suspensions related to their scholarship and teaching. Authorities arrested and detained Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the president of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and a professor of forensic medicine at Istanbul University on October 26, 2022, over her comments during a television interview calling for an investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military on the Kurdistan Workers Party. Fincancı was charged with spreading terrorist propaganda and insulting Turkey.[195] In January 2023, Andalou University suspended law professor Bülent Yücel for three-month suspension for a question he included on a constitutional law exam given on January 9; the university also voided the exam results.[196] The question asked students to analyze judicial pressure on state institutions and referenced a case that led to the freezing of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) bank accounts over alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.[197]
Since the beginning of its crackdown on the higher education community in 2016, Turkey has engaged in a purge of scholars critical of its government’s policies. In March 2023, the European Court of Human Rights sided with three academics challenging their treatment under the purge. Alphan Telek, Edgar Şar, and Zeynep Kıvılcım had been dismissed from their positions, put on trial, and had their passports revoked for signing the Peace Petition. The ruling held that the withdrawal of their passports violated their right to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and their right to education under Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention.[198] While the ruling did not directly involve other academics, it should apply to all other scholars whose passports the Turkish government has not yet reinstated.
Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war had devastating consequences for higher education, primarily the destruction and occupation of higher education infrastructure and the forced displacement of scholars and students alike. After the onset of the war, academic freedom declined slightly in Ukraine in 2022. According to the AFi, Ukraine ranked in the bottom 30 percent of all countries.
Figure 8: According to the AFi, academic freedom dropped slightly in Ukraine in 2022, coinciding with Russia invasion of the country.
Russian forces continued to damage and destroy civilian infrastructure, including higher education facilities, both discriminately and indiscriminately. Among the institutions that sustained damage from such attacks during the current reporting period were Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (KNU),[199] Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (PMBSNU),[200] O.M. Beketov Kharkiv National University of Urban Economy,[201] Sukhomlynskyi Mykolaiv National University and the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding,[202] and H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.[203] At least 90 separate missile, drone, and artillery strikes had struck universities, primarily throughout Kharkiv, Melitopol, Chernihiv, Kherson, Kramatorsk, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, and Mariupol.[204]
Russian forces also took over several universities in an attempt to gain control over the curriculum through the appointment of pro-Russian rectors. On August 1, 2022, it was reported that Russian occupying forces had seized control of Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University (KhDAEU) and appointed a new rector.[205] SAR also reported that, on July 28, 2022, Russian occupying authorities appointed an acting director to manage the Kherson National Technical University (KhNTU) five months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.[206] Russian authorities also renamed the university “Kherson Technical University,” leaving out the word “National” in its name.
Faculty and students were also individually targeted. For example, on December 12, 2022, Russian forces entered the home of Volodymyr Vorovka, a professor of marine biology at Melitopol Pedagogical University, and kidnapped him.[207] His whereabouts are still unknown, and his family has not heard from him since the abduction.[208] On July 15, 2022, a fourth-year student was expelled from Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University after reportedly posting on social media that she did not support either side in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and to “accept the enemy with kindness.”[209]
United States of America
Scholars and students faced an increasingly polarized and politicized environment in higher education settings that posed a significant threat to academic freedom, university autonomy, and free expression on campus. The 2022 Academic Freedom Index showed significant declines for the United States, particularly in the freedom to research and teach. These declines were largely due to an increasing number of state-level bills restricting instruction or activities on allegedly “divisive” topics, including concepts like critical race theory, gender studies, or social justice.[210] Such restrictions, especially when imposed from outside the sector, threaten to undermine academic freedom, stifle discourse, and trigger self-censorship.[211]
Figure 9: According to the AFi, the United States has seen a decline in most indicators of academic freedom since 2020.
In Florida, the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis sought to increase state control over universities through executive and legislative actions. The administration appointed political allies to positions of leadership, such as university boards, which in turn appointed or hired politically aligned individuals as university presidents, as in the case of former senator Ben Sasse (University of Florida) and former congressional representative Richard Corcoran (New College of Florida).[212]
On May 16, 2023, Governor DeSantis signed into law two measures that eroded academic freedom and university autonomy. One banned public colleges and universities from including listed disfavored topics in required courses, including, for example, content that examines whether “systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent” in the United States. The vague and overbroad language in the law left administrators, faculty and students vulnerable to false allegations and sanctions, infringing academic freedom and triggering pro-active closure of programs, cancellation of courses, and self-censorship; these despite the fact that, as of this writing, the application of the law has been blocked by courts.[213]
A second law barred public colleges and universities in the state from using state funding for increasing diversity through hiring and from requiring diversity-related statements in hiring, promoting, and admissions.[214] Another bill, Florida House Bill 999, is still under consideration. It includes a series of changes aimed at defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities, giving university trustees disproportionate hiring power, increasing the possibilities for post-tenure review, eliminating certain majors, and creating new general education requirements.[215] These measures intrude on university autonomy in traditional administrative functions, frustrate efforts to remedy past exclusion of women and minorities from higher education, and may ultimately undermine the recruitment position of Florida’s state institutions relative to other state systems competing for the same top faculty and student candidates.
In June 2023, the DeSantis administration filed a lawsuit to protect these restrictions from actions by private higher education accreditors. The suit challenged the federal law that authorized the long-standing role of accrediting agencies in deciding eligibility for federal research and education funding.[216] The administration feared that the agencies might deny accreditation based on the new laws’ anti-DEI provisions and infringements of autonomy and academic freedom, leading to a devastating loss of federal funds.
Florida’s university presidents were complicit in the administration’s efforts that weakened academic freedom. Rather than object to the infringements in the bills and their vague and overbroad language, on January 18, 2023, the Florida College System presidents released a statement promising to prevent any effort within the system that “compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that systems of oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed and/or improved upon.”[217]
The consequences of the DeSantis administration’s efforts were clear in the case of New College of Florida. In early 2023 the administration hand-picked a group of new trustees.[218] Among the first acts of the newly appointed board was the firing of New College president, Patricia Okker, on January 31, 2023, apparently for her support for teaching critical race theory and issues related to DEI.[219] Later that semester, on April 26, 2023, the New College Board of Trustees denied the tenure requests of five professors, an act that appeared to be politically motivated.[220] On May 12, 2023, New College administrators informed US history professor Erik Wallenberg that his contract would not be renewed. The decision was apparently an act of retaliation for remarks that Wallenberg made in a Teen Vogue op-ed in which he expressed concern about the direction of New College.[221]
State legislatures and universities elsewhere took actions that mirrored those taken in Florida. As of July 14, 2023, the Chronicle of Higher Education was tracking 40 bills in 22 states that sought to undermine diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus. Seven of these had already become law.[222] For example, On June 14, 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that would eliminate DEI programs, and the state senate passed a bill that would bar professors from encouraging students “to adopt a belief that any race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex, ethnicity, or belief.”[223] In March 2023, both houses of Tennessee’s state legislature passed a bill that would prevent universities from using state funding for a meeting or activity that “endorses or promotes a divisive concept.” The bill also requires DEI efforts to include “intellectual diversity.”[224] Ohio Senate Bill 83, passed on May 17, 2023, would ban many DEI efforts and increase state oversight over faculty performance.[225] Opponents of these measures fear that they set a dangerous precedent for state intervention into core teaching and research functions by stigmatizing areas of academic discourse and encouraging self-censorship.
Across the country, faculty members found their jobs increasingly at risk. SAR recorded 10 cases of professors, lecturers, and scholars who faced the real or threatened loss of position in ways that impinged on academic freedom.[226] Among the most high-profile cases was that of Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch, whose fellowship at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government was canceled by the dean in July 2022 over concerns about the political sensitivity of the appointment, given Roth’s prior human rights work. The dean reversed his decision in January 2023, following public outcry.[227] On October 24, 2022, Hamline University rescinded an offer to adjunct professor of art history, Erika López Prater, to teach during the Spring 2023 semester, after a student complained about an image of a painting of the Prophet Mohammed that she displayed in her Fall 2022 class on global art. López Prater has stated that she notified the students in the syllabus that the painting would be displayed respectfully and allowed any student who did not wish to view the image to step away from class during that portion of the lesson.[228] An AAUP investigation found that “circumstantial evidence strongly suggest[ed]” that the university had violated López Prater’s academic freedom by rescinding her contract offer.[229] In March 2023, López Prater filed a lawsuit against Hamline University claiming defamation, reprisal, internal infliction of emotional distress, retaliation, and religious discrimination. While a judge dismissed most of the claims on September 15, 2023, at the time of writing, the claim of religious discrimination was still under consideration.[230]
Several researchers who study disinformation found themselves targeted in one high profile lawsuit. On May 2, 2023, American First Legal (AFL) named both Stanford’s Internet Observatory Director and Alex Stamos and Research Manager Renee DiResta as well as University of Washington Professor Kate Starbird as defendants in a class action lawsuit alleging that they had colluded with the federal government and social media companies to censor free speech.[231] By targeting researchers for their academic work, the lawsuit could have a chilling effect on research on disinformation or other politically sensitive topics.[232]
Tensions between US and Chinese authorities over, among other issues, allegations of espionage and surveillance on US campuses, have eroded conditions for academic exchange and cooperation.[233] In early 2023, the Asian American Scholar Forum reported that there had been multiple recent incidents in which US border authorities harassed or interrogated Chinese American scientists and professors.[234] Reports also indicated that, despite the end of President Trump’s controversial China Initiative targeting Chinese scientists for perceived links to the Chinese government, FBI agents have continued to visit US campuses warning of threat from Chinese academics and fueling suspicion and fear towards Chinese researchers.[235] A report published by the Asian American Scholar Forum in September 2022 showed that scientists born in China but working in the United States increasingly find themselves living with a general sense of unease and in fear that their academic work will be at jeopardy if they stay in the United States. Growing numbers are leaving the United States, switching to Chinese affiliations, or declining to pursue federal funding.[236] The US-China rivalry is also affecting student mobility between the two countries.[237] According to OpenDoors, international exchange has declined significantly. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States dropped by 22 percent, and the number of US students studying in China dropped by nearly 97 percent, from 11,639 in 2020 to just 382 in 2022.[238] While some of the decline could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, the drop has continued even as travel began to resume. For example, while the total number of student visas issued by the United States was higher in the Fall of 2022 than in previous years, the number of visas issued to Chinese students was dramatically lower than prior to the pandemic.[239]
[1] See table of incidents at the end of this report.
[2] It is also worth noting that the AFi presents a macro-level understanding of academic freedom in each country. Pressures on higher education communities may vary substantially from that baseline at the subnational level. For example, in the United States, where higher education governance is decentralized to the state level, attacks on higher education are significantly more common in some states than others.
[3] See also Katrin Kinzelbach, Ilyas Saliba, Janika Spannagel, and Robert Quinn, Free Universities: Putting the Academic Freedom Index into Action (March 11, 2021), https://www.gppi.net/2021/03/11/free-universities.
[4] The AFi is comprised of five indicators: (1) “freedom to research and teach” is the extent to which “scholars are free to develop and pursue their own research and teaching agendas without interference”; “freedom of academic exchange and dissemination” is the extent to which scholars are “free to exchange and communicate research ideas and findings”; (3) “institutional autonomy” is the extent to which “universities exercise autonomy in practice”; (4) “campus integrity” is the extent to which “campuses are free from politically motivated surveillance or security infringements”; and “freedom of academic and cultural expression” is the extent to which there is “academic freedom and cultural expression related to political issues.” See the V-Dem codebook at https://v-dem.net/documents/24/codebook_v13.pdf. For more on the AFi, see J. Spannagel and K. Kinzelbach, “The Academic Freedom Index and Its indicators: Introduction to new global time-series V-Dem data,” Qual Quant 57, 3969–89 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01544-0.
[5] SAR AFMP, December 20, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-20-country-wide/.
[6] SAR AFMP, October 14, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-14-various-institutions/.
[7] SAR AFMP, October 30, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-30-badakhshan-university/
[8] Riazat Butt, “Taliban warn women can’t take entry exams at universities,” Associated Press, January 28, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-colleges-and-universities-taliban-education-religion-66a66b52706e8190332625c8a42e51e3.
[9] Riazat Butt, “Afghan universities ready to readmit women but not until Taliban leader says it’s ok, official says,” Associated Press, August 12, 2023.
[10] “Afghanistan universities reopen but women still barred by Taliban,” Al Jazeera, March 6, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/6/afghanistan-universities-reopen-but-women-still-barred-by-taliban.
[11] SAR AFMP, February 3, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-03-various-institutions/.
[12] SAR AFMP, March 28, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-28-badakhshan-university/.
[13] SAR AFMP, December 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-24-mirwais-neeka-university/.
[14] SAR AFMP, December 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-24-unspecified-institutions/.
[15] Ruchi Kumar, “The Taliban ended college for women. Here’s how Afghan women are defying the ban,” NPR, February 24, 2023, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/24/1158546120/the-taliban-ended-college-for-women-heres-how-afghan-women-are-defying-the-ban.
[16] Shadi Khan Saif, “Ban on women students to impact severely on higher education,” University World News, January 13, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230113070449565.
[17] Shadi Khan Saif, “Female students denied fair chance of university entrance,” University World News, November 11, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221111074501782.
[18] “Kabul girl gets highest score in this year’s Kankor exam,” Ariana News, August 25, 2023, https://www.ariananews.af/kabul-girl-gets-highest-score-in-this-years-kankor-exam/.
[19] Pola Lem, “Taliban seeks to turn fighters into faculty as exams scrapped,” Times Higher Education, December 12, 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/taliban-seeks-turn-fighters-faculty-exams-scrapped.
[20] Hafeezullah Maruf, “More than half of the teachers of Kabul University have left Afghanistan,” BBC Pashto, https://www.bbc.com/pashto/articles/cer1m2dzwvyo.
[21] SAR AFMP, July 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-16-khost-university/.
[22] SAR AFMP, March 8, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-08-unaffiliated/.
[23] SAR AFMP, September 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-30-kaaj-educational-center/.
[24] SAR AFMP, October 2, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-02-herat-university/.
[25] SAR AFMP, October 4, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-04-al-biruni-university/.
[26] SAR AFMP, October 3, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-03-balkh-university/.
[27] SAR AFMP, October 9, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-09-kabul-university/.
[28] SAR AFMP, September 27, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-27-university-of-dhaka/.
[29] SAR AFMP, October 7, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-7-university-of-dhaka/.
[30] SAR AFMP, January 23, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-23-chittagong-university/.
[31] SAR AFMP, January 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-30-chittagong-university/.
[32] “Student bodies: Review decision to ban student politics,” Dhaka Tribune, October 12, 2019, https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/190134/student-bodies-review-decision-to-ban-student. For different academics’ views on these calls, see “Academics: Ban violent politics, not student politics,” Dhaka Tribune, October 17, 2019, https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/190548/academics-ban-violent-politics-not-student.
[33] SAR AFMP, August 18, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-18-dhaka-university/.
[34] “Life Sentence for Professor Rahile Dawut Confirmed,” Dui Hua Foundation, September 21, 2023, https://duihua.org/life-sentence-for-professor-rahile-dawut-confirmed/.
[35] SAR AFMP, February 15, 2020, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2020-02-15-unaffiliated/.
[36] “China: Heavy prison sentences for human rights activists ‘disgraceful’,” Amnesty International, April 10, 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/04/china-heavy-prison-sentences-for-human-rights-activists-disgraceful/.
[37] SAR AFMP, January 15, 2014, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2014-01-15-central-university-nationalities/.
[38] SAR AFMP, October 4, 2018, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-10-04-unaffiliated/.
[39] SAR AFMP, January 29, 2018, www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-01-29-xinjiang-pedagogical-university/.
[40] Yojana Sharma, “New research exposes power of classroom informant system,” University World News, March 23, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230323135544104. Jue Jiang, “‘It Is Especially Scary to See Students’,” China File, March 13, 2023, https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/notes-chinafile/threats-academic-free.
[41] Yojana Sharma, “New research exposes power of classroom informant system,” University World News, March 23, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230323135544104.
[42] SAR AFMP, March 8, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-08-nanjing-university-of-aeronautics-and-astronautics/.
[43] Pola Lem, “Universities ‘in tricky position’ on Chinese student contracts,” Times Higher Education, January 24, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-tricky-position-chinese-student-contracts. Sophie Hogan, “Chinese students signing “loyalty” pledges before arrival in Sweden,” The Pie News, January 16, 2023, https://thepienews.com/news/chinese-students-signing-loyalty-pledges-arrival-sweden/.
[44] Yojana Sharma, “German university ends ties with China scholarship scheme,“ University World News, July 20, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230720113914406.
[45] Yojana Sharma, “German university ends ties with China scholarship scheme,“ University World News, July 20, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230720113914406. Paul Basken, “What next for US-China research ties post-Lieber case?,” Times Higher Education, May 2, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/what-next-us-china-research-ties-post-lieber-case. Paul Basken, “Canadian scientists ‘questioned by agents over China links’,” Times Higher Education, May 9, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/canadian-scientists-questioned-agents-over-china-links. David Matthews, “Germany moves to create new restrictions on research cooperation with China,” Science Business, July 18, 2023, https://sciencebusiness.net/news/dual-use/germany-moves-create-new-restrictions-research-cooperation-china.
[46] Pola Lem, “China block on foreign access to journal portal ‘damages knowledge’,” Times Higher Education, April 13, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-block-foreign-access-journal-portal-damages-knowledge. Bochen Han, “A portal to China is closing, at least temporarily, and researchers are nervous,” South China Morning Post, March 25, 2023, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3214808/portal-china-closing-least-temporarily-and-researchers-are-nervous.
[47] Pola Lem, “What does Xi Jinping’s third term mean for Chinese science?,” Times Higher Education, November 4, 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/what-does-xi-jinpings-third-term-mean-chinese-science. Pola Lem, “China block on foreign access to journal portal ‘damages knowledge’,” Times Higher Education, April 13, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-block-foreign-access-journal-portal-damages-knowledge.
[48] Pola Lem, “US-China ‘paranoia’ is ‘hurting universities and students’,” Times Higher Education, June 21, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/us-china-paranoia-hurting-universities-and-students.
[49] Jing Liu, “China to evaluate universities with ‘ideological index’,” Times Higher Education, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-evaluate-universities-ideological-index.
[50] Cindy Carter, “Tsinghua University students sue Ministry of Education over rainbow pride flag case,” China Digital Times, February 27, 2023, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2023/02/tsinghua-university-students-sue-ministry-of-education-over-rainbow-pride-flag-case/. Ding Yuan and Darius Longarino, “2 College Students in China Were Disciplined for Giving Out Pride Flags. Can the Law Help Them?,” The Diplomat, April 28, 2023, https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/2-college-students-in-china-were-disciplined-for-giving-out-pride-flags-can-the-law-help-them/.
[51] SAR AFMP, February 15, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-15-university-of-antioquia/. “Dos heridos deja una explosión en el interior de la Universidad Antioquia en Medellín,” Infobae, February 16, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/02/16/dos-heridos-deja-una-explosion-en-el-interior-de-la-universidad-antioquia-en-medellin/. María Andrea Suárez, “Dos heridos deja una explosión en el interior de la Universidad de Antioquia en Medellín,” El Colombiano, February 16, 2023, https://www.colombia.com/actualidad/nacionales/dos-heridos-deja-explosion-en-interior-de-universidad-de-antioquia-medellin-390023.
[52] “Colombia. Estudiantes universitarios preparan movilización nacional para reformar educación,” Resumen Latinoamericano, April 14, 2023, https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/2023/04/14/colombia-estudiantes-universitarios-preparan-movilizacion-nacional-para-reformar-educacion/#:~:text=Estudiantes%20universitarios%20preparan%20movilizaci%C3%B3n%20nacional%20para%20reformar%20educaci%C3%B3n,-By%20Resumen%20Latinoamericano&text=Por%20Resumen%20Latinoamericano%2C%2014%20de,el%20pr%C3%B3ximo%2028%20de%20abril.
[53] “Daños en la Universidad Industrial de Santander por vandalismo,” Radio Nacional, April 28, 2023, https://www.radionacional.co/noticias-colombia/danos-en-la-universidad-industrial-de-santander-por-vandalismo. “Estudiante narra la toma de la Universidad Industrial de Santander,” El País, May 9, 2023, https://www.elpais.com.co/judicial/la-situacion-fue-aterradora-estudiante-cuenta-los-angustiantes-momentos-tras-toma-de-la-uis-por-encapuchados-0916.html.
[54] “Día del estudiante caído: ¿A quienes recordamos en la conmemoración?,” Caracol, June 9, 2022, https://caracol.com.co/radio/2022/06/09/nacional/1654789338_003463.html.
[55] SAR AFMP, June 8, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-08-national-university-of-bogota/. “Disturbios en la Universidad Nacional dejan hasta el momento un policía herido El Espectador, June 8, 2023, https://www.elespectador.com/bogota/disturbios-en-la-universidad-nacional-dejan-hasta-el-momento-un-policia-herido-noticias-hoy/. “Claudia López pidió al director de la Policía ingresar a la Universidad Nacional para detener ‘a estos criminales’,” Infobae, June 8, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/06/08/claudia-lopez-condeno-los-disturbios-en-la-universidad-nacional-hasta-cuando-van-a-hacer-algo-contra-estos-delincuentes.
[56] “Disturbios en la Universidad del Tolima: encapuchados incineraron instalaciones y dejaron mensajes alusivos a las Farc-EP,” Semana, June 8, 2023, https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/disturbios-en-la-universidad-del-tolima-encapuchados-incineraron-instalaciones-y-dejaron-mensajes-alusivos-a-las-farc-ep/202313/. “Disturbios en la Universidad del Tolima. Directivos rechazan actos violentos,” Radio Nacional, June 9, 2023, https://www.radionacional.co/noticias-colombia/disturbios-en-la-universidad-del-tolima-directivos-rechazan-actos-violentos.
[57] “Nuevas amenazas con panfleto a estudiantes y profesores de la universidad Eafit en Medellín,” Semana, November 2, 2022, https://www.semana.com/nacion/medellin/articulo/preocupante-nuevas-amenazas-con-panfleto-a-estudiantes-y-profesores-de-la-universidad-eafit-en-medellin/202239/. “Nuevas amenazas con panfleto a estudiantes y profesores de la universidad Eafit en Medellín,” Blu Radio, November 2, 2023, https://www.bluradio.com/blu360/antioquia/nuevas-amenazas-con-panfleto-a-estudiantes-y-profesores-de-la-universidad-eafit-en-medellin-rg10.
[58] A silenced ‘Me Too’ entangles Petro’s diplomacy: the case of Víctor de Currea-Lugo,” El País, January 17, 2023, https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2023-01-17/un-metoo-silenciado-que-enreda-a-la-diplomacia-de-petro-el-caso-de-victor-de-currea-lugo.html. “Víctor de Currea-Lugo rechaza embajada en Emiratos tras denuncia por acoso sexual,” El Espectador, January 19, 2023, https://www.elespectador.com/politica/victor-de-currea-lugo-renuncio-como-embajador-tras-denuncias-por-acoso-sexual/. “Víctor de Currea-Lugo renuncia al cargo de embajador en Emiratos Árabes,” El País, January 19, 2023, https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2023-01-19/victor-de-currea-lugo-renuncia-al-cargo-de-embajador-de-emiratos-arabes.html.
[59] “Los dramáticos relatos de las víctimas de acoso sexual en la Universidad Javeriana: ‘Se me mandó encima’,” Semana, February 4, 2023, https://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/los-dramaticos-relatos-de-las-victimas-de-acoso-sexual-en-la-universidad-javeriana-se-me-mando-encima/202356/. “Acoso sexual en la Universidad Javeriana: nuevos testimonios señalan al exdecano de Ciencias Políticas,” Infobae, February 14, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/02/14/acoso-sexual-en-la-universidad-javeriana-nuevos-testimonios-senalan-al-exdecano-de-ciencias-politicas/.
[60] “The sexual images that a professor from the U. Nacional presented to his classes,” El Espectador, March 29, 2023, https://www.elespectador.com/colombia/medellin/las-imagenes-sexuales-que-llevaba-un-profesor-de-la-u-nacional-a-sus-clases-oswaldo-ordonez-carmona/. “Oswaldo Ordóñez, a professor at the National University of Colombia, was accused of sexual harassment,” Infobae, March 29, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/03/29/oswaldo-ordonez-docente-de-la-universidad-nacional-de-colombia-fue-acusado-de-hostigamiento-sexual/.
[61] “Profesor de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana fue acusado de acoso sexual,” Infobae, March 13, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/03/13/profesor-de-la-universidad-pontificia-bolivariana-en-medellin-fue-acusado-de-acoso-sexual/. “Los testimonios que enredan a profesor de prestigiosa Universidad paisa por presunto acoso sexual,” El Colombiano, March 13, 2023, https://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/los-testimonios-que-enredan-a-un-profesor-de-la-universidad-pontificia-bolivariana-por-acoso-sexual-GC20770372
[62] “Docente de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia fue destituido por acosar sexualmente a dos estudiantes gais,” Infobae, February 7, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/02/07/docente-de-la-universidad-nacional-de-colombia-fue-destituido-por-acosar-sexualmente-a-dos-estudiantes-gais/. “Un colchón en su oficina y acoso a estudiantes: el caso del destituido profesor de filosofía de la Universidad Nacional,” El País, February 10, 2023, https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2023-02-10/un-colchon-en-su-oficina-y-acoso-a-estudiantes-el-caso-del-destituido-profesor-de-filosofia-de-la-universidad-nacional.html.
[63]“Universidad en Pasto es condenada a reparar a estudiante que sufrió acoso sexual de un profesor,” Blu Radio, April 22, 2023. https://www.bluradio.com/nacion/universidad-en-pasto-es-condenada-a-reparar-a-estudiante-que-sufrio-acoso-sexual-de-un-profesor-rg10. “Universidad nariñense se ve obligada a reparar a estudiante víctima de acoso sexual,” Infobae, April 23, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/04/23/universidad-narinense-se-vera-obligada-a-reparar-a-estudiante-victima-de-acoso-sexual/. “Indemnización por acoso sexual? El caso de una estudiante que sí lo logró,” El Espectador, April 26, 2023, https://www.elespectador.com/judicial/podria-recibir-una-indemnizacion-si-es-victima-de-acoso-sexual/.
[64] Yojana Sharma, “Academics fear ‘less democratic’ university governance,” University World News, April 21, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230421084359659.
[65] Yojana Sharma, “Academics from mainland China outnumber Hong Kong faculty,” University World News, May 19, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230519105129722.
[66] Mimi Leung, “Security chief warns against support for China protests,” University World News, December 1, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221201071315629.
[67] Ezra Cheung, “University of Hong Kong plans to clamp down on behaviour that brings it into ‘disrepute’, sparking criticism by staff, students,” South China Morning Post, June 29, 2023, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3225817/university-hong-kong-plans-clamp-down-behaviour-brings-it-disrepute-criticised-staff-students.
[68] SAR SFMP, November 30, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-30-hong-kong-baptist-university/.
[69] Shuriah Niazi, “Campuses seething over government Modi documentary ‘ban’,” University World News, February 2, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230202081052532.
[70] SAR AFMP, January 23, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-23-jawaharlal-nehru-university/.
[71] SAR AFMP, January 27, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-26-central-university-of-rajasthan/.
[72] SAR AFMP, January 25, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-25-jamia-millia-islamia-university/.
[73] SAR AFMP, January 27, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-1-27-university-of-delhi/.
[74] SAR AFMP, March 10, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-10-university-of-delhi/.
[75] SAR AFMP, March 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-24-university-of-delhi/.
[76] Shuriah Niazi, “Court upholds protesting students’ rights to dissent,” University World News, February 10, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230210065520400.
[77] Pola Lem, “Leading Indian university U-turns on student sit-ins ban,” Times Higher Education, March 9, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/leading-indian-university-u-turns-student-sit-ins-ban.
[78] SAR AFMP, March 29, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-29-university-of-delhi/.
[79] SAR AFMP, March 31, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-31-university-of-delhi/.
[80] SAR AFMP, November 4, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-04-south-asian-university/.
[81] SAR AFMP, June 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-16-south-asian-university/.
[82] Pola Lem, “Political meddling denounced as Indian v-cs told to step down,” Times Higher Education, November 1, 2022, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/political-meddling-denounced-indian-v-cs-told-step-down.
[83] Tiya Thomas-Alexander, “Mandatory ‘Indian knowledge’ course seen as ‘indoctrination’,” Times Higher Education, June 27, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/mandatory-indian-knowledge-course-seen-indoctrination.
[84] Tiya Thomas-Alexander, “Indian universities’ silence on Modi degrees ‘shows climate of fear’, Times Higher Education, May 4, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/indian-universities-silence-modi-degrees-shows-climate-fear.
[85] Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, “Publishing a Book on Manipur? Now You Need the Govt’s Approval,” The Wire, September 18, 2022, https://thewire.in/rights/manipur-book-publishing-government-approval.
[86] Connor Bradbury and Garrett Nada, “Explainer: Iran’s University Protests,” United States Institute of Peace, January 5, 2023, https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2022/nov/10/explainer-irans-university-protests.
[87] Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iran Protests 2022 -Detailed Report of 82 Days of Nationwide Protests in Iran, September-December 2022, https://www.en-hrana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/82-Day-WLF-Protest-in-Iran-2022-English.pdf.
[88] Connor Bradbury and Garrett Nada, “Explainer: Iran’s University Protests,” United States Institute of Peace, January 5, 2023, https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2022/nov/10/explainer-irans-university-protests.
[89] Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Iran Protests 2022 -Detailed Report of 82 Days of Nationwide Protests in Iran, September-December 2022, https://www.en-hrana.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/82-Day-WLF-Protest-in-Iran-2022-English.pdf.
[90] “Students Arrested and Banished, Professors Fired in Latest State Crackdown in Iran,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 1, 2023, https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/06/students-arrested-and-banished-professors-fired-in-latest-state-crackdown-in-iran/. Other groups have reported similar numbers. For example, HRANA reported in January 2022 that at least 637 students from 144 universities had been arrested. Miriam Berger, “Students in Iran are risking everything to rise up against the government,“ Washington Post, January 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/05/iran-protests-students-mahsa-amini/.
[91] “Students Arrested and Banished, Professors Fired in Latest State Crackdown in Iran,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 1, 2023, https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/06/students-arrested-and-banished-professors-fired-in-latest-state-crackdown-in-iran/. “ICOIA’s report on government crackdown on university students and academics in Iran,” International Community of Iranian Academics, March 2023, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cw8eqyWy5zqs6Yzwzmy5MfxPrTydK0zu/view.
[92] “Iran Protests: Detained University Students Subjected to Sexual Assault, Disappearances,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, December 6, 2022, https://iranhumanrights.org/2022/12/iran-protests-detained-university-students-subjected-to-sexual-assault-disappearances/.
[93] “ICOIA’s report on government crackdown on university students and academics in Iran,” International Community of Iranian Academics, March 2023, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cw8eqyWy5zqs6Yzwzmy5MfxPrTydK0zu/view. “Death by Baton,” Iran Human Rights Monitor, November 23, 2022, https://iran-hrm.com/2022/11/23/death-by-baton/.
[94] SAR AFMP, November 2, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-02-tabriz-university/.
[95] SAR AFMP, September 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-24-university-of-tehran/.
[96] SAR AFMP, June 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-16-tehran-university-of-art/.
[97] “Students Arrested and Banished, Professors Fired in Latest State Crackdown in Iran,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 1, 2023, https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/06/students-arrested-and-banished-professors-fired-in-latest-state-crac.
[98] See ACLED’s website here: https://acleddata.com/.
[99] Agence France Presse, “Iran Frees Some Prisoners to Appease Protest Movement,” Voice of America, February 14, 2023, https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-frees-some-prisoners-to-appease-protest-movement-/6963150.html.
[100] Michael Fitzpatrick, “Freed French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah still unable to leave Iran,” Radio France Internationale, March 24, 2023, https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20230324-freed-french-iranian-academic-fariba-adelkhah-still-unable-to-leave-iran.
[101] “French-Iranian academic imprisoned for years in Iran returns to France,” Associated Press, October 18, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/france-iran-academic-prison-release-return-fd28271bebd6bb18af56d314d7c9b8fc.
[102] “Polish scientist released from prison in Iran, foreign ministry says,” Reuters, January 14, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/polish-scientist-released-prison-iran-foreign-ministry-says-2023-01-14/.
[103] “Prominent Iranian Researcher Sentenced To Nine Years In Prison,” Iran International, December 24, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202212241254.
[104] Deepa Parent, “Students barred from Iranian universities for refusing to wear a hijab,” The Guardian, July 10, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jul/10/students-barred-from-iranian-universities-for-refusing-to-wear-a-hijab.
[105] SAR AFMP, September 25, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-25-university-of-tehran/.
[106] SAR AFMP, September 29, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-29-azad-university-of-tehran/. SAR AFMP, November 4, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-04-azad-university-of-tehran/.
[107] Pola Lem, “Iran forces regime critics out of academia,” Times Higher Education, February 13, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iran-forces-regime-critics-out-academia.
[108] “Students Arrested and Banished, Professors Fired in Latest State Crackdown in Iran,” Center for Human Rights in Iran, June 1, 2023, https://iranhumanrights.org/2023/06/students-arrested-and-banished-professors-fired-in-latest-state-crackdown-in-iran/. The purge continued after the end of the 2022–23 reporting period, with the Iranian media calling it “political purification.” For more, see Maryam Sinaee, “Hardliners Purge More Professors In Iran, Hiring Ideologues,” Iran International, August 28, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202308289643. “Iran Purged More Professors Since 2022 Protests,” Iran International, August 31, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202308312444. “President Raisi’s Systematic Purge Of Professors Extends To Schools,” Iran International, September 28, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202309287071.
[109] SAR AFMP, January 26, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-26-beheshti-university-law-school/.
[110] Pola Lem, “Iran forces regime critics out of academia,” Times Higher Education, February 13, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iran-forces-regime-critics-out-academia.
[111] Negar Partow, Maryam Moridnejad, Elnaz Irannezhad, Mona Parizadeh, and Rana Dadpour, “Systemic Oppression of Tertiary Education in Iran,” Higher Education Policy, August 2023, https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1057/s41307-023-00321-4?sharing_token=PN0-8tMZXKsl_EgQa6G5ZVxOt48VBPO10Uv7D6sAgHspg5yUbbzhBzugkvxCvjJK-bBJvpXQcMegr7eAVgQJrwsguh9qawASvgTLEaL-N5hA0at9J1hpgl1enxo8ZGMh20ofQ8ive1Bcr9nJ1RWcUNbzGmgEyC5MBV8HxrOuY_k=.
[112] “Iran Purged More Professors Since 2022 Protests,” Iran International, August 31, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202308312444.
[113] “Purge Of Professors: Iran Axed Hundreds Of Academics In 17 Years,” Iran International, August 25, 2023, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202308241899.
[114] David Agren, “Mexico’s scientists, activists and artists oppose president’s funding overhaul,” The Guardian, October 6, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/06/mexico-scientists-activists-artists-oppose-funding-overhaul.
[115] “What is the Controversy in Mexico Over AMLO’s New Science Law?,” Latin American Post, May 25, 2023, https://latinamericanpost.com/44499-what-is-the-controversy-in-mexico-over-amlos-new-science-law.
[116] Myriam Vidal Valero, “Hundreds file suit targeting Mexico’s divisive science law,” Nature, June 27, 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02062-1.
[117] “Amnesty International Report 2022/23: Mexica,” Amnesty International, March 27, 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/5670/2023/en/, pg. 250-254.
[118] SAR AFMP, June 13, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-13-center-for-sustainability-of-the-sierra-nevada-incalli-ixcahuicopa-centli/.
[119] SAR AFMP, October 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-24-university-of-the-cloister-of-sor-juana-ucsj/. SAR AFMP, November 11, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-11-universidad-del-claustro-de-sor-juana-ucsj/.
[120] SAR AFMP, February 24, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-24-national-autonomous-university-of-mexico/
[121] SAR AFMP, December 10, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-10-national-autonomous-university-of-mexico/
[122] SAR AFMP, September 9, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-09-21-universidad-autonoma-del-estado-de-morelos/
[123] SAR AFMP, July 10, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-10-mandalay-university-of-foreign-languages/.
[124] SAR AFMP, August 20, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-20-yadanabon-university/.
[125] See AAPP’s data on arrests at https://airtable.com/appHDJLeiPsMGFJ7s/shr9w3z7dyIoqdUv4/tbl8hVtSci8VifbO9. Note: The figure cited is the result of filtering the data by age (over the age of 18) and category (including student, All Burma Federation of Student Unions, Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Professor, Teacher, Rector).
[126] Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Junta extends student prison terms as a ‘weapon’ of power,” University World News, October 6, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221006122016191.
[127] SAR AFMP, April 21, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-04-21-dagon-university/.
[128] Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Shock as seven student protesters sentenced to death,” University World News, December 6, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221206140755812.
[129] Naw Say Phaw Waa, “Shock as seven student protesters sentenced to death,” University World News, December 6, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221206140755812.
[130] See AAPP’s data on arrests at https://airtable.com/appHDJLeiPsMGFJ7s/shr9w3z7dyIoqdUv4/tbl8hVtSci8VifbO9. Note: the figure cited is the result of filtering the data by age (over the age of 18) and category (including student, All Burma Federation of Student Unions, Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Professor, Teacher, Rector).
[131] “Myanmar: Analysis of the Military’s Changes to the Penal Code,” Center for Law and Democracy, May 10, 2021, https://www.law-democracy.org/live/myanmar-analysis-of-the-militarys-changes-to-the-penal-code/.
[132] Pola Lem, “Sharp drop in students sitting Myanmar’s matriculation exam,” Times Higher Education, April 4, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sharp-drop-students-sitting-myanmars-matriculation-exam.
[133] Padone, “Enrolment in state-run universities down ‘70%’ since coup,” University World News, April 26, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230426140655766.
[134] Padone, “Teachers, students suffer opposing the military regime,” University World News, July 10, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230710160615705.
[135] Detailed Conclusions of Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, UN Doc. A/HRC/52/63, Para. 854.
[136] Detailed Conclusions of Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, UN Doc. A/HRC/52/63, Para. 854.
[137] Associated Press, “Crece preocupación por el cierre de dos universidades privadas en Nicaragua,” Voz de América, March 10, 2023, https://www.vozdeamerica.com/a/crece-preocupacion-por-el-cierre-de-dos-universidades-privadas-en-nicaragua-/6998963.html. Agence France Press, “Two church-linked universities shuttered in state clampdown,” Barrons, March 7, 2023, https://www.barrons.com/news/nicaragua-shutters-church-linked-universities-ce7375. Elthon Rivera C., “Dos universidades más fueron,” Post to Twitter, March 14, 2023, https://twitter.com/ElthonRC/status/1635738397166764042?t=b2c7gxpQy3GDm5_xs8FT3A&s=08. “Nicaragua cierra otras tres universidades privadas y ordena decomisar bienes,” Swiss Info, April 24, 2023, https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/nicaragua-crisis_nicaragua-cierra-otras-tres-universidades-privadas-y-ordena-decomisar-bienes/48460116.
[138] Detailed Conclusions of Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, UN Doc. A/HRC/52/63, Para. 868.
[139] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-07-universidad-juan-pablo-ii-and-universidad-cristiana-autonoma-de-nicaragua/. Agence France Press, “Two church-linked universities shuttered in state clampdown,” Barrons, March 7, 2023, https://www.barrons.com/news/nicaragua-shutters-church-linked-universities-ce7375. Elthon Rivera C., “Dos universidades más fueron,” Post to Twitter, March 14, 2023, https://twitter.com/ElthonRC/status/1635738397166764042?t=b2c7gxpQy3GDm5_xs8FT3A&s=08. SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-07-universidad-juan-pablo-ii-and-universidad-cristiana-autonoma-de-nicaragua/.
[140] SAR AFMP, March 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-14-multiple-institutions. Europa Press, “Gobierno de Nicaragua Cierra otras dos universidades; van 12,” La Jornada, March 14, 2023, https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2023/03/14/mundo/gobierno-de-nicaragua-cierra-otras-dos-universidades-van-12/.
[141] “Ataques a la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) en Nicaragua violan la libertad académica y los derechos de las y los universitarios,” Prensa Derechos Universitarios, August 17, 2023, https://derechosuniversitarios.org/2023/08/17/ataques-a-la-universidad-centroamericana-uca-en-nicaragua-violan-la-libertad-academica-y-los-derechos-de-las-y-los-universitarios/.
[142] “Daniel Ortega acusó de terrorismo a una universidad jesuita de Nicaragua y ordenó la confiscación de todos sus bienes,” Infobae, August 16, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/08/16/daniel-ortega-acuso-de-terrorismo-a-una-universidad-jesuita-de-nicaragua-y-ordeno-la-confiscacion-de-todos-sus-bienes/.
[143] Aula Abierta – Las Américas. “La @DESCA_CIDH insta a dejar sin efecto,” Post to Twitter, August 18, 2023,
[144] “El régimen de Nicaragua detuvo a cuatro dirigentes estudiantiles tras el cierre de la Universidad Centroamericana,” Infobae, August 22, 2023, https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/08/23/el-regimen-de-nicaragua-detuvo-a-cuatro-dirigentes-estudiantiles-tras-el-cierre-de-la-universidad-centroamericana/.
[145] “Universitarios venezolanos suscriben comunicado en rechazo a las acciones contra universidades y estudiantes en Nicaragua,” Observatorio de Derechos Humanos Mérida-Venezuela, August 27, 2023, https://www.uladdhh.org.ve/index.php/2023/08/27/comunicado-universidades-confiscadas-nicaragua-uca/.
[146] SAR AFMP, November 11, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-01-nicaraguan-university-alliance/.
[147] UN Doc. A/HRC/Res/49/3
[148] Jan-Michael Simon, “Statement by Jan-Michael Simon, Chair of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN)
54th session of the Human Rights Council, September 12, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/grhe-nicaragua/OA-GHREN-54HRC-12SSEP23_English.docx.
[149] Anna Vasiljeva, “Nepreryvnoe voennoe obrazovanie [Continuing Military Education],” Kommersant, December 29, 2022, https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5756939. “AK-47s, grenades, and a warped view of Ukraine—how the Kremlin has changed its school curriculum,” NV Ukraine, September 6, 2023, https://english.nv.ua/nation/russian-curriculum-updated-to-include-military-training-and-skills-50351654.html.
[150] “Russian Universities to Introduce Mandatory Ideology Lectures,” Moscow Times, October 26, 2022, https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/10/26/russian-universities-to-introduce-mandatory-ideology-lectures-a79194. “Compulsory Russian statehood course for all undergrads,” University World News, December 17, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20221216145937536&utm&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_5862969_nl_Latitudes_date_20230104&cid=lt&source=&sourceid=.
[151] “Курс «Основы российской государственности» введут в вузах с 1 сентября [The course “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood” will be introduced in universities from September 1],” Vedomosti, April 10, 2023, https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/news/2023/04/10/970275-kurs-osnovi-rossiiskoi-gosudarstvennosti.
[152] “Russian premier approves 16 new military training centers at federal universities,” TASS, December 29, 2022, https://tass.com/society/1556557. “New Military Training Centers at Universities Launched in Chechnya and Astrakhan Region,” Caucasus Watch, December 30, 2022, https://caucasuswatch.de/en/news/new-military-training-centers-at-universities-launched-in-chechnya-and-astrakhan-region.html.
[153] SAR AFMP, March 31, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-31-free-university-of-moscow/. Pola Lem, “Moscow’s Free University, branded ‘undesirable’ by Kremlin, closes doors,” Times of Higher Education, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/moscows-free-university-branded-undesirable-kremlin-closes-doors.
[154] SAR AFMP, April 27, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-27-sova-center-for-information-and-analysis/. “Ministry of Justice moves to shut down “Sova” Center,” Frontline Defenders, March 22, 2023, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ru/case/ministry-justice-moves-shut-down-sova-center.
[155] “Decision to shut down Sova Centre upheld by the Court of Appeals,” Frontline Defenders, August 22, 2023, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/decision-shut-down-sova-centre-upheld-court-appeals.
[156] Pola Lemm, “The slow, painful death of liberal arts in Russia,” Times of Higher Education, September 4, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/slow-painful-death-liberal-arts-russia.
[157] “The End of Liberal Arts at Russian Universities,” The Wilson Center, August 2, 2023, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/end-liberal-arts-russian-universities#:~:text=Petersburg%20State%20University’s%20liberal%20studies,twenty%2Dfive%2Dyear%20partnership.
[158] UNHCR, “Türk calls on Russian legislators to repeal, not expand, anti-LGBT bill,” UNHCR press brief, October 28, 2022, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/10/turk-calls-russian-legislators-repeal-not-expand-anti-lgbt-bill.
[159] Johanne Montay, “Russia: abusive retractions of articles, true scientific self-censorship,” RTBF, January 12, 2023, https://www.rtbf.be/article/russie-retractations-abusives-d-articles-vraie-autocensure-scientifique-11135069. “Russia: Expanded ‘Gay Propaganda’ Ban Progresses Toward Law,” Human Rights Watch, November 25, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/11/25/russia-expanded-gay-propaganda-ban-progresses-toward-law.
[160] Justin Weinberg, “Russian Philosophy Journal Retracts Article Because of Law Banning ‘LGBT Propaganda’,” Daily Nous, December 29, 2022, https://dailynous.com/2022/12/29/russian-philosophy-journal-retracts-article-because-of-law-banning-lgbt-propaganda/.
[161] SAR AFMP, October 26, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-26-saint-petersburg-state-university/. “Critical Thought Is ‘No Longer Possible’ at Russian Universities, Says Professor Fired for Opposing War in Ukraine,” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, March 16, 2023, https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-professor-fired-protest-ukraine-war-free-thought/32106864.html.
[162] “Преподаватель в Пятигорске оштрафована по доносу студентов за дискредитацию армии [A teacher in Pyatigorsk was fined after denunciation of students for discrediting the army,]” Кавказский Узел, March 9, 2023, https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/386614/. “На Ставрополье вуз уволил преподавателя после критики войны. Донос на нее написали студенты [In the Stavropol region, a university fired a teacher after criticizing the war. Students wrote a denunciation against her],” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, March 14, 2023, https://www.kavkazr.com/a/na-stavropolje-vuz-uvolil-prepodavatelya-posle-antivoennyh-vyskazyvaniy-donos-na-nee-napisali-studenty/32316707.html.
[163] Filipp Lebedev, Lucy Papachristou, and Mark Trevelyan. “Russian hypersonic scientist accused of betraying secrets to China,” Reuters, May 24, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-hypersonic-scientist-accused-betraying-secrets-china-sources-2023-05-24/.
[164] “Проект: после начала войны Россию покинули десятки известных ученых [Project: after the start of the war, dozens of famous scientists left Russia],” Meduza, March 27, 2023, https://meduza.io/news/2023/03/27/proekt-posle-nachala-voyny-rossiyu-pokinuli-desyatki-izvestnyh-uchenyh. Ebun Hargrave, “Kremlin rocked by ‘brain drain’ as students asked to teach after professors flee Russia,” Express, November 4, 2022, https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1692134/Russia-university-brain-drain-students-education-Putin-Ukraine-vn.
[165] SAR AFMP, November 26, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-11-26-various-institutions/. “Росіяни вербують африканських студентів на війну проти України [The Russians are recruiting African students for the war against Ukraine],” RBC Ukraine, November 26, 2023, https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/rosiyani-verbuyut-afrikanskih-studentiv-viynu-1669468839.html. “Ряды “вагнеровцев” пополняют студентами из Африки [The ranks of the “Wagnerites” are replenished with students from Africa],” Gazeta Ukraine, November 26, 2022, https://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/world-life/_ryady-vagnerovcev-popolnyayut-studentami-iz-afriki-smi/1122505.
[166] Protestnyj MGU [Protest in MSU], April, 4, 2023, https://t.me/msuprotest/8110.
[167] Pola Lem, “Russian universities expelling large numbers of anti-war students,” Times Higher Education, April 12. 2022. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russian-universities-expelling-large-numbers-anti-war-students.
[168] SAR AFMP, May 19, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-19-komsomolsk-on-amur-state-technical-university/. “Russia ambassador summoned to Tajik MFA over Tajik students beaten incident in Komsomolsk-on-Amur,” Asia Plus, May 25, 2023, https://asiaplustj.info/en/news/tajikistan/incidents/20230525/russia-ambassador-summoned-to-tajik-mfa-over-tajik-students-beaten-incident-in-komsomolsk-on-amur/.
[169] “Siberian University Rector Rejects Reports About Mass Beating Of Tajik Students,” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, May 24, 2023, https://www.rferl.org/a/siberian-university-rejects-reports-mass-beating-tajik-students/32426045.html.
[170] Gosduma prinjala zakonoproekt o kvote na obuchenie v vuzah dlja detej uchastnikov SVO [The State Duma adopted a bill on a quota for studying at universities for children of SVO participants], Izvestija, December 21, 2022, https://iz.ru/1444294/2022-12-21/gd-priniala-zakonoproekt-o-kvote-na-obuchenie-v-vuzakh-dlia-detei-uchastnikov-svo.
[171] Voronezhskih pedagogov poprosili perechislit’ sutochnyj zarabotok na nuzhdy voennyh [Voronezh teachers were asked to transfer their daily earnings to the needs of the military] 7X7, Horizontal Russia, December 15, 2022, https://semnasem.org/news/2022/12/15/voronezhskih-pedagogov-poprosili-perechislit-zarplatu-za-den-na-nuzhdy-voennyh.
[172] Will Nott, “Students in Sudan facing gunfire and bomb explosions,” Pie News, April 28, 2023, https://thepienews.com/news/students-sudan-trapped-without-food-water-face-gunfire-bomb-explosions/. Miryam Naddaf, “‘Armed groups entered the lab’: Sudan’s researchers flee violent military conflict,” Nature, April 28, 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01478-z. Jean d’Amour Mbonyinshuti, “Medical students from war-torn Sudan arrive in Rwanda,” University World News, August 3, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2023080310410443.
[173] Wagdy Sawahel, “104 HE institutions burned and vandalised, says ministry,” University World News, August 31, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230830182024830. Wagdy Sawahel, “Reports of sexual violence emerge as fighting continues,” Univeristy World News, May 23, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230522081037286. Wagdy Sawahel, “Deaths of students, academics reported as conflict continues,” University World News, April 20, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230420005827865.
[174] Wagdy Sawahel, “104 HE institutions burned and vandalised, says ministry,” University World News, August 31, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230830182024830.
[175] Wagdy Sawahel, “104 HE institutions burned and vandalised, says ministry,” University World News, August 31, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230830182024830.
[176] SAR AFMP, June 4, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-04-international-university-of-africa/.
[177] El Zahraa Jadallah and Tom Rhodes, “The war raging over Sudan’s present—and its past,” The Continent, Issue 128, June 10, 2023, https://www.thecontinent.org/_files/ugd/287178_0eeb3720763a488c8c3b735b9b78f002.pdf?index=tru, pp. 11-13.
[178] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-16-omdurman-ahlia-university/.
[179] These arrests were reported in Free to Think 2022. See also SAR AFMP, August 6, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2021-08-06-various/.
[180] “Sri Lanka: End Use of Terrorism Law Against Protesters,” Human Rights Watch, August 31, 2022, https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/31/sri-lanka-end-use-terrorism-law-against-protesters.
[181] Dinesh De Alwis, “Students mount renewed protests over their leaders’ arrest,” September 7, 2022, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220907154614524.
[182] Amani Nilar, “Lack of Evidence: IUSF Activist released after 50-days in detention,” News First, October 7, 2022, https://www.newsfirst.lk/2022/10/07/lack-of-evidence-iusf-activist-released-after-50-days-in-detention/.
[183] “Student Leader and Human Rights Defender Ven. Galwewa Siridhamma Thero released on bail by Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court,” Frontline Defenders, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/student-leader-and-human-rights-defender-ven-galwewa-siridhamma-thero-released-bail.
[184] “Human Rights Defender and Student Leader Wasantha Mudalige cleared of all terrorism charges under the PTA and granted bail in three cases against him,” Frontline Defenders, March 15, 2023, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/human-rights-defender-and-student-leader-wasantha-mudalige-cleared-all-terrorism-charges-under.
[185] “Sri Lanka: End Arbitrary Detention of Student Activist,” Frontline Defenders, January 16, 2023, https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/statement-report/sri-lanka-end-arbitrary-detention-student-activist.
[186] SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-3-7-university-of-colombo/.
[187] Miryam Naddaf, “Turkey’s researchers fear loss of freedom after Erdoğan re-elected,” Nature, May 30, 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01775-7.
[188] “Brain drain among Turkish academics is at alarming levels, report shows,” Duvar English, April 12, 2023, https://www.duvarenglish.com/brain-drain-among-turkish-academics-is-at-alarming-levels-report-shows-news-62201. See the full report in Turkish at http://tbv.org.tr/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Diaspora_Raporu.pdf.
[189] SAR AFMP, February 17, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-02-17-dokuz-eylul-university/.
[190] SAR AFMP, June 2, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-02-ege-university/. SAR AFMP, June 9, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-09-middle-east-technical-university/. SAR AFMP, June 13, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-13-izmir-democracy-university/. SAR AFMP, June 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-14-dokuz-eylul-university/. SAR AFMP, June 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-16-mimar-sinan-fine-arts-university/
[191] SAR AFMP, June 9, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-09-middle-east-technical-university/.
[192] Biray Kolluoglu and Lale Akarun, “Standing up for the university,” Nature, April 6, 2023, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01593-x.
[193] SAR AFMP, July 4, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-02-bogazici-university/.
[194] SAR AFMP, July 18, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-18-bogazici-university/.
[195] SAR AFMP, October 26, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-26-istanbul-university/.
[196] SAR AFMP, January 9, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-09-andalou-university/.
[197] “The university did not like the academician’s exam questions and suspended him from duty,” Bianet, January 14, 2023, https://bianet.org/haber/universite-akademisyenin-sinav-sorularini-begenmedi-gorevden-uzaklastirdi-272822. “Senior AKP figure signals early elections,” DuvaR.English, https://www.duvarenglish.com/senior-akp-figure-numan-kurtulmus-signals-early-elections-news-61660.
[198] European Court: Ruling stands up for academic freedom in Turkey, Article 19, March 21, 2023, https://www.article19.org/resources/european-court-ruling-academic-freedom-turkey/. Ayça Söylemez, “ECtHR convicts Turkey for violating Peace Academics’ rights,” Bianet, March 23, 2023, https://bianet.org/english/human-rights/276194-ecthr-convicts-turkey-for-violating-peace-academics-rights?bia_source=mailchimp&ct=t%28RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN+-+Bianet+English+Daily%29.
[199] SAR AFMP, December 31, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-12-31-taras-shevchenko-national-university-of-kyiv/
[200] SAR AFMP, August 17, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-17-petro-mohyla-black-sea-national-university/
[201] SAR AFMP, July 23, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-23-o-m-beketov-kharkiv-national-university-of-urban-economy/
[202] SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-sukhomlynskyi-mykolaiv-national-university-admiral-makarov-national-university-of-shipbuilding/
[203] SAR AFMP, July 6, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-06-h-s-skovoroda-kharkiv-national-pedagogical-university/
[204] Nathan M. Greenfield, “Russia’s war against intellectuals is claiming more victims,” University World News, January 13, 2023, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20230113072055354.
[205] SAR AFMP, August 1, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-08-01-kherson-state-agrarian-and-economic-university/
[206] SAR AFMP, July 28, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-28-kherson-national-technical-university/
[207] “Russian invaders abduct Melitopol lecturer in new wave of terror,” Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 15, 2022, https://khpg.org/en/1608811536
[208] Kennedy McCutchen, “Russian Authorities Abduct Ukrainian Professor in Melitopol,” Endangered Scholars Worldwide, January 24, 2023, https://www.endangeredscholarsworldwide.net/post/russian-authorities-abduct-ukrainian-professor-in-melitopol
[209] SAR AFMP, July 15, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-15-bila-tserkva-national-agrarian-university/.
[210] Ben Upton, “‘Significant declines’ for US and UK in academic freedom ranking,” Times Higher Education, March 2, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/significant-declines-us-and-uk-academic-freedom-ranking. It should be noted that the United States has a highly decentralized system of higher education, and most regulation happens at the state level.
[211] See, for example, Nell Gluckman, “‘This Is How Censorship Happens’,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 2, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-how-censorship-happens. Nell Gluckman, “‘It’s Making Us Accomplices’: A University Tells Faculty to ‘Remain Neutral’ on Abortion Discussions in Class,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 26, 2022, https://www.chronicle.com/article/its-making-us-accomplices-a-university-tells-faculty-to-remain-neutral-on-abortion-in-class.
[212] Josh Moody, “The New Florida Presidential Profile,” Inside Higher Education, May 30, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2023/05/30/new-florida-presidential-profile.
[213] “Pernell v. Lamb,” ACLU, July 7, 2023, https://www.aclu.org/cases/pernell-v-lamb. “Florida Educators Urge Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to Uphold Preliminary Block of Unlawful “Stop W.O.K.E.” Censorship Law,” ACLU, June 16, 2023, https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/florida-educators-urge-eleventh-circuit-court-of-appeals-to-uphold-preliminary-block-of-unlawful-stop-w-o-k-e-censorship-law. “Pernell v. Lamb, No. 22-13992 (11th Cir. 2023),” AAUP, https://www.aaup.org/brief/pernell-v-lamb-no-22-13992-11th-cir-2023.
[214] Paul Basken, “Florida restricts teachings on race,” Times Higher Education, May 16, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/florida-restricts-teachings-race.
[215] Josh Moody, “DeSantis Higher Ed Bill Heads for the Legislature,” Inside Higher Education, February 26, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/27/new-florida-bill-aims-enact-desantiss-higher-ed-reform. Alissa Gary, “Changes to House Bill 999, explained,” Florida Alligator, April 3, 2023, https://www.alligator.org/article/2023/04/changes-to-house-bill-999-explained. Julian Roberts-Grmela, ‘State-Mandated Censorship’: Florida Faculty Worry About Bill That Would Ban Certain Majors, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/state-mandated-censorship-florida-faculty-worry-about-bill-that-would-ban-certain-majors.
[216] “DeSantis sues Biden administration over university accrediting system,” Associated Press, June 22, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/desantis-lawsuit-education-department-accreditation-agencies-1fdf2f4a90511fd7011325282e969162.
[217] “Florida College System Presidents Reject ‘Woke’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Critical Race Theory Ideologies and Embrace Academic Freedom,” January 18, 2023, https://www.fldoe.org/newsroom/latest-news/florida-college-system-presidents-reject-woke-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dei-critical-race-theory-ideologies-and-embrace-academic-freedom-.stml. Sara Weissman, “A Subtle Subterfuge, an Outrage or Both?,” Inside Higher Education, February 2, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/03/outrage-follows-florida-college-presidents-statement-crt.
[218] Josh Moody, “The DeSantis Takeover Begins,” Inside Higher Education, January 31, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/02/01/desantis-puts-action-his-plan-end-woke-activism. Grace Mayer, “After Condemning ‘Trendy Ideology’ in Higher Ed, Florida’s Governor Targets a Small College,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 9, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/after-condemning-trendy-ideology-in-higher-ed-floridas-governor-targets-a-small-college.
[219] SAR AFMP, January 31, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-31-new-college-of-florida/.
[220] SAR AFMP, April 26, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-26-new-college-of-florida/.
[221] SAR AFMP, May 12, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-12-new-college-of-florida/.
[222] Chronicle Staff, “DEI Legislation Tracker,” Chronicle of Higher Education, updated July 14, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/here-are-the-states-where-lawmakers-are-seeking-to-ban-colleges-dei-efforts?sra=true&cid=gen_sign_in.
[223] Marcela Rodrigues, “Gov. Abbott signs DEI bill into law, dismantling diversity offices at colleges,” Dallas Morning News, June 14, 2023, https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/06/14/gov-abbott-signs-dei-bill-into-law-dismantling-diversity-offices-at-colleges/. Scott Jaschik, “Tenure Survives in Texas; DEI Offices Do Not,” Inside Higher Education, Math 30, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/tenure/2023/05/30/tenure-survives-texas-dei-offices-do-not. Kate McGee, “Texas Senate approves bill barring professors from “compelling” students to adopt certain political beliefs,” Texas Tribune, April 11, 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/11/texas-legislature-higher-education-political-bill/. Megan Zahneis and Beckie Supiano, “Fear and Confusion in the Classroom,” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 9, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/fear-and-confusion-in-the-classroom.
[224] “TN bill that allows students to report professors who teach ‘divisive concepts’ passes House and Senate,” WBIR, March 14, 2023, https://www.wbir.com/article/news/education/new-bill-would-strengthen-rules-over-what-can-be-taught-in-classrooms/51-ddd267e4-3d98-4de0-bb2e-3284740b4cb7.
[225] Kate Marijolovic, “This Ohio Bill Wouldn’t Just Ban Diversity Training. It Would Reshape Higher Ed.,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/article/this-ohio-bill-wouldnt-just-ban-diversity-training-it-would-reshape-higher-ed.
[226] SAR AFMP, July 26, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-26-harvard-university/. SAR AFMP, October 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-24-hamline-university/. SAR AFMP, January 31, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-01-31-new-college-of-florida/. SAR AFMP, March 5, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-05-mayo-clinic/. SAR AFMP, March 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-03-07-texas-am-university/. SAR AFMP, April 7, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-07-san-fransisco-state-university/. SAR AFMP, April 14, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-14-ohio-northern-university/. SAR AFMP, April 26, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-04-26-new-college-of-florida/. SAR AFMP, May 4, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-04-taylor-university/. SAR AFMP, May 13, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-05-12-new-college-of-florida/.
[227] SAR AFMP, July 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-07-26-harvard-university/.
[228] SAR AFMP, October 24, 2022, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2022-10-24-hamline-university/.
[229] Ryan Quinn, “Report: Adjunct Who Showed Images of Prophet Was ‘Vilified’,” Times Higher Education, May 22, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2023/05/22/report-adjunct-who-showed-images-prophet-was. See the AAUP report: https://www.aaup.org/report/academic-freedom-and-tenure-hamline-university-minnesota.
[230] Isaac Roy, “Lawsuit against Hamline University narrowed but still moving forward,” Hamline Oracle, September 28, 2023, https://hamlineoracle.com/11550/news/lawsuit-against-hamline-university-narrowed-but-still-moving-forward.
[231] Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel, “G.O.P. Targets Researchers Who Study Disinformation Ahead of 2024 Election,” New York Times, June 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/19/technology/gop-disinformation-researchers-2024-election.html.
[232] Naomi Nix and Joseph Menn, “These academics studied falsehoods spread by Trump. Now the GOP wants answers.,” Washington Post, June 6, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/06/disinformation-researchers-congress-jim-jordan/.
[233] Paul Basken, “NSF seeks to tackle foreign partnership fears,” Times Higher Education, August 23, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nsf-seeks-tackle-foreign-partnership-fears.
[234] Karin Fisher, “Latitudes: For Chinese American Scientists, a Chill at the U.S. Border,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 1, 2023, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/latitudes/2023-03-01.
[235] Paul Basken, “What next for US-China research ties post-Lieber case?,” Times Higher Education, May 2, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/what-next-us-china-research-ties-post-lieber-case.
[236] Yu Xie, Xihong Lin, Ju Li, Qian He, and Junming Huang, Caught in the Crossfire: Fears of Chinese-American Scientists, Asian American Scholar Forum, September 23, 2022, https://www.aasforum.org/2022/09/23/caught-in-the-crossfire-fears-of-chinese-american-scientists/.
[237] Pola Lem, “US-China ‘paranoia’ is ‘hurting universities and students’,” Times Higher Education, June 23, 2023, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/us-china-paranoia-hurting-universities-and-students.
[238] See OpenDoor’s factsheet on China: https://opendoorsdata.org/fact_sheets/china/.
[239] Karin Fischer and Dan Bauman, “Number of New Chinese Students at U.S. Colleges Plummeted This Fall, Visa Data Show,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 11, 2022, https://www.chronicle.com/article/number-of-new-chinese-students-at-u-s-colleges-plummeted-this-fall-visa-data-show.
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