Universities sit at the intersection of power and ideas. They exist to produce and share knowledge through research, teaching, debate, and dialogue. They teach students how to evaluate ideas based on evidence and reason, rather than authority and influence; they teach them to ask questions. This can be unsettling to those in power, especially when those questions examine underrepresented perspectives or long-held orthodoxies. As a result, universities, scholars, and students often come under attack by forces intent on preserving the status quo, silencing dissent, and imposing official narratives.

Some attacks involve direct repression, including police violence against student protests in India; the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of academics in Russia and Afghanistan; and the forced disappearances of Baloch student activists in Pakistan. Other attacks take the form of state interference in higher education operations. Interference degrades university autonomy, including the independence of universities to make decisions about hiring, curriculum, administrative functions, and the physical campus environment. Without such autonomy, scholars and students face constraints on their research and teaching or self-censor for fear of facing direct repression.

These attacks undermine academic freedom, which is grounded in existing international legal standards, including the freedom of opinion and expression, the right to education, and the right to the benefits of science, as well as elements of freedom of association and freedom of movement.

Through the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project (AFMP), Scholars at Risk (SAR) identifies attacks on higher education communities worldwide. SAR tracks and reports on key incidents to protect vulnerable individuals, raise awareness, encourage accountability, promote new tools to protect academic freedom, and promote dialogue and understanding necessary to prevent future threats. Since 2015, SAR has published Free to Think, a series of annual reports analyzing attacks on higher education communities. This year’s report documents attacks in 59 countries and territories and highlights concerning developments and trends in 22: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China & Hong Kong, Colombia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Syria, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United States, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

Attacks on Higher Education from July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026

Free to Think 2026 documents 382 attacks on scholars, students, and institutions in 59 countries and territories from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.

Attacks on the higher education community included direct repression and overt violence. State authorities attacked, disappeared, and wrongfully imprisoned members of the higher education community. They also deployed police and/or military force to crack down on student protests. Targeted assassinations of university leaders in Guatemala and Pakistan, wrongful imprisonment of scholars in China and Russia, and violent responses to student demonstrations in Iran caused immediate, severe harm to individual scholars, students, and staff. They threatened the functioning of higher education institutions and created a pervasive climate of fear, ultimately restricting academic freedom.

Attacks on higher education also took the form of external interference, undermining university autonomy and institutions’ ability to govern their curricula, administrative functions, and physical campuses. Governments used a range of tactics including legislation and executive orders to restrict higher education systems. In countries like Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, and Zimbabwe, state decrees directly violated autonomy by banning books and disfavored research topics or blacklisting entire education institutions from operating within their borders. Similarly, governments in Georgia, India, Serbia, and the United States have banned research topics, cut funding on ideological grounds, and placed partisan actors on university governance bodies. While often justified in neutral terms—such as fiscal discipline, public accountability, or anti-discrimination—these interventions are often used to impose ideological control.

Figure 1: Many of the countries featured in this edition of Free to Think have seen statistically significant declines in academic freedom in recent years, 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.

As highlighted in previous editions of Free to Think, the attacks on higher education documented in this report reflect deteriorating global conditions for academic freedom. The latest annual data from the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) documents this decline. In its 2026 update, the AFI found that academic freedom declined significantly in 50 of the 179 countries analyzed over the past decade, registering improvements in only nine. The AFI rated 9 of the 22 countries or territories featured in this report (and 34 overall) as “completely restricted” with respect to academic freedom: Afghanistan, China, OPT: Gaza, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Another six countries or territories in this report (and 30 overall) were rated as “severely restricted”: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, OPT: the West Bank, and Ukraine.[1]

Recovering from Attacks on Higher Education

In the face of growing threats, there is reason for hope. Countries where institutional autonomy and academic freedom have declined can recover.

From 2019 to 2022, under the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s higher education community faced increasing threats to academic freedom and institutional autonomy, including the cutting of funds to universities on ideological grounds, the political appointment of university leaders, and attacks on individual scholars for their public expression. The AFI score for Brazil dropped from 0.81 in 2016 (“fully free”) to 0.44 (“moderately restricted”) by 2019. With the arrival of the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022, academic freedom has rebounded as the government has moved to restore research budgets, protect university autonomy, and respect the freedom of academic expression. The AFI score rose back up to 0.85 (“fully free”) by 2025.

Figure 2: During the Bolsonaro administration in Brazil, the AFI dropped from “fully free” in 2015 to “moderately restricted” between 2018 and 2022. Brazil’s status officially returned to “fully free” in 2024.

New administrations in Bangladesh, Hungary, and Venezuela similarly offer reason for cautious optimism.

Nationwide student protests in 2024 led to the establishment of an interim government in Bangladesh. The Yunus-led interim administration attempted to bolster academic freedom through political reforms that depoliticized campus governance and removed high-level political appointees. The AFI increased from 0.13 (“completely restricted”) in 2023 to 0.52 (“moderately restricted”) in 2025.

In Hungary, under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the AFI score fell from 0.95 (“fully free”) in 2009 to 0.3 (“severely restricted”) in 2026. The government transferred ownership of most state universities to private “asset management foundations” that were clearly aligned with the government, while also directing enormous resources to ideological projects such as the new Matthias Corvinus Collegium (MCC).^[2] Together, these actions profoundly distorted the Hungarian academic and research environment by undermining institutional autonomy and university self-governance, eroding transparency, and embedding political loyalty into academic decision making.

With the election of Péter Magyar in April 2026, there is an opportunity to reverse Hungary’s trajectory including by restoring university autonomy, dismantling politicized governance structures, and rebuilding Hungary’s relationship with the EU. There are early signs that Magyar’s government is indeed moving in this direction. By the end of May, less than a month after Magyar took office, Hungary had indicated it would phase out the private foundation university model and rejoin the Erasmus student exchange programs.^[3]

Likewise, under the previous Chávez and Maduro administrations, the AFI score for Venezuela fell from 0.9 (“fully free”) in 1999 to 0.13 (“completely restricted”) in 2025. Following the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, actions taken by the administration of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez suggested new possibilities for restoring academic life. In February, the Venezuelan Student Movement held its first opposition protest in over a year—having previously avoided public demonstrations since the intense repression that followed the contested July 2024 election. Observers noted a surprising absence of direct crackdowns; despite strategic police deployments, security forces ultimately allowed the marches to proceed freely.^[4]

While changes in government such as those in Bangladesh, Hungary, and Venezuela can occasionally create opportunities for improvements in autonomy, higher education communities can sometimes resist state interference even without a change in leadership. Even while Orbán’s government remained in power in Hungary, the Central European University filed a legal claim with the European Court of Human Rights in 2023 and ultimately won its case (though the decision alone was insufficient to prevent the university’s forced partial relocation to Vienna).^[5] Faculty at Boğaziçi University in Türkiye have held daily protests for five years against the government’s 2021 imposition of a new rector, which violated long-standing university traditions and practice.^[6] Similarly, faculty and staff at universities across Serbia risked their jobs to stand in solidarity with students facing escalating state crackdowns.^[7] While these efforts alone were not enough to prevent threats and violations, they exposed the illegitimacy of government actions while subjecting violators to public scrutiny on both national and international stages. Creative resistance remains possible even under difficult conditions.

Looking Ahead: Global Commitments to Academic Freedom

The higher education community and its allies must take steps to bolster academic freedom and autonomy. Guarding against attacks on higher education requires channeling energy and creativity into increased sophistication, both operationally and strategically. States must implement formal legal protections to secure academic freedom, but protecting higher education is a responsibility also shared by the higher education sector, civil society, and the general public.

1. State authorities have the primary responsibility to protect scholars and students who face immediate risks, and to refrain from political interference in the higher education sector.
2. Higher education institutions must act as the frontline defenders of higher education and promote a broad public understanding that both academic freedom and university autonomy are essential if universities are to provide a space for students, scholars, and others to learn, ask difficult questions, produce knowledge, and share ideas with their peers and the public.
3. Civil society and the general public must act in solidarity with scholars, students, and other higher education actors by building coalitions, sharing information, and creating joint defense strategies to affirmatively support institutions under attack. Resisting the isolation, division, and fear from attacks on higher education is only possible through collaborative action.

With this report, SAR calls on states, higher education communities, and civil society around the world to recognize the urgent need to protect academic freedom: 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 publicly demonstrate 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] OPT: Gaza and OPT: West Bank are listed separately to reflect different ratings in AFI data.

^[2] European Universities Association, The evolution of university autonomy in Hungary A complementary analysis to University Autonomy in Europe IV: The Scorecard 2023, March 2023, https://www.eua.eu/dow
nloads/publications/2023%20eua%20autonomy%20scorecard_hungary.pdf; and Bence X Szechenyi, “Viktor Orbán’s pet university is all about propaganda – I know, I was there,” The Guardian, September 11, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/11/viktor-orban-university-propaganda-london.

^[3] Seher Asaf, “Hungary to rejoin Erasmus and ‘phase out’ university foundations,” Times Higher Education, May 29, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hungary-rejoin-erasmus-and-phase-out-unive
rsity-foundations.

^[4] “Venezuelan Students Demand the Release of Political Prisoners in Multiple Cities,” Confidencial 30, February 12, 2026, https://confidencial.digital/mundo/estudiantes-venezolanos-exigen-lib
eracion-de-presos-politicos-en-multiples-ciudades; “Venezuela: University Students Lead First Opposition Protest in the Post-Maduro Era,” La Nacion, January 23, 2026, https://www.lanacion.com.ar/agencias/ven
ezuela-los-universitarios-en-primera-protesta-opositora-de-era-post-maduro-nid23012026/; and “Empty Classrooms and Protests: University Strike in Venezuela Was 90% Effective,” El Nacional, April 23, 2026, https://www.elnacional.com/2026/04/paro-universitario-en-venezuela-se-cumplio-en-90/.

^[5] ECHR, “HUDOC – European Court of Human Rights,” Coe.Int., October 6, 2005, https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#.

^[6] Fırat Fıstık, “Boğaziçi University protests enter their 5th year: Countless human rights violations, investigations, and dismissals,” Medyascope, January 5, 2026, https://medyascope.tv/2026/01/05/bogazici-universitesi-protestolari-5-yilinda-sayisiz-hak-ihlali-sorusturmalar-ve-isten-cikarmalar/.

^[7] Mićo Tatalović, “Serbia’s Academics Lose Jobs over Support for Student Pro-Democracy Movement,” Science Business, February 25, 2026, https://sciencebusiness.net/news/serbias-academics-lose-jobs-
over-support-student-pro-democracy-movement.

This report is based on SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, which investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities.

The figures cited in this report represent only a fraction of the total number of attacks that occur annually. A comprehensive accounting of all attacks occurring annually is not possible given their scope, variety, and complexity; fear among some survivors about the consequences of reporting attacks; lack of access to information, including restrictions on media environments in the contexts where attacks occur; the challenges of verifying reports that are received; and the limited resources available. That said, a comprehensive accounting of all attacks is not necessary. Rather, Free to Think 2026 analyzes reported incidents that illustrate recurring themes, regional trends, and common factors that warrant deeper attention from stakeholders, especially states, intergovernmental organizations, higher education leaders, the media, and civil society.

What is an Attack on Higher Education?

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

The Monitoring Project reports incidents involving six types of conduct:

Killings/Violence/Disappearances

Killings include:

• Killings either in retaliation for particular academic content or conduct, or the targeting of members of higher education communities, including higher education leaders, faculty, staff, and students.

Violence includes:

• Violent physical assaults causing serious harm to individual members of higher education communities, including beatings, shootings, or other injuries with weapons; torture; and threats of violence.

Disappearances include:

• Arrest, detention, abduction, or other deprivation of liberty by government or quasi-government officials or by groups or individuals acting on behalf of, or with support, consent, or acquiescence of the government. This is followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned, or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.

Wrongful Imprisonment

Relevant incidents include:

• Arrests, interrogation, detention, and/or prosecution of scholars, students, or other members of higher education communities on false or otherwise wrongful grounds or charges. Such actions are directly related to or in retaliation for the expression of academic opinions or other professional or student activity, as well retaliation against other exercises of fundamental human rights including freedom of expression and freedom of association.
• Retaliation may occur against incidents of scholars, students, or other members of higher education communities engaging in protected free expression—such as writing a letter to a newspaper or participating in a protest rally—even if these activities are unrelated to an individual’s higher education sector status. (These incidents may not qualify as direct violations of academic freedom; however, they may still constitute violations of the human rights of members of higher education communities, which in turn may indirectly impair academic freedom.)

Wrongful Prosecution

Relevant incidents include:

• Administrative, civil, or criminal proceedings against higher education leaders, academic and nonacademic staff, or higher education students involving false or otherwise wrongful grounds or charges directly relating to, or in retaliation for, the expression of academic opinions or other professional or student activity; and
• Retaliation for other exercise of fundamental human rights including freedom of expression and freedom of association. (Note that charges may be grounded in local law but nevertheless violate recognized international human rights standards because they punish protected activity.)
• Proceedings for so-called “reputational harms” (e.g., “insulting the State” or “offending national leaders”). These may subject individuals to substantial monetary penalties or imprisonment; restrictions on travel during pendency of any action or after conviction; bankruptcy; loss of political rights (including the right to hold or run for elective office); and loss of position at state enterprises, including universities.
• Documented incidents where state or other entities use the threat of defamation or similar legal action to intimidate and silence academic personnel or students, even if such an action is never formally commenced (e.g., a state minister makes a public speech threatening prosecution of a scholar or expulsion of students for publishing an article).

Such proceedings may be brought on behalf of individuals and institutions including governments and other state entities (such as the military), officials, private citizens, state religions, and nations themselves. When reporting on incidents of this type, researchers are encouraged to identify and if possible attach copies of the legal provisions providing the basis for any charges or threatened charges and evidence, such as photographs of incidents or copies of allegedly offending statements or publications.

Travel Restrictions

Relevant incidents include:

• Improper travel restrictions on higher education leaders, academic and nonacademic staff, and higher education students in connection with academic content or conduct. These include, but are not limited to: legal, administrative, or physical restrictions on travel within a state; restrictions on travel between states; arbitrary restrictions on a scholar or student’s ability to obtain a visa or other entry or exit documents; denial of future permissions for travel; and retaliation for attempted travel or after returning.

Travel restrictions may be imposed by government authorities of the scholar or student’s home state; government authorities of the state to be visited; and/or higher education institutions, leadership, or professional associations.

Loss of Position

Relevant incidents involving higher education leaders or academic staff include:

• Discharge, demotion, loss of promotion, or other professional penalty for a scholar’s academic work and exercise of other fundamental human rights, e.g., statements made in the classroom, writings, research, professional association/union activity, engagement with (and criticism of) higher education leadership or education policy, etc.

Relevant incidents involving students include:

• Dismissal or expulsion from studies based on academic work or student activities, e.g., statements made in the classroom, writings, research, student association/union activity, engagement with (and criticism of) higher education leadership or education policy, etc.

The offending penalties may be imposed by state authorities, higher education institutions, or other higher education-related authorities.

Other Incidents

Relevant incidents which do not fit squarely within one or more of the five defined types of conduct may be included if they are determined to be of such scale, scope, and/or duration that they have impaired (or have significant potential to impair) higher education functions, academic freedom, or the exercise of human rights by members of higher education communities. Such incidents may include:

• Occupation or closing of higher education campuses;
• Destruction of higher education facilities, materials, or infrastructures;
• Systematic or prolonged harassment or threats against members of higher education communities;
• Systematic limits on access to higher education;
• Systematic discrimination based on gender, race, or other grounds in access to, employment within, or other elements relating to higher education;
• Cancellation of academic events due to pressure from community members or elected officials or in an apparent effort to prevent discussion on disfavored topics; and
• Executive, legislative, and other policy-related changes intended or having the reasonably foreseeable effect of restricting access to higher education, free expression on campus, or the autonomy of higher education institutions.

The “other” type acknowledges that it is not easy to anticipate all relevant types of attacks. Over time, regular reports of similar kinds of conduct in the “other” type may justify adding an additional delimited type.

While these incidents vary in their nature, they share common impacts. They undermine the security of higher education institutions and personnel, pose barriers to higher education, and contribute to “brain drain”—the flight of scholars and students—as well as “brain drag,” the “lost personal, professional, and creative productivity that would have been, but for the rational fear of retaliation.”^[1] They often affect disadvantaged groups, especially in countries experiencing conflict, instability, or economic insecurity, exacerbating inequalities within the local and global knowledge economies. They disrupt international educational collaboration, depriving everyone of the fullest benefits of cross-border intellectual exchange and research. They undermine social, political, economic, and cultural development, and, particularly, democracy. A single incident typically has a chilling effect, extending its impact beyond those immediately affected to those who observe or learn of an attack and rationally alter their research, teaching, or expressive behavior—i.e., self-censor—for fear that the same could happen to them or those close to them.

Data Collection

Monitoring Project staff and volunteer researchers identify and research incidents based on a system developed by SAR. Researchers on the project verify and triangulate information on each incident and draft a description and analysis of what happened. Each monitoring report must be corroborated by at least two independent sources. These sources typically include local, national, and international media outlets and human rights reports, and, where possible, primary sources such as interviews with victims, witnesses or bystanders, and court, government, or university documents. Incidents corroborated by sufficient reliable sources are deemed “verified” and published as warranting public attention, including via email digests, websites, social media, and summary reports.

External researchers, including faculty-led graduate student clinics at SAR member institutions and independent experts, may serve as volunteer monitors. Volunteer researchers may focus on a particular country or region in which they have expertise. Volunteer researchers submit reports to SAR on a rolling basis. Volunteers are encouraged to focus on the defined types of attacks, but are also instructed to exercise an “inclusion preference:” reporting corroborated incidents which may be difficult to fit within the aforementioned types but raise significant concerns about the security and freedom of higher education communities. This approach allows the broadest collection of initial data that over time will help support analysis of scope and frequency. In all cases, SAR staff provide a secondary level of review, working within the limits of available resources and with project volunteers to corroborate reported incidents and to evaluate when an incident rises to the level of reportable “attack.” All reports are reviewed by SAR secretariat staff before they are published to the monitoring archive on the SAR website.

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

The Challenges of Monitoring Attacks on Higher Education

As noted earlier, the Monitoring Project identifies only a fraction of the total number of annual attacks on higher education. Data collection is limited by factors that include self-censorship among survivors; media restrictions that make it difficult to identify incidents and to verify their details (the Monitoring Project relies primarily on open-source media reports, and countries with severe restrictions on academic freedom are often countries with severely restricted media); and limited SAR staff resources.

Another challenge to the Monitoring Project’s incident-based methodology is the fact that numerically fewer incidents may occur in countries where conditions are, in fact, the worst.  Hoffman and Kinzelbach (2018) note that events-based reporting can have the “paradoxical effect” of making “the most repressive environments appear comparatively benign.”^[2] This is due to several factors: the chilling effect of attacks on higher education, which causes scholars and students to self-censor; the destruction of higher education systems, which prevents academic activity from occurring; and the departure of scholars and students who are able to move elsewhere to continue to work or study in conditions of safety. All of these factors decrease and in some cases eliminate the number of incidents that could potentially be reported, creating a data void that does not necessarily equate to good or improved conditions, and may in fact reflect the opposite. This data void concern is flagged where relevant throughout this report, particularly concerning countries or territories for which the Monitoring Project has previously noted high numbers of attacks.

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

^[2] Hoffman, F. and Kinzelbach, K. (2018), Forbidden Knowledge: Academic Freedom and Political Repression in the University Can Be Measured. This is How, GPPi, retrieved from https://www.gppi.net/media/Kinzelbach_Hoffmann_2018_Forbidden_Knowledge.pdf (November 23, 2022).

Academic freedom is “the human right to acquire, develop, transmit, apply, and engage with a diversity of knowledge and ideas through research, teaching, learning, and discourse.”^[1] It is independently and interdependently grounded in several provisions of international law, including the freedom of opinion and expression, the right to education, and the right to the benefits of science, respectively, and has elements of freedom of association, freedom of movement, and other rights.

Human rights instruments that ground the right to academic freedom include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has elaborated on academic freedom in its General Comment No. 13 on the Right to Education (1990) and in General Comment No. 25 on the Right to Science (2020). In addition, UNESCO’s 1997 Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel elaborates on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Regional human rights bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), have also explicitly acknowledged the right to academic freedom in their jurisprudence and public commentary. They have further reinforced this message through documents such as the Inter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy.^[2]

SAR has previously elaborated on the existing legal framework for academic freedom and the responsibility of the international community, states, and the higher education sector to uphold these standards. This discussion is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish here.^[3]

In 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression emphasized that “academic freedom should be understood to include the freedom of individuals, as members of academic communities (e.g., faculty, students, staff, scholars, administrators and community participants) or in their own pursuits, to conduct activities involving the discovery and transmission of information and ideas, and to do so with the full protection of human rights law.”^[4] Academic freedom can be exercised both inside the academic community (“intramural expression”), or outside of it but within one’s expertise or area of focus (“extramural expression”).^[5] The exercise of academic freedom carries with it “the obligation to seek truth and impart information according to ethical and professional standards, and to respond to contemporary problems and needs of all members of society.”^[6] The protections warranted by academic freedom thus arise not from the locus where it is exercised, but rather from the application of training, experience, and expertise.

In 2023, at the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC), 74 States issued an historic Joint Statement in support of Academic Freedom.^[7] The signatories recognized that academic freedom is not only key to human rights education, but also “essential for technical and scientific progress and for the development of the creative industries and the arts” and numerous related rights and freedoms. The statement also called for enhanced international cooperation toward strengthening the protection and promotion of academic freedom in the spirit of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.^[8]

In 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education encouraged states to recognize academic freedom as an autonomous, self-standing, human right.^[9] She further called for the endorsement and implementation of the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom (annexed to this report) for the advancement and improvement of academic freedom worldwide. The Principles elaborate on existing legal standards and norms and provide tools to: (a) assist stakeholders in assessing existing protections and respect for academic freedom in a particular country or region; and (b) give practical guidance to local stakeholders implementing the right to academic freedom. As the document points out, “When fully implemented, these principles would substantially guarantee protection, promotion, and enjoyment of the right of academic freedom.”

Resolution A/HRC/59/L.11 on the right to education was adopted on July 7, 2025, during the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The resolution recognized that the academic freedom of staff and students is a key dimension of the right to education, and emphasized “that States, academic institutions, teachers and staff have the responsibility to promote an inclusive, safe and enabling environment for academic, evidence-based enquiry, debate and discussion.” It also expressed “deep concern at the increasing restrictions on academic freedom” and further stressed that “academic freedom, at all levels of education, inside and outside the academic community, is at the heart of scientific progress and contributes to building knowledge as a public and common good.” The resolution added that “individuals, as members of academic communities or in their own pursuits, should be free to conduct activities involving the discovery and transmission of knowledge and ideas, and to do so with the full protection of human rights law.” Finally, it noted with appreciation the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom.^[10]

Principle 1:  Academic freedom is the right to develop knowledge and ideas.
Principle 2:  Academic freedom is protected by international human rights law.
Principle 3:  Academic freedom requires autonomy of institutions.
Principle 4:  Academic freedom includes intramural and extramural expression.
Principle 5:  Academic freedom requires access to information.
Principle 6:  Academic freedom requires freedoms of movement and association.
Principle 7:  Academic freedom is essential to all levels of education.
Principle 8:  Students have the right to academic freedom.
Principle 9:  Protection of academic freedom is a shared responsibility.

Finally, Resolution A/HRC/62/L.12/Rev.1 on the freedom of opinion and expression was adopted on July 6, 2026, during the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. This resolution broadly recognized the connection between freedom of opinion and expression and academic freedom; acknowledged the “essential role” of academic communities (together with journalists, human rights defenders and other civil society actors) in promoting and protecting the right to freedom of opinion and expression; expressed alarm at increasing attacks against scholars, academics, and students, among other civil society actors; and expressed concern about “laws criminalizing or otherwise limiting legitimate academic inquiry or teaching.”^[11]

The emerging international framework recognizing the right to academic freedom is being complemented and reinforced by recognitions of academic freedom in state constitutions, national laws, decisions, and regulations, as well as in higher education policies and practices at the sectoral and institutional levels. As of 2024, 100 countries and territories had constitutional provisions that explicitly or implicitly protected academic freedom.^[12]

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

^[1] Human Rights Council, “Principles for implementing the right to academic freedom,” A/HRC/56/CRP.2, May 31, 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc56crp2-principles-implementing-right-academic-freedom-working-group.

^[2] IACHR, “Gross human rights violations in the context of social protests in Nicaragua,” June 21, 2018, paras. 170–71; and IACHR, “IACHR Observes Persistent Human Rights Issues in Venezuela,” April 5, 2019, www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2019/091.asp (expressing concern about attacks on professors and students and stating that “academic freedom [and institutional autonomy] are crucial pillars to strengthen democratic structures and prevent politically driven pressures and interventions.”).

^[3] See: “Academic Freedom and Its Protection Under International Law,” https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/academic-freedom-and-its-protection-under-international-law/.

^[4] A/75/261, para. 8.

^[5] A/HRC/56/CRP.2, Principle 1.

^[6] A/HRC/56/CRP.2, Principle 4.

^[7] United Nations Human Rights Council, “Joint statement on Academic Freedom,” March 29, 2023, https://onu-geneve.delegfrance.org/Joint-declaration-on-Academic-freedom.

^[8] United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,” June 25, 1993, https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/vienna-declaration-and-programme-action.

^[9] A/HRC/56/58, p. 1.

^[10] Learn more here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/regular-sessions/session59/res-dec-stat.

^[11] See: https://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/RES/62/11.

^[12] Filtering for the variable, “v2caprotac,” in the 2023 V-Dem dataset, available at v-dem.net/vdemds.html.

The 2026 Free to Think report assesses data collected from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, and includes 382 attacks arising from 321 incidents in 59 countries and territories. Over that period, students and faculty in more than a dozen countries faced targeted violence for exercising their rights to academic freedom, free expression, and freedom of association. Campuses in 16 countries suffered violent attacks, intrusions, or occupation, or threats of violent attacks, that undermined safety and campus integrity. Eight countries saw an erosion of institutional autonomy, with external interference in administrative operations, curricula, and hiring or admissions practices. The reporting period also saw escalation in the use of illiberal policies, laws, and extralegal actions targeting higher education in democratic contexts, particularly in the United States, resulting in crackdowns on dissent and disfavored speech.

This chapter provides an overview of the typology of attacks using monitoring project data from the above-mentioned reporting period, in order to highlight relevant issues of concern. In addition to the six categories that the monitoring project tracks, we specifically highlight attacks on student expression. Such attacks often fall under one or more of the monitoring project’s six categories but are worth treating distinctly because they underscore the unique role that students play in the higher education space and as learners who carry skills of critical inquiry and expression into the wider public space.

It is also worth noting that the attack types are not mutually exclusive. Some significant incidents that occurred during the reporting period involved multiple types of attack. For example, police wrongfully entering campuses and violently detaining students for nonviolent expression might encompass both “violence” and “wrongful imprisonment or prosecution.”^[1]

Killings, Violence, and Disappearances

Violent attacks on scholars, students, staff, and their institutions are one of the most serious threats to the higher education sector. From large-scale explosive attacks that target university infrastructure, staff, and students to targeted killings and threats of violence against individuals or groups, these attacks result in loss of lives and widespread injuries, compromise the safety of entire campuses, and incite fear in faculty, students, administrators, and society at large. This violence, in turn, can restrict access to higher education, threaten the functioning of the higher education space, and chill academic freedom.

Since the monitoring project’s inception in 2011, SAR has registered 1,393 violent attacks (roughly 34 percent of total attacks documented), including 165 that occurred during this reporting period (about 43 percent of the total number of attacks analyzed for this report). It is worth noting that this number includes attacks in which police or other security personnel used lethal or less lethal force^[2] against organized student expression or protests. These incidents are described below in the subsection of this chapter dedicated to student expression.

The current reporting period saw several different forms of violence targeting scholars and students. These included forcible disappearances, violent and targeted attacks on scholars or students, and opportunistic violence that took advantage of the location of university and college campuses.

University leaders were killed for their academic work or targeted because of their roles as university leaders. In Guatemala, unidentified gunmen assassinated Edy Josué Romero Tzin, director of the Petén Regional Campus (CUDEP) of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Romero Tzin was elected director of CUDEP in August 2025. Authorities suspected that the attack was targeted and related to administrative changes Romero Tzin had announced shortly after becoming campus director.^[3]

In Pakistan, gunmen assassinated Professor Muhammad Khan, an assistant professor of Brahui (the language of an indigenous tribal group in Balochistan) at the Government Boys’ Degree College. Khan was a renowned poet, writer, translator, and essayist, and much of his work was written in Brahui. He was also a prominent social activist who frequently engaged in public and cultural events. The attack occurred at 11:30 a.m., when unidentified assailants opened fire on Khan as he was riding his motorcycle from his home. Police stated that he died on the spot and an investigation was launched. Rights organizations and local activists allege the killing was state backed; authorities have not addressed these claims.^[4]

Student groups, members of the public, and unknown assailants abducted, violently attacked, or threatened scholars or students because of the content of their teaching; their racial, ethnic, or religious identity; or their social or political activism. In Zimbabwe, unidentified individuals abducted several students and faculty members for expressing opposition to a controversial constitutional amendment.^[5]

In Syria, armed individuals, including students, attacked Druze students in a student dormitory at the University of Aleppo.^[6] Unidentified gunmen also attempted to assassinate the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Damascus University, Ali Al-Lahham, on campus grounds. The motives behind the attack were unconfirmed, but sources indicated that it may have been related to a disagreement over academic evaluations.^[7]

In Bangladesh, university students were violently targeted based on their political affiliations. In particular, students engaged in “mob justice” against those aligned with the Awami League, the now banned former ruling party. On November 19, 2025, unknown assailants abducted, assaulted, and injured three students at Rajshahi University apparently because of their affiliation with the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami.^[8]

In Greece, unidentified individuals attacked students on the campus of the University of West Attica. Carrying hammers and knives, they injured at least two students before fleeing. Police detained eight suspects for questioning.^[9]

Security forces disappeared scholars or students for exercising their rights to freedom of expression. In Venezuela, on October 31, 2025, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) arrested two Central University of Venezuela (UCV) art students, Noel Cisneros and Katiuska Castillo Vásquez, while they were conducting thesis research at the Aragua Penitentiary Center. The prison’s security detail intercepted them after they took a photograph of the building’s facade. Six hours later, SEBIN patrols arrested them along with two assisting documentary filmmakers. In the three days following the incident, the families of the detainees visited four different detention centers multiple times, but authorities refused to provide official information regarding the students’ whereabouts. All four were eventually released on November 3, 2025.^[10] Suspected state actors also abducted Maracio González, a law professor at Fermín Toro University, and Javier Cisneros, a law student at UCV and youth leader of the Vente Venezuela party.^[11] Family members denounced the detentions as politically motivated given the political profiles of the individuals and the targeted nature of the abductions.

Pakistan saw a pattern of disappearances targeting Baloch university students, particularly those engaged in advocacy and education around Baloch culture, identity, and politics. Pakistani security and intelligence forces were credibly accused of responsibility.^[12]

Finally, armed groups opportunistically targeted students and scholars. University and college campuses, classrooms, dormitories, other facilities, and transports offer easy targets where groups of people gather according to predictable schedules, especially when inadequate steps are taken to provide security. As in previous years, such attacks were common in Nigeria, described in the highlight below.

SAR condemns violent attacks on higher education communities, as well as threats of violence. As articulated in the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, state authorities have the primary responsibility and duty to ensure that acts of violence do not interfere with students’ and scholars’ right to academic freedom.^[13] As such, SAR calls on state authorities to investigate these incidents, to make every effort to hold perpetrators accountable, and to ensure the security of all members of the community. State authorities must publicize investigations and accountability measures in order to inform constituents, positively influence state and non-state actors, and make these measures effective. SAR also calls on higher education institutions and civil society to press state authorities for greater protection and accountability, and to contribute to efforts to understand and reinforce principles of autonomy and academic freedom.

Wrongful Imprisonment and Prosecution

Scholars and students bring attention to a variety of important issues and may question dominant discourse and figures of authority through their academic work, inquiry, expression, and associations. In an effort to maintain power and control, state authorities—sometimes at the request or with the assent of university authorities—may attempt to silence them with a range of coercive legal measures, including criminal investigations, arrests, prosecutions, imprisonment,  injunctions, and other forms of pressure. Since monitoring began at the project’s inception, SAR has documented 1,085 incidents involving wrongful imprisonment or prosecution, 63 of which occurred during this reporting period.

Imprisonments and prosecutions of scholars and students are wrongful when they punish, deter, or impede nonviolent academic activity or the exercise of other protected rights, including freedoms of expression, association, or assembly. Such prosecutions are typically brought under laws aimed at restricting critical inquiry and expression. These include opaque and overbroad laws on blasphemy, lèse-majesté, civil and criminal defamation, sedition, espionage, national security, and terrorism that make illegal the mere expression of opinions or ideas on certain topics, without any link to violent or otherwise criminal acts or intentions whatsoever.^[14] Such laws raise concern for entire higher education communities in that they sanction and impose artificial boundaries on research, teaching, publication, and discussion, undermining quality, creativity, and innovation that can benefit society at large. Scholars also face legal actions brought under other laws of general application, e.g., those proscribing financial impropriety, corruption, or immorality. Wrongful prosecutions under these laws damage the reputation of the targeted individuals and isolate them from their institutions, colleagues, and other sources of professional and personal support.

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

During the reporting period, lecturers, researchers, other academic personnel, and students faced investigations, prosecution, imprisonment, and other legal actions in connection with their research, comments that they made during public events, or their ties to foreign academic or media organizations. Those arrested were often subjected to spurious charges related to “terrorism,” “extremism,” or the “endangerment of state security.” Arrests like these were a feature of attacks occurring in a number of the countries highlighted later in this report, including China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.

In Russia in September 2025, Russian authorities detained Leonid Pshenichnov, a Ukrainian marine biologist and the technical coordinator of Ukraine’s scientific observation program under the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), in retaliation for his Antarctic marine research. At the time of his arrest, Pshenichov, a resident of occupied Crimea, was preparing to travel to Hobart, Australia, to participate in the CCAMLR annual international meeting. As a biologist on the Commission since 1994, Pshenichov’s conservation research focused on marine wildlife populations in the Antarctic region. During the meeting, CCAMLR was scheduled to vote on several proposals for marine protected areas. Russia had blocked the proposals in recent years because of its opposition to restrictions on large-scale fishing. Russian authorities accused Pshenichov of undermining Russia’s economic interests in krill fishing operations.^[15]

On October 14, 2025, in Iran, security forces arrested Shayan Hushyar, a Turkish researcher and PhD candidate, after he publicly condemned a wave of anti-Kurdish hate speech. Hushyar, a doctoral student in Iranian history at Islamic Azad University, has advocated publicly for dialogue among Iran’s ethnic minorities. His arrest followed an incident on October 13, 2025, during which fans at a football match between an Azeri Turkish team and an Iranian club chanted extremist, anti-Kurdish slogans. In response, Hushyar published a statement urging respect and peaceful coexistence. The following day, security forces detained Hushyar and transferred him to an undisclosed location. At the time of writing, authorities had not released information regarding the reasons for Hushyar’s arrest, the charges against him, or his current place of detention.^[16]

In Afghanistan, Taliban officials arrested around 20 students at Herat University for failing to abide by newly announced regulations on appearance. Officials from the Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice entered the campus and arrested students who were not wearing traditional caps or had beards considered too short under the regulations.^[17]

In Tanzania, on December 9, 2025, police arrested Melkizedeki Tunzi Kaijage, an assistant lecturer in social sciences at the University of Dodoma, amid a crackdown on planned post-election protests against alleged democratic backsliding. Kaijage allegedly “incited students to participate” in the protests during an in-class lecture in December 2025. Police conducted a search of Kaijage’s home before arresting and interrogating him. He was later released on bail.^[18]

At the beginning of June 2026, authorities in Belarus opened a criminal case against individuals affiliated with the European Humanities University (EHU), conducting home searches and interrogations targeting current and former students, alumni, and their families. The Supreme Court had declared EHU an “extremist organization” in April 2026 and prohibited its activities, symbols, and insignia within Belarus. Security forces conducted more than 60 searches under criminal charges of “facilitating” and “financing” extremist activities. Officers interrogated parents of students, informing them that they were witnesses in the investigation. The agents told parents that students must withdraw from EHU and return to Belarus with written proof of their withdrawal within ten days or their parents would face detention.^[19]

The incidents described above provide a disturbing accounting of the range of punitive legal actions that members of the academic community often suffer in connection with their research, publications, expressive activity, and associations. These actions—often at the hands of state authorities—undermine academic freedom, as stated in the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom.^[20] Such actions can leave them with physical and emotional scars and, in some cases, destroy careers. Beyond the immediate harm to individual scholars and students, wrongful imprisonments and prosecutions send a message to higher education communities and society at large that expressing ideas or raising questions can result in grave consequences. As a result, society risks losing the benefits of a diverse community of scholars and students free to carry out their work or share their thoughts without fear of punishment by state authorities.

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

Loss of Position

State and higher education authorities often use a range of disciplinary actions to punish, deter, and restrict the exercise of academic freedom and other protected rights of scholars and students. These include the loss of position by dismissal, suspension, and denial of contract renewal or promotions or other benefits. At times, actors external to the university, including alumni, donors, elected officials, members of the media, or community members, may put pressure on university authorities to punish scholars. (Such actions are also a violation of university autonomy, as discussed in more detail in the “Other” section below.) State or university officials may point specifically to the content of research or teaching in explaining disciplinary actions. However, they may also attribute the action to regular administrative or employment decisions having nothing to do with academic content or conduct, such as budget cuts or lack of demand, or allegations of poor performance, violation of policy, violation of terms of employment or admission, fraud, or other dishonest or inappropriate behavior. They may also provide no explanation.^[21]

Since the monitoring project’s inception, SAR has reported 479 incidents involving permanent or temporary loss of position or threats of the same, including 50 during this reporting period. This includes cases affecting both scholars and students. The following examples illustrate a range of employment and administrative actions taken against lecturers, researchers, and other academic personnel during this reporting period.

Professors and staff members in Serbia were denied promotions or removed from their positions, allegedly in retaliation for their support for student protests. On November 20, 2025, the Senate of the University of Novi Sad voted to deny the promotion of Jelena Kleut, an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies. Kleut, an expert on new media and freedom of speech, openly supported Serbian university students engaged in nationwide anti-corruption protests. Despite meeting the formal and professional requirements for the position, the Senate of the University voted by secret ballot not to confirm the promotion.^[22] The same Senate voted on June 4, 2026, again by secret ballot, to deny the reappointment of Vladimir Mihić, an associate professor of psychology, similarly in retaliation for his support of student protests.^[23]

The SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India fired Lora Santhakumar, an assistant professor of literature, for social media posts she had made regarding Indian military action in Pakistan. On May 7, 2025, Santhakumar shared a series of WhatsApp status updates voicing opposition to calls for war. In addition to criticizing civilian casualties resulting from an Indian military strike, Santhakumar shared quotes, warnings, and fact checks regarding the broader consequences of war. One post read: “Say NO to war. And don’t be afraid to say so, even if it is not the popular opinion.” She also flagged several social media accounts for fraudulently posing as Indian Army officers, urging others not to amplify their content. Following these posts, Santhakumar’s phone number and photo circulated rapidly on social media, triggering online abuse and death threats. The university suspended her on May 8, 2025, and ultimately fired her on December 9.^[24]

In Indonesia, the University of August 17, 1945 (UTA 45) suspended Damar Setyaji Pamungkas, a management student at the Faculty of Economics, Business, and Social Sciences (FEBIS). Pamungkas had organized a discussion titled “Suharto is Not a Hero: Challenging Fadli Zon and the 1,000 Political Sins of Suharto.” The Dean ordered Pamungkas to cancel the event, calling it a practical political exercise. The university ultimately deployed security personnel to lock down the event space and suspended Pamungkas for “failing to comply” with directives to avoid nonacademic activities and for “mobilizing the masses” toward political activities on campus.^[25]

In Pakistan, Bacha Khan University Charsadda expelled four students on February 13, 2026, for performing the Indian national anthem during a university festival. Citing violations of university and hostel regulations, the administration alleged that the performance was conducted in a manner that could “create unrest and harm national unity.”^[26]

Several faculty members in the United States and Canada were removed from their positions or suspended because of their public commentary following the killing of political commentator Charlie Kirk, as detailed later in this report. Cumberland University, Austin Peay State University, the University of South Dakota, Florida Atlantic University, Clemson University, Rider University, and Emory University, dismissed or placed faculty on leave for social media posts they made about Charlie Kirk.^[27]

In multiple cases, universities dismissed faculty members on the basis of their identity or religious practice. In Afghanistan, Taliban authorities retaliated against students at multiple public universities, including by barring them from accessing their dormitories, for failing to comply with appearance standards.^[28] In the United States, the Dean of Emory University’s School of Medicine announced that Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, an assistant professor of hematology and medical oncology, was no longer employed at the university, apparently because of her familial relationship with top Iranian officials.^[29] In Bangladesh, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU) expelled four students in response to “allegations of homosexuality.” The university administration claimed their behavior had damaged the institution’s image.^[30]

Expulsions, dismissals, suspensions, and other forms of professional retaliation or silencing can have a corrosive effect on academic freedom and free expression generally. As noted in the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, “rules and practices for appointment, hiring, conditions of work, admissions, promotion, tenure and retention, and expulsion or dismissal of institutional leadership, administrative and academic, research, and teaching staff, and students must be free of political or outside influence.”^[31] When this principle is not followed, university autonomy is eroded, and the likelihood of self-censorship and brain drain increases as scholars and students seek fairer and more transparent environments in which to conduct their research, teaching, and studying. Professional retaliation can also leave individuals isolated and vulnerable to more extreme forms of attack, including arrest, prosecution, and violence. Early attention to dismissals and expulsions may then help to forestall such attacks. Finally, to the extent that they are intended to silence critics and, in the case of students, eliminate their future potential for effective criticism and dissent, these forms of attacks threaten the foundations of democratic society and warrant a robust response.

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

Travel Restrictions

The freedom of movement is fundamental to quality higher education, advancing the exchange of new ideas and bolstering international academic collaborations to address the world’s problems. However, the international and intrastate mobility of both students and scholars is routinely threatened by state actors seeking to limit the flow of knowledge. Governments deny scholars and students entry at their national borders, deport members of the academic community, and enact policies that seek to or unintentionally limit or frustrate academic travel, including for fieldwork, conferences, study abroad, and to take up employment offers.

To be clear, states have the right to control entry into their territories and to restrict travel to protect national security and public health; however, they must do so consistent with their obligations under domestic and international law. Restrictions on travel intended to limit particular academic content or conduct, or that of particular scholars or students, may violate academic freedom, freedom of expression, and other internationally recognized rights.^[32]

In addition to the free movement of people, the free flow of ideas is also essential for advancing knowledge and understanding. Technology has made virtual cross-border collaboration increasingly possible. To the extent that governments enact policies that function as barriers to international research cooperation, these policies also function as barriers to academic freedom.

Since the monitoring project’s inception, SAR has reported 116 incidents involving travel restrictions that have directly impacted thousands of scholars and students, including 6 during the current reporting period.

On October 14, 2025, officials in Israel banned Bana Al-Ghoul, an undergraduate student at Birzeit University, from entering the West Bank in apparent retaliation for her student activism. Israeli authorities summoned Al-Ghoul, a resident of Jerusalem, to the Moskobiya Detention Center. There, they gave her an order banning her from entering the West Bank, where Birzeit University is located, for six months until April 12, 2026. According to local media sources, the justification for the ban was that Al-Ghoul posed a danger because of her student activities at Birzeit University. The ban effectively prevented Al-Ghoul from continuing her studies.^[33]

In Russia, the Ministry of Foreign affairs announced indefinite entry bans on 30 Japanese citizens, including scholars and researchers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ban was in response to Japan’s continued “policy of sanctions against Russia in connection with the special military operation.”^[34]

On February 24, 2026, Latvian police detained Andrei Lankov, a Russian scholar and expert on North Korean politics and history, ahead of a lecture titled “North Korea: What Leaders Want and Fear.” Half an hour before the event, police and immigration officials told him that the foreign ministry of Latvia had included him on its list of undesirable people. Following a brief detention, he was escorted to the border and deported to Estonia, the next destination on his tour.^[35]

In Kyrgyzstan, border agents denied entry to and deported Steve Swerdlow, a researcher on Central Asia and associate professor in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). At the time of his deportation, Swerdlow was leading a group of 16 undergraduates on a visit to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan that was intended to foster intercultural dialogue, educational cooperation, and interaction between students and local communities. When Swerdlow and the students arrived at the Bishkek airport at 4:30 a.m. on May 19, Kyrgyz border officials allowed the students to enter but pulled the professor out of the passport control line. Three officers informed him that he was not allowed to enter Kyrgyzstan but did not provide a reason for the denial. Swerdlow was deported to Istanbul, Türkiye.^[36]

US executive actions and state-level policies put international and undocumented students and scholars in a particularly precarious position. Presidential Proclamations either fully or partially suspended nationals from 39 countries from entering the United States.^[37] The travel bans, combined with a new policy mandating that US immigration officials review the social media accounts of all foreign students applying for visas to study in the United States,^[38] contributed to a 35.6% drop in new international student visas during the summer of 2025.^[39]

Healthy societies require the free movement of scholars, students, and their ideas. The Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom point out that “restrictions on movement, including restrictions on entry, exit, return after exit, or right to remain, which intentionally punish, deter, or impede research, teaching or discourse of academic, research, and teaching staff and students, or otherwise sanction a member of the education sector for their exercise of protected rights,” repress and often penalize the international exchange of ideas that is a hallmark of modern academia, thereby undermining academic freedom.^[40] SAR calls upon state and international authorities to adopt and respect policies that fully protect the right to academic travel, including the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers.”^[41] State authorities should not deny scholars and students entry or exit visas, cancel their passports, force their return to their home countries, or otherwise attempt to impede or interfere with academic expression or conduct.

Student Expression

A substantial proportion of the incidents reported in SAR’s monitoring project relate to student expression. As noted in the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, “As members of education communities students have the right to academic freedom.”^[42] Incidents relating to student expression include violent attacks and threats that obstruct students’ freedom of expression, assembly, and association; and incidents in which students take actions or call for violence, intimidation, or interference that may undermine academic freedom and free expression. During this reporting period, SAR reported 145 student expression-related incidents that directly impacted hundreds of students.

In the first instance, individual and organized student expression is an integral part of the higher education process and an important contributor to public discourse generally. Students’ right to engage in such protest is protected under international human rights standards relating to academic freedom, freedom of expression, freedoms of assembly and association, and the right to education. Despite these protections, state and institutional actors frequently restrict and retaliate against student expression through the use of violent force, detentions, and coercive legal and disciplinary actions. Beyond violating internationally recognized human rights and endangering members of the campus community, attacks on student expression chill the learning environment and limit the free inquiry and expression required for open, democratically legitimate societies.

Police Use of Force against Students

Among the most common student expression-related incidents are those that involve the use of force by police against student protesters. During the current reporting period, police used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, water cannons, or live ammunition in an effort to disperse students leading protests against their governments in several of the countries highlighted in this report, including Bangladesh, Serbia, and Indonesia. Police also responded forcibly to student protests related to educational issues in highlighted countries including India and Pakistan.

In addition to highlighted countries, students exercising their rights to free expression and assembly were violently met by police in a number of other countries. In Paraguay, the National Police forcibly dispersed students protesting a lack of university transportation. University students living in Villa Ygatimí, Canindeyú, travel an hour to attend the National University of Canindeyú (UNICAN) in Curuguaty. During their protest, the students blocked the main access road to Villa Ygatimí to demand reliable transportation. The National Police and riot forces broke up the protest using rubber bullets, injuring several students who required medical treatment.^[43]

Police in Chile deployed water cannons against students in Santiago protesting new educational policies that would reduce tuition-free access to university. Clashes erupted during the march as some students threw stones and police moved to disperse the crowds with water cannons. The government ultimately abandoned the plan of limiting tuition-free access.^[44]

In Honduras, riot police fired tear gas at students protesting proposed budget cuts to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras which would remove millions of dollars from public funds earmarked for the university. Clashes erupted when some demonstrators threw stones at police officers, who then dispersed the crowd with tear gas and water cannons. At least one student was reported injured during the confrontation.^[45]

In Kenya, police fired teargas to disperse medical students protesting a delay in their examination results from the University of Nairobi. The protest began on the University of Nairobi’s main campus, where students chanted, danced, blew horns, and carried placards reading “Accountability is also a unit. Results!!” As the protest spread to University Way—a major road by the university—students lit bonfires, causing a major traffic jam. Police soon arrived and lobbed teargas to disperse the crowd, prompting several students to retaliate by throwing stones. No student or police injuries were reported.^[46]

Inspired by similar youth movements in Nepal, Madagascar, and Peru, students in Morocco began the GENZ212 movement and rallied in front of the parliament for weeks with social demands for focus on public services. Security forces violently intervened on multiple occasions.^[47]

SAR condemns violent and coercive attacks against students, from whatever source. SAR urges governments and higher education leaders to ensure that security officials, both state and private, exercise restraint and respond to student expression and protest activities in an appropriate and proportional manner, focused on de-escalation and consistent with recognized international human rights standards. States should not use weapons when responding to nonviolent student expression.^[48] If force is necessary as a last resort to maintain safety, it must be proportionate and limited so as to reduce unnecessary risk of harm to protesting students and others. State authorities must further ensure appropriate protections for nonviolent student expression—especially when on a campus or in an academic setting.

SAR also calls on state authorities to immediately release students in custody and drop any charges that stem from their peaceful academic or expressive activity. SAR urges higher education leaders to refrain from taking disciplinary actions against students in retaliation for or to restrict nonviolent student expression, inquiry, assembly, or association.

Students too have a responsibility to ensure that protests remain peaceful. SAR calls on students to engage in expressive actions responsibly and refrain from violence, including by refraining from direct or threatened harm to others, or materially disrupting the operations of the university and truth-seeking of other students, faculty, or community members.

Disciplinary Actions against Students for their Expressive Activity

Students also face academic reprisals for expressive activity, including suspension, expulsion, and bans. Retaliations of this type can have lasting negative impacts on the students they affect: even if they are permitted to enroll elsewhere, other institutions may be hesitant to accept them, fearing government reprisals; as a result, the students’ future prospects are reduced. Students, meanwhile, may experience permanent or temporary expulsion, loss of scholarships, limited access to housing or other facilities, or suspension of the student groups in which they participate.

In Nigeria, the University of Ibadan suspended Ayodele Aduwo, a history undergraduate, and Mide Gbadegesin, a postgraduate student in African studies, for four semesters following their participation in a 2024 protest over the university’s tuition costs. During the protest, students peacefully held placards that read “No to Fee Hike.” University authorities reported the students to the police, who removed them from the event. Following the incident, the Central Students Disciplinary Committee accused the students of “insubordination/unruly behavior” and summoned them to three disciplinary hearings between July 2024 and July 2025. The final hearing on July 14, 2025, resulted in the suspension of Aduwo and Gbadegesin.^[49]

The State University of Novi Pazar (DUNP) in Serbia changed student enrollment procedures without prior notification, making it difficult for students involved in the nationwide “Stop, Serbia” protest movement to re-enroll at the university. In anticipation of the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Novi Sad railway canopy, DUNP students joined their colleagues from universities across the country in a multi-day march to a commemorative rally scheduled to take place on November 1, 2026. In the lead-up to the anniversary, DUNP apparently changed the student re-enrollment process without prior notification to occur for one day while students were engaged in the march. According to DUNP students, in previous years, students were given more time to enroll. Multiple students subsequently reported receiving notice that DUNP had terminated their university status.^[50]

The Hong Kong Baptist University suspended the operations of its student union after they publicly expressed condolences for a deadly apartment building fire. Following the fire, the HKBU student union created a “democracy wall” on their notice board expressing condolences for those killed in the Tai Po fire. University security blocked off access to the wall containing the notice board and announced that it would take over all facilities managed by the union, including the notice board.^[51]

The Burkina Faso government opened a judicial investigation into and subsequently suspended the country’s oldest student organization after the organization released a statement criticizing the government’s “inability to restore security” despite heavy investments in military equipment. The prosecutor’s investigation cited Articles 312-11 and 361-19 of the Penal Code, which criminalize “demoralisation of the defence and security forces” and “public glorification of terrorism.” The following day, the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Mobility issued an order suspending the union from conducting any activities nationwide for three months.^[52]

In Pakistan, Bacha Khan University Charsadda expelled four students for performing the Indian national anthem during a university festival. Citing violations of university and hostel regulations, the administration alleged that the performance was conducted in a manner that could “create unrest and harm national unity.”^[53]

While university authorities have an obligation to take all reasonable measures to ensure the safety of students and university personnel and to prevent disruptions that inappropriately inhibit the functioning of or access to higher education, they must do so consistent with their responsibility to ensure academic freedom and free expression on campus.

Students as Perpetrators of Violations

In addition to being subjected to violations, students can also become perpetrators of violations that damage academic freedom and free expression on campus. A minority of incidents involved some students—often subsets of a broader group—engaging in physical violence directed at fellow students, higher education personnel, security personnel, or campus facilities. In particular, clashes between student groups disrupted education on college and university campuses and made the learning environment unwelcoming and unsafe.

As highlighted later in this report, such incidents were common in India and Bangladesh, countries where student politics have an effect on the national political landscape. Beyond those countries featured in this report, clashes also disrupted university life in Nepal, Argentina, Mexico, and Greece.

In Nepal, members of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) and the Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) clashed at Sudurpaschim University ahead of the Free Student Union (FSU) elections. On July 21, 2025, independent students locked the door to the FSU election office the day before nominations were due, demanding a fairer and more inclusive electoral system, the replacement of the election officer, and the repeal of newly revised election rules. ANNFSU members arrived the following day to file their nominations and removed the lock, sparking a physical confrontation with the NSU. NSU representatives alleged that ANNFSU students threw petrol at them while they were discussing election concerns with the university administration. In response, ANNFSU leaders accused the NSU of attempting to rig the election under the guise of supporting independent protesters, calling the lock an obstruction of democratic rights. Three students were injured in the clash, and police dispersed students with batons.^[54]

In Argentina, student members of the pro-government libertarian group Somos Libres clashed with left-wing students from the Ya Basta movement within the hallways and classrooms of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires. The incident renewed fears over escalating campus violence and the increasingly hostile environment dividing political factions within the university.^[55]

In Greece, groups of far-left students violently clashed with anarchist students at the National Technical University of Athens (Athens Polytechnic) during events commemorating the 1973 Polytechnic uprising. The altercations left several students and staff members injured and caused visible damage to university property.^[56]

The Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom point out that “Threats to, or violations of the rights of students and organized student groups, including by means of suspensions and expulsions; arrests and prosecutions; imprisonments and violence; infiltration, surveillance, interference with or dissolution of student associations, unions, and assemblies, by state and non-state actors, undermine academic freedom.”^[57] SAR calls on members of higher education communities and civil society to commit to respecting the campus space, both physical and virtual, as a safe, free arena where ideas can be expressed and debated without fear of physical harm or undue restriction. SAR further calls on students engaged in expressive activity, on or off campus, to do so consistent with higher education values and human rights principles. This includes abstaining from using physical violence to advance the objectives of student expression.

Regardless of the type of perpetrator, the frequency and severity of incidents involving student expression underscore the importance and vulnerability of student expression around the world. (Indeed, student expression incidents constitute roughly 38 percent of the incidents SAR reported this year, although this may reflect in part greater visibility and reporting on attacks on students relative to other attacks.) Understanding student expression—its forms, presence around the globe, and significance to education and society—and working to protect it are essential to ensuring quality higher education that provides the maximum societal benefit.

Other

The types of attacks discussed above capture the most severe incidents (killings, violence, disappearances, prosecution, and imprisonment) and those that, despite the difficulty in documenting them, likely impact large numbers of scholars and students (loss of position/expulsion, travel restrictions). The “other” category captures incidents which do not fall squarely within these but may nevertheless significantly impair higher education functions, academic freedom, and the rights of entire higher education communities.

The majority of these attacks violate some aspect of university autonomy. Attacks on curricular or administrative autonomy come in the form of legislative and administrative actions. (It is worth noting that many loss of position cases also involve some form of external pressure on university administrators; i.e., another violation of university autonomy. Such attacks are described in the “Loss of Position” section above.) Meanwhile, attacks on campus integrity typically include military raids on and occupations of higher education facilities, and damage to or destruction of higher education facilities, often during armed conflict.

SAR has reported 675  “other” incidents, including 93 during this reporting period.

Administrative Actions, Laws, and Policymaking

Governments across the world are using executive, legislative, regulatory, and policymaking powers, and in some cases extra-legal measures, to constrain freedom of thought and the academic space. This includes outright bans on education, measures interfering with university autonomy, and laws and policies limiting free speech or international research collaboration. Such actions are detrimental to intellectual freedom, independent thought, and a free and democratic society. They build a climate of fear and persecution. They enable government interference in the functioning of higher education institutions and encourage scholars and students to self-censor.

In the United States, pressures on the higher education sector have continued to grow under the administration of President Donald Trump.

In October 2025, the administration announced its so-called “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education,” which attempted to incentivize universities into committing to the administration’s political agenda in exchange for priority access to federal research funds.^[58] In May 2026, the US administration published a set of proposed rules through the Office of Management and Budget  that would authorize senior political appointees to overrule expert peer-review panels when awarding new research grants or terminating existing ones.^[59]

State governments in the United States have also targeted higher education. South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee all announced policies weakening tenure protections for faculty at the state’s public universities and colleges.^[60] Multiple universities in Texas approved policies restricting teaching. The Texas A&M University System passed restrictions on teaching related to race and gender, and encouraged students to report courses they believe violate the policies. Among the material flagged as violating the university’s new policy were readings from Plato’s Symposium discussing patriarchy, masculinity, and gender identity, in a philosophy course on “Contemporary Moral Problems.”^[61] Texas Tech University announced a policy requiring faculty members to seek administrative approval for any course material related to gender and sexual identity. The policy used vague and overbroad terms that conflate discriminatory activity, which is already prohibited by law, with nondiscriminatory research, teaching, or discussion of contested topics.^[62] Months later, Texas Tech introduced a new policy ending student research related to sexual orientation and gender identity and phasing out academic programs “centered on” those topics.^[63]

In Armenia, on March 11, 2026, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan demanded the resignation of Dr. Edita Gzoyan, a prominent genocide scholar, from her position as director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI). The demand was made after Gzoyan shared an Institute publication that referenced the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region during an official visit by US Vice President JD Vance to the Institute. Pashinyan described the books about Nagorno-Karabakh as “provocative” and contrary to Armenia’s current foreign policy. The incident prompted several independent scholars on the AGMI Board of Trustees to resign in protest of political interference. Pashinyan subsequently bypassed established governance procedures and appointed a member of his own staff as acting director.^[64]

Other countries took actions to restrict teaching. In Argentina, the head of the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Pharmacy at the National University of San Luis (UNSL) removed teaching materials from Professor Leonardo Seguín’s course page, labeling it “indoctrination.” Seguín, a biochemistry professor in the department, had added the “grandparentage index” statistical formula to the virtual classroom for his Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering course. By analyzing the genetic material of the individuals involved, the index helped identify and reunite 140 children who were appropriated during the military dictatorship. Seguín included the formula in course materials alongside the National Genetic Data Bank (BNDG) to use as practical examples of parentage studies in laboratory settings.^[65]

Interference with Academic Events

Also common during the reporting period were efforts to cancel or impede participation in lectures, seminars, conferences, or other events hosted by members of the higher education community. In some of these cases, university authorities cancel events, apparently in anticipation of external pressure; in others, individuals (either members of the university community or not) harassed or threatened organizers or speakers, prompting an event’s cancellation. Cancellation of nonviolent public events restricts or deters scholarly discussion and the free exchange of ideas and information.

Multiple universities in India canceled events in response to the speaker’s extramural expression. For example, both Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Mumbai University (MU) canceled lectures or disinvited speakers based on external pressure: BHU canceled a lecture by scholar Kedar Mishra because the government opposed his participation, and MU disinvited actor Naseeruddin Shah because a senior official took issue with how Shah “openly made statements against the country.”^[66]

In the United States, universities canceled events and disinvited speakers over recent, past, or anticipated expression on sensitive or contested issues. Texas Tech University canceled a talk scheduled to be given by a retired doctor and abortion rights activist after a campaign launched by Turning Point USA. The University of North Texas canceled an art exhibition addressing immigration and the US government’s deportation efforts based on concerns over political repercussions for the university, including the potential loss of funding.^[67]

As reported in Free to Think 2025, universities canceled events focused on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In France, the Collège de France canceled the symposium “Palestine and Europe: Weight of the Past and Contemporary Dynamics,” citing “controversy” surrounding the event. High-profile speakers were set to attend, including former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. The event was subsequently relocated to the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, an independent research center and a co-sponsor of the colloquium.^[68]

Higher education institutions have a responsibility to provide physical and intellectual spaces for structured discourse. While invited speakers may not have a right to the podium, once invited they should not be censored or disciplined for their peaceful expression of views, even if controversial. This is especially true on matters which are novel, contested, or likely to trigger heightened interest or strong reactions.

The Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom recognize that “The protection, promotion, and enjoyment of academic freedom require the autonomy of academic, research, and teaching institutions.” This includes ensuring that external actors, along with institutional education leaders, oversight boards, and governing councils, respect the principle of self-governance, “which is an essential component of autonomy.”^[69] SAR urges governments and higher education leaders to fight back against this form of authoritarian encroachment by refraining from actions that erode academic freedom or university autonomy, such as increasing external authority over higher education; imposing ideological obligations on the administration or content of academic teaching or research; or otherwise coercively intervening in the higher education space. SAR calls on government and higher education leaders to bolster existing norms of democracy, human rights, and academic freedom by fighting and, where necessary, repealing such executive, legislative, or policy actions that infringe upon academic freedom, free expression on campus, and university autonomy.

Military Use and Armed Attacks on Higher Education Institutions

Among the cases SAR documents in the “other” category are those in which military, paramilitary, or organized criminal groups target, occupy, or use higher education facilities, often during armed conflict. This includes the use of higher education facilities as barracks, weapons caches, firing ranges, and interrogation and detention centers. Such uses can disrupt or completely impede education in the short term. They can also trigger attacks by opposing forces, which damage or destroy higher education infrastructure.

During the current reporting period, SAR documented various cases where universities were subject to bomb threats, leading to campus evacuations that disrupted academic activity. From September to December 2025, bomb threats occurred regularly at universities in the Philippines, apparently as a scare tactic following nationwide student-led anti-corruption protests, as described in the highlight below. Similar threats took place in other countries; in South Korea, an individual claiming to belong to Man of Korea, a men’s rights group, sent a bomb threat to Sungshin Women’s University, prompting the university to suspend all summer session classes and vacate the campus.^[70]

Military and security forces were involved in various other cases. For example, security personnel entered the campus of the Central University of Ecuador amid a protest held in the context of a national strike organized by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). Security forces breached university grounds during a demonstration, clashing with students and other protesters and detaining several university students.^[71]

In Sudan, a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone strike severely damaged buildings within the central campus complex of Kordofan University, including the university’s largest lecture halls. No casualties were reported.^[72]

In Ukraine, Russian air strikes damaged university buildings on at least 17 separate occasions, including at the National University Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University, Sumy State University, National University of Pharmacy in Kharkiv, Kyiv National Aviation University, Kherson State University, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, Kharkiv National University of Arts, Ukrainian State University of Science and Technology, Dnipro Polytechnic University, National Aerospace University Kharkiv, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, King Danylo University, Kyiv School of Economics, and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Some institutions were struck more than once.^[73]

In Iran, United States and Israeli airstrikes hit more than thirty universities and educational institutions. Dozens of campuses, including Sharif University of Technology, the Iran University of Science and Technology, Isfahan University of Technology, and Shahid Beheshti University sustained severe material losses to educational infrastructure.^[74] Several American universities in the Middle East were threatened with retaliatory bombing by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The facilities were closed until further notice as a result.^[75]

In addition to violence related to armed conflict, unidentified assailants looted and vandalized university campuses. In South Africa, unknown perpetrators set fire to six buildings on the University of Fort Hare’s campus, causing significant destruction to the main administrative building, the student affairs office, the agriculture faculty, and the campus clinic, resulting in an estimated R500 million (USD 30 million) in damage. The following day, university authorities ordered the entire campus to evacuate and temporarily suspended all operations. No injuries were reported.^[76]

In Mexico, unidentified individuals attempted to occupy the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Faculty of Law, sparking a confrontation with students and staff. A group unaffiliated with the university entered the faculty at 6:00 pm, chanting slogans and declaring a takeover by blocking access points and obstructing movement. Students confronted the intruders while staff requested university intervention. Within a few hours, UNAM security arrived and engaged in dialogue with the group, preventing violence and further escalation. The intrusion followed a pattern of destabilization at UNAM that included strikes, bomb threats, and failed takeover attempts at the Faculty of Medicine.^[77]

In Ethiopia, unidentified individuals detonated homemade explosives on the business campus of Mekele University, causing fear and confusion for those nearby. No injuries were reported. ^[78]

In Spain, a group of unidentified hooded individuals stormed the Complutense University in Madrid, vandalizing university property ahead of International Women’s Day. They verbally abused students, ripped down posters and banners (especially those related to women’s rights), damaged campus furniture, and attempted to hang a banner that read, “Reject feminism, embrace femininity.” Authorities arrested 13 individuals for public disorder and property damage.^[79]

In the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials encroached upon university spaces when attempting to detain international scholars and students working in the United States. On February 26, 2026, ICE officials entered a Columbia University-owned apartment building under the false pretense of searching for a missing child and detained without a warrant Elmina Aghayeva, an undergraduate senior majoring in neuroscience and politics. She was released later that afternoon after Columbia president Clare Shipman issued a public statement but remains in removal proceedings.^[80]

As noted in the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, states and other parties must ensure that even in times of war, armed conflict, civil unrest, or emergency, academic freedom is respected. Doing so “requires scrupulous adherence to human rights and humanitarian law principles by all parties, including strict prohibition on the targeting of civilian objects, including schools, universities, and educational facilities under normal educational uses, as well as prohibition on any disproportionate harms to such facilities or personnel that might result from otherwise permissible military action.”^[81] Moreover, to ensure that academic freedom is upheld, states must “refrain from militarization, surveillance, or other measures which undermine academic freedom and autonomy.”^[82]

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

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

^[1] SAR AFMP, Universidad Central del Ecuador, October 15, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-15-universidad-central-del-ecuador/; SAR AFMP, Birzeit University, January 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-06-birzeit-university/.

^[2] The use of less lethal weapons, including teargas and batons, while less dangerous than more lethal alternatives such as firearms, may nevertheless result in injuries and fatalities, especially when used improperly. See Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement,” 2020, www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CCPR/LLW_Guidance.pdf.

^[3] SAR AFMP, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, January 8, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-08-university-de-san-carlos-de-guatemala/

^[4] SAR AFMP, Government Boys’ Degree College, May 16, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-16-government-boys-degree-college/.

^[5] SAR AFMP, Midlands State University, August 8, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-08-midlands-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Chinhoyi University of Technology, March 21, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-21-chinhoyi-university-of-technology; SAR AFMP, Bulawayo Polytechnic, March 30, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-30-bulawayo-polytechnic/; and SAR AFMP, Bindura University of Science Education, March 30, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-30-bindura-university-of-science-education/.

^[6] SAR AFMP, University of Aleppo, July 17, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-17-university-of-aleppo/.

^[7] SAR AFMP, Damascus University, October 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-12-damascus-university/.

^[8] SAR AFMP, Rajshahi University, November 19, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-19-rajshahi-university/.

^[9] SAR AFMP, University of West Attica, May 12, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-12-university-of-west-attica/.

^[10] SAR AFMP, Central University of Venezuela, October 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-31-central-university-of-venezuela/.

^[11] SAR AFMP, Central University of Venezuela, October 24, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-24-central-university-of-venezuela/; and SAR AFMP, Fermín Toro University, September 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-fermin-toro-university/.

^[12] Baloch Student Action Committee, X (formerly Twitter), March 23, 2026, https://x.com/bsac_org/status/2036089511474798879?s=46&t=dOAjqFnMvAVUog9fBqfKlA.

^[13] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 7, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[14] When narrowly drafted, limited in use, and conscientiously applied through fair and transparent legal proceedings fully compliant with recognized human rights standards, such laws might still chill academic freedom, freedom of expression, and other rights in some contexts. In practice, however, such limits on state prosecution authority are rarely in place.

^[15] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, September 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-15-multiple-institutions/.

^[16] SAR AFMP, Islamic Azad University, October 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-14-islamic-azad-university/.

^[17] SAR AFMP, Herat University, April 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-15-herat-university/.

^[18] SAR AFMP, University of Dodoma, December 9, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-09-university-of-dodoma/.

^[19] SAR AFMP, European Humanities University, June 2, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-06-02-european-humanities-university/.

^[20] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 7, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[21] This presents significant challenges in reporting, given the need to look for evidence of pretext by examining the timing of the action, its context, any history or pattern of similar actions against the victim(s) or others, the fairness and transparency of any process leading to the action, and any available statements and supporting information from the parties involved, witnesses, and independent experts.

^[22] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, November 20, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-20-university-of-novi-sad/; and SAR AFMP, University of Belgrade, December 4, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-04-university-of-belgrade/.

^[23] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, June 4, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-06-05-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[24] SAR AFMP, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, December 9, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-09-srm-institute-of-science-and-technology/.

^[25] SAR AFMP, University of August 17, 1945, November 10, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-10-university-of-august-17-1945/.

^[26] SAR AFMP, Bacha Khan University, February 13, 2206, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-13-bacha-khan-university/.

^[27] SAR AFMP, Cumberland University, September 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-cumberland-university/; SAR AFMP, Austin Peay State University, September 12, 2025,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-austin-peay-state-university/; SAR AFMP, University of South Dakota, September 13, 2025,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-13-university-of-south-dakota/; SAR AFMP, Florida Atlantic University, September 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-13-florida-atlantic-university/; SAR AFMP, Clemson University, September 16, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-16-clemson-university/; SAR AFMP, Rider University, September 17, 2025,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-17-rider-university/; and SAR AFMP, Emory University, September 18, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-18-emory-university/.

^[28] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, September 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-14-multiple-institutions-2/.

^[29] SAR AFMP, Emory University, January 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-24-emory-university/.

^[30] SAR AFMP, May 16, 2026, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-16-hajee-mohammad-danesh-science-and-technology-university/.

^[31] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 4, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[32] Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) speaks directly to this issue, providing that the right to freedom of expression “shall include [the] freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers. …”

^[33] SAR AFMP, Birzeit University, October 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-14-birzeit-university/.

^[34] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, November 11, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-11-multiple-institutions/.

^[35] SAR AFMP, Kookmin University, February 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-24-kookmin-university/.

^[36] SAR AFMP, University of Southern California, May 19, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-19-university-of-southern-california/.

^[37] US Department of State, Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States, Updated February 2, 2026, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/suspension-of-visa-issuance-to-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-security-of-the-united-states.html.

^[38] Kat Lonsdorf, U.S. will review social media for foreign student visa applications, NPR, June 19, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/06/19/g-s1-73572/us-resumes-visas-foreign-students-access-social-media.

^[39] Johanna Alonso and Katherine Knott, New Student Visas Dropped 35.6% Last Summer, Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2026/03/10/new-student-visas-dropped-356-last-summer.

^[40] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 6, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[41] See Article 19 in “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” December 19, 1966, www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx.

^[42] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 7, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[43] SAR AFMP, National University of Canindeyu, August 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-28-national-university-of-canindeyu/.

^[44] SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, March 26, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-26-multiple-institutions/.

^[45] SAR AFMP, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, April 21, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-21-universidad-nacional-autonoma-de-honduras/.

^[46] SAR AFMP, University of Nairobi, September 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-03-university-of-nairobi/.

^[47] Javier Martínez R, “Marruecos Disuelve Una Manifestación de Jóvenes Que Protestaban Para Pedir Reformas En Educación Y Sanidad,” El Confidencial, September 27, 2025, https://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo/2025-09-27/protesta-educacion-sanidad-rabat-1tps_4217640/.

^[48] The use of less-lethal weapons, including teargas and baton, while less dangerous than more lethal alternatives such as firearms, may nevertheless result in injuries and fatalities, especially when used improperly. See Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement,” 2020, www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CCPR/LLW_Guidance.pdf.

^[49] SAR AFMP, University of Ibadan, July 17, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-14-university-of-ibadan/.

^[50] SAR AFMP, State University of Novi Pazar, November 5, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-05-state-university-of-novi-pazar/.

^[51] SAR AFMP, Hong Kong Baptist University, December 5, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-05-hong-kong-baptist-university/.

^[52] SAR AFMP, General Students Union of Burkina, May 25, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-25-general-union-of-students-of-burkina/.

^[53] SAR AFMP, Bacha Khan University, February 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-13-bacha-khan-university/.

^[54] SAR AFMP, Sudurpaschim University, July 22, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-22-sudurpaschim-university/.

^[55] SAR AMFP, University of Buenos Aires, April 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-17-university-of-buenos-aires/.

^[56]SAR AFMP, National Technical University of Athens, November 15, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-15-national-technical-university-of-athens/.

^[57] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 7, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[58] Susan Svrluga, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Emily Davies, Colleges weigh whether to sign on to Trump plan or forgo federal benefits, New York Times, October 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/03/trump-administration-college-funding-compact/.

^[59] Ryan Quinn, White House Aims to Establish Political Oversight of Federal Grants, Inside Higher Ed, May 29, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2026/05/29/omb-proposes-rules-establishing-political.

^[60] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, December 11, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-11-multiple-institutions/; SAR AFMP, Oklahoma Public Higher Education System, February 5, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-05-oklahoma-public-higher-education-system/; and SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, April 16, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-16-multiple-institutions/.

^[61] SAR AFMP, Texas A&M University, November 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-13-texas-am-university/.

^[62] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University, December 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-01-texas-tech-university/.

^[63] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University, April 10, 2026,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-10-texas-tech-university/.

^[64] SAR AFMP, American University of Armenia, March 11, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-11-american-university-of-armenia/.

^[65] SAR AFMP, National University of San Luis, October 7, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-07-national-university-of-san-luis/.

^[66] SAR AFMP, Mumbai University, January 31, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-31-mumbai-university/; and SAR AFMP Banaras Hindu University, January 20, 2026,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-20-banaras-hindu-university/.

^[67] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University, January 23, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-23-texas-tech-university/; and SAR AFMP, University of North Texas, February 11, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-11-university-of-north-texas/.

^[68] SAR AFMP, The College de France, November 9, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-09-college-de-france/.

^[69] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, pp. 3-5, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[70] SAR AFMP, Sungshin Women’s University, July 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-14-sungshin-womens-university/.

^[71] SAR AFMP, Universidad Central de Ecuador, October 15, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-15-universidad-central-del-ecuador/.

^[72] SAR AFMP Kordofan University, February 23, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-23-kordofan-university/.

^[73]  SAR AFMP, National University Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic, July 7, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-07-national-university-zaporizhzhia-polytechnic/; SAR AFMP, Lviv Polytechnic National University, July 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-12-lviv-polytechnic-national-university/; SAR AFMP, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University, July 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-28-volodymyr-vynnychenko-central-ukrainian-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Sumy State University, August 18, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-18-sumy-state-university/; SAR AFMP, National University of Pharmacy, September 16, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-16-national-university-of-pharmacy/; SAR AFMP, Kyiv National Aviation University, December 27, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-27-kyiv-national-aviation-university/; SAR AFMP, Kherson State University, January 12, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-12-kherson-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, January 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-13-volodymyr-dahl-east-ukrainian-national-university/; SAR AFMP, Lviv Polytechnic University, January 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-15-lviv-polytechnic-university/; SAR AFMP, Kherson State University, February 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-17-kherson-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Kharkiv National University of Arts, March 1, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-01-kharkiv-national-university-of-arts/; SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, April 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-15-multiple-institutions/;  SAR AFMP, National Aerospace University Kharkiv, April 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-06-national-aerospace-university-kharkiv/; SAR AFMP, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, May 3, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-03-oles-honchar-dnipro-national-university/; SAR AFMP, King Danylo University, May 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-13-king-danylo-university/; SAR AFMP, Kyiv School of Economics, May 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-24-kyiv-school-of-economics/; and SAR AFMP, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, May 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-24-national-academy-of-sciences-of-ukraine/.

^[74] Lexi Lonas Cochran, “Strikes on Iranian Universities Raise War Crime Questions, Fears of Retaliation,” The Hill, April 2, 2026, https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5811380-iran-war-university-strikes-war-crimes/; SAR AFMP, Sharif University of Technology, April 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-06-sharif-university-of-technology/; SAR AFMP, Iran University of Science and Technology, March 28, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-28-iran-university-of-science-and-technology/; and SAR AFMP, Isfahan University of Technology, March 28, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-28-isfahan-university-of-technology/.

^[75] SAR AFMP, American University of Beirut, March 29, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-29-american-university-of-beirut/.

^[76] SAR AFMP, University of Fort Hare, October 7, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-07-university-of-fort-hare/.

^[77] SAR AFMP, National Autonomous University of Mexico, October 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-08-national-autonomous-university-of-mexico/.

^[78] SAR AFMP, Mekele University, February 12, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-12-mekele-university/.

^[79] SAR AFMP, Complutense University in Madrid, March 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-06-complutense-university-in-madrid/.

^[80] SAR AFMP, Columbia University, February 26, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-26-columbia-university/.

^[81] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 3, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

^[82] SAR, Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, March 2024, p. 3, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Principles-for-Implementing-the-Right-to-Academic-Freedom_FINAL.pdf.

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 382 attacks on higher education communities in 59 countries and territories from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. 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’ rights 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 and threats to university governance.

Given resource constraints and challenges in gathering and verifying information, this report features only a detailed snapshot of the global state of attacks on higher education. Countries and territories not highlighted in Free to Think 2026 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 following countries were based on a variety of factors including: severity of attacks during the current reporting period; 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.^[1]

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

Academic freedom in Afghanistan remained extremely low, rated as “completely restricted” by the AFI since 2022. According to scholars who remained in the country, by early 2026, Afghan universities could not be considered “real academic spaces.”^[2] Building on actions taken in recent years, the Taliban government strengthened its control over the higher education sector, including by purging textbooks, closing universities, and punishing students and faculty who failed to comply with the government’s interpretation of Islam.

Figure 3: According to the AFI, Afghanistan was “completely restricted” (0.09) with respect to academic freedom.

Figure 4: Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s government in 2021, academic freedom has declined most significantly with respect to institutional autonomy and the freedom of academic and cultural expression.

According to the AFI, the Taliban essentially eliminated institutional autonomy.^[3] Purges of dissenting and ethnic minority academic staff documented in Free to Think 2025 continued. An analysis conducted by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Higher Education at the University of Toronto found that by 2025, the Taliban dismissed 97.5 percent of all senior university administrators appointed before taking control of the country in 2021. The study also found that Afghan university administrators and presidents were increasingly ethnically homogenous, less likely to hold doctorates, and more likely to have been trained in Islamic seminaries.^[4]

The Taliban also censored higher education curricula. In August 2026, the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education issued two directives with the stated aim of “Islamiciz[ing]” the curricula, according to the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam. Together, the directives banned public and private universities from teaching 610 books relating to democracy, human rights, good governance, globalization, development, gender studies, women’s rights, the history of religion, moral philosophy, Islamic political movements, and the political sociology of Afghanistan. Iranian authors had written nearly half of the banned books, and women had written around 20 percent.^[5]

There were reports that the Taliban government closed multiple higher education institutions because of their ethnic and sectarian organization. For example, on November 1, 2025, Taliban Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem closed Qalam University, Esteqamat University, Ibn Sina University, and Dunya University.^[6] The Taliban also forcibly closed one of the last private educational centers providing women access to health education. On May 18, 2026, Taliban intelligence forces raided and closed the Baran Health Sciences Institute and arrested one of the institute’s founders, its director, administrative manager, academic manager, and seven instructors. The director and instructors were later released on bail, but at the time of writing, the status of the others was unclear.^[7]

Taliban authorities also retaliated against students for failing to comply with religious and social regulations, including appearance standards. In September 2025, Taliban authorities expelled students from their dormitories or barred them from receiving dormitory meals at universities in Herat, Bamyan, Laghman, Kunar, and Badakhshan provinces for not wearing a traditional cap or having a beard deemed too short (by 2025-26, only men attended university).^[8]

In March 2026, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education required public and private university students to sign a 14-article pledge to accept Taliban rules and decrees and to cooperate with the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a Sharia system and refrain from associating with any other political groups; and to adhere to a set of rules, including stipulations about participation in prayer five times per day, the length of students’ beards, hair styles, and dress. The pledge was accompanied by an increase in the presence of officers from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice on campus.^[9] In April 2025, officials from the Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice entered the campus of Herat University and arrested students for not complying with regulations on appearance.^[10]

In one case, an Afghan university was damaged by explosions. On April 27, 2026, apparent airstrikes or drone attacks struck Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University in Kunar province, Afghanistan, killing students and at least one professor, and damaging university property. The attack occurred in the context of cross-border airstrikes by Pakistan on Afghanistan that had escalated since late 2025, despite attempts at mediation. Afghanistan accused Pakistan of responsibility for the attack on the university. Pakistan denied the charge. According to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education, the explosions killed 30 students and a professor and left dozens injured. They also damaged classroom facilities.^[11]

Bangladesh

After over a decade of decline, academic freedom in Bangladesh increased in 2024 and 2025. Nearly two years after nationwide student protests led to the establishment of an interim government led by Muhammad Yunis, the higher education sector saw political reforms that benefitted scholars and students. However, campuses remained volatile spaces as different groups vied for space within the new political environment.

Figure 5: Academic freedom in Bangladesh rose from “severely restricted” (0.29) to “moderately restricted” (0.52) following the July Movement and political overhaul.

Figure 6: Nearly every indicator with respect to academic freedom increased this reporting period.

The Yunus interim government attempted to strengthen conditions for academic freedom, ostensibly depoliticizing campus administrations by removing high-level appointees of the former president Sheikh Hasina. However, many of the new university leadership appeared to have been appointed on the basis of political allegiance with the newly-in-power Bangladesh National Party (BNP), rather on academic merit.^[12]

The interim government also initiated a structural overhaul of the University Grants Commission (UGC), appointing new leadership to enhance accountability and governance. While proposals to transition the UGC into a more powerful Higher Education Commission (HEC) gained momentum, the overhauled UGC began exercising stricter oversight, including by overseeing budgets, centralizing decisions on new curricula, and intensifying investigations into financial and administrative irregularities.^[13]

Despite general support for these reforms, violence erupted on some campuses. Students took action against the persons affiliated with the Awami League, the now-banned political party led by former president Sheikh Hasina. On January 10, 2026, student leaders from the Chittagong University Central Students’ Union forcibly escorted law professor Hasan Mohammed Roman to the proctor’s office, alleging that he held ties to the banned political party and that he had filed legal cases against students participating in the July uprising.^[14] While the university administration stated it did not condone the students’ actions, officials confirmed an investigation into Roman’s involvement was already underway. Similar tensions appeared elsewhere: unknown assailants abducted and assaulted three students from Rajshahi University in November 2025, interrogating them regarding their alleged affiliation with the Awami League’s student wing. On January 18, 2026, the University of Asia Pacific dismissed Professor A.S.M. Mohsin without due process following student allegations of Awami League connections.^[15]

Apart from political reprisals, students demonstrated on campus for academic reform, with demonstrations ending in violence. Police clashed with student protestors at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Sylhet Polytechnic University. In both cases, students were protesting recruitment and quota standards for engineering roles in the workforce when police intervened to disperse the crowds using physical force.^[16]

China & Hong Kong

In 2025-2026, the Chinese government surveilled, censored, and arrested academics and students at home and abroad. As in years past, the 2025 AFI rated China as “completely restricted.”

Figure 7: According to the AFI, academic freedom in China has been “completely restricted” (0.07) for the past decade. Academic freedom in Hong Kong is “severely restricted” (0.24) following a decline correlated to the 2020 National Security Law.

Figure 8: Freedom of academic and cultural expression remains consistently low in China in 2025, as other indicators similarly remain steadily restricted.

Media reports suggested that Chinese scholars and academics experienced pervasive surveillance regarding their academic work or expression critical of the government. Members of the academic community described online harassment, death threats, censorship, visa denials, espionage requests, and funding uncertainty in response to dissent or China-critical research.^[17] Chinese scholars and students based internationally were also at risk, as authorities sought to censor them as well as foreign academics researching China.^[18] On July 31, 2025, Chinese authorities arrested student Zhang Yadi, reportedly due to her work in France promoting dialogue between Han and Tibetan communities.^[19]

In April 2026, a Chinese student who had been attending the University of Sydney was arrested and charged with secession after participating in pro-democracy protests in China upon their return from Australia.^[20] The student was allegedly sentenced to six years in prison. On June 3, 2026, Chinese authorities arrested U Min Zin, a scholar of political science, while he was traveling in Kunming, China for academic purposes. Zin, a US citizen, was a student activist during the 1988 Myanmar pro-democracy movement. In 2016, Zin co-founded the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar), an independent think tank that analyzes conflict dynamics in Myanmar, including a dedicated China Desk to highlight Chinese infrastructure investments in Myanmar. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a press briefing that Zin had been detained on suspicion of “engaging in espionage and endangering Chinese national security.”^[21]

As of writing, Chinese authorities continued to hold prominent Uyghur scholars in prison. The whereabouts and conditions of detained Uyghur scholars, including Rahile Dawut,^[22] Ilham Tohti,^[23] Tashpolat Tiyip,^[24] and Abdulqadir Jalaleddin,^[25] remained unknown.

Figure 9: From 2024 to 2025, the freedom to research and teach and institutional autonomy in Hong Kong increased slightly.

In Hong Kong, the AFI rated academic freedom as “severely restricted.” The 2020 National Security Law and overall tightening of campus security (see Free to Think 2024 for more details) impacted expression on campus, especially as the government and university administrators used disciplinary and legal pressures to quell student protests.

In November 2025, after a 42-hour fire in a Tai Po apartment building killed 168 people and injured 79 others, students joined residents across Hong Kong in mobilizing protests demanding accountability. Universities responded with disciplinary actions against student leaders and organizations. On December 5, 2025, Hong Kong Baptist University suspended its student union after a “democracy wall” display expressed condolences for the victims of the fire and urged the government to investigate.^[26] Months later, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) expelled Miles Kwan, a politics undergraduate who had been arrested for promoting a petition calling for an independent investigation into the fire. The university expelled Kwan even though he had already completed all the necessary academic requirements for graduation.^[27] These disciplinary actions had a chilling effect on student activism.^[28] On February 5, 2026, for example, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, a large student protest organization, announced its dissolution, citing harassment and threats against its members.^[29]

Colombia

Protests, clashes, and acts of vandalism interrupted Colombia’s universities in 2025-2026. While academic freedom is generally respected in Colombia, disruption on campus impacted the ability of students to learn and professors to teach. The AFI remained “moderately restricted.”

Figure 10: For the second year, the AFI was on the cusp of “moderately restricted” and “mostly free” (0.6).

Figure 11: Campus integrity stayed the lowest indicator of academic freedom in Colombia.

Between 2025 and 2026, groups of masked, unidentified individuals obstructed university operations or vandalized university property on several occasions. The Universidad del Valle was particularly affected, as unidentified individuals entered classrooms or detonated homemade explosives on campus on at least three separate occasions between October 2025 and March 2026.^[30] Scholars at Risk also reported similar disruptions at the Universidad Industrial de Santander twice and at the Universidad del Cauca once.^[31]

Controversy surrounding the rector election at the Universidad del Atlántico sparked weeks of civil unrest and violent clashes among students, police, and outside agitators. The five-candidate race was highly contentious, fueled by student protests over alleged corruption, conflicts of interest, and a lack of transparency in the voting process. These tensions disrupted academic activity repeatedly throughout October 2025. Early in the month, opposing student factions clashed over voting irregularities and detonated low-power explosive devices, forcing officials to suspend the vote temporarily. The unrest escalated as masked demonstrators set fires, threw homemade explosives, sprayed graffiti, and burned campaign banners.

Critics immediately denounced the eventual winner, lawyer and former city councilman Leyton Barrios, pointing to his purely political background as a former regional Secretary of Education and his complete lack of experience in university teaching, academic research, or higher education management. Following his appointment, students blocked a major local highway to demand a government investigation. Riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring more than fifteen students. The unrest bled into November when at least twenty unidentified, armed individuals violently raided a campus protest assembly, attacking students and forcing the meeting’s cancellation.^[32]

Georgia

The Georgian Dream government intensified efforts to centralize higher education through sweeping reforms that consolidated programs at public universities. Students and faculty protested against the new policies, arguing that the initiatives undermined institutional autonomy by imposing state control over educational access.^[33] The AFI fell sharply, from “mostly free” in 2024 to “moderately restricted” in 2025.

Figure 12: Academic freedom fell from 0.72 (“mostly free”) in 2025 to 0.58 (“moderately restricted”) in 2026.

Figure 13: Academic freedom has declined in Georgia with respect to all five indicators included in the AFI.

The Georgian government amended the national higher education law in October 2025, introducing a controversial “one city, one faculty” initiative aimed at transforming multidisciplinary universities into specialized, narrowly focused institutions. The initiative eliminated duplicate disciplines within cities and redistributed academic subjects across the country’s 19 public universities. The stated intentions of the reforms included modernizing the university system, better aligning labor market demands and student quotas, and increasing international competitiveness. Critics argued that the reforms weakened university autonomy and increased government control over the higher education system. Set against a backdrop of a shrinking civic space, university administrators warned the ostensible reforms could signal the end of academic independence in Georgia and harm student prospects by distancing the domestic system from Western educational standards.^[34]

Following the announcement of the initiative, the Georgian Parliament amended several laws to establish a legal framework for implementation. The first amendment, passed in December 2025, abolished grant-based university funding and replaced it with a “state-order” model, which fully funds tuition for all bachelor’s and master’s students at state universities. The second amendment, passed in February 2026, empowered the government to oversee the reorganization of public universities by dictating the objectives, structure, and timeline of the process. This amendment also permitted the government to suspend or modify the authority of existing university governing bodies during reorganization periods, allowing it to appoint acting rectors and leadership, or establish temporary councils to assume the functions of both academic and representative councils. By centralizing government control over university structure and curricula, the legislation reduced the autonomy of individual institutions and provided a mechanism for politically motivated administrative control. ^[35]

Under the new laws, on January 29, 2026, the Georgian Dream party announced the merger of the country’s two biggest public universities, Tbilisi State University (TSU) and Georgian Technical University (GTU). The proposal faced strong resistance from students and academic personnel at both institutions, who felt it would undermine institutional identity, teaching quality, and academic independence. The Prime Minister reversed the merger on February 9, 2026, but maintained that GTU would become a “purely technical university” and no longer admit students for non-technical degrees.

Following the announcement of the merger reversal, on February 12, 2026, the Georgian Dream party announced major curricular cuts to Ilia State University (ISU). ISU faculty and administrators denounced the reforms as “unconstitutional,” maintaining that they were not consulted during the decision-making process. They argued that the cuts targeted a university community that has been vocal in its criticism of anti-democratic reforms in recent years. Under the “one city, one faculty” policy, 92 percent of the university’s programs would be eliminated due to overlap with other state institutions, leaving only select science and pedagogy programs. Despite high rankings and several programs claiming universal employment rates among graduates, ISU’s enrollment would drop from 3,770 students in the 2025–2026 academic year to a capped capacity of 300.^[36]

India

India’s central government expanded its authority over higher education, influencing university governance, leadership appointments, and academic priorities. University administrators took actions that stifled campus discourse, including dismissing faculty members, canceling academic events, and enforcing new policies restricting student expression.^[37] Both students and police committed acts of violence at protests or other campus gatherings. Academic freedom was “severely restricted” in 2026.

Figure 14: The AFI reflected low scores in India over the past few years, decreasing from 0.16 to 0.14 (both “severely restricted”) from 2024 to 2026.

Figure 15: Since 2022, greater restrictions on the freedom to research and teach have driven declines in India’s AFI.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to deploy the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a primary vehicle for state influence over higher education. The UGC faced scrutiny in recent years for policies perceived to tighten government control over universities, including loosening academic qualification requirements for university vice-chancellors and accelerating the casualization of academic labor by removing the 10 percent cap on non-permanent, contract faculty.^[38]

National and state government actors took actions that constrained freedom of research, teaching, and publication. On March 11, 2026, the Supreme Court of India issued a “life ban” barring three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development. The scholars had collaborated with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on a middle-grade social science textbook that referenced “corruption in the judiciary” that the Court deemed to “[project] a negative image” of the institution. The Court banned the textbook and ordered governments to dissociate from the authors. One of the scholars, Michel Danino, a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and chairperson of the NCERT social science curricular group, was dismissed from his faculty position. The Supreme Court modified its stance on May 22, 2026, to permit public universities and states to independently decide whether to allow the scholars to contribute to future curricular work.^[39] Separately, the government of Jammu and Kashmir banned the sale, distribution, and possession of 25 books by globally respected scholars, historians, and journalists which addressed Kashmir’s sociopolitical history, including discussion of enforced disappearances and feminist resistance.^[40]

University authorities took actions to restrict academic discourse and suppress dissent, including firing professors, canceling events, and banning or prosecuting student protestors. For example, following a two-year suspension, South Asian University officially terminated Professor Snehashish Bhattacharya in September 2025 for “misconduct against university interests.” Bhattacharya and fourteen other faculty members had signed a November 2022 letter expressing concern over the university’s handling of student protests in October 2022.^[41] The SRM Institute of Science and Technology fired Professor Lora Santhakumar over social media posts critical of civilian casualties resulting from Indian military action in Pakistan.^[42] Jamia Millia Islamia, a public research university in Delhi, suspended Professor Virendra Balaji Shahre for administering an exam question that asked students to “discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India” for his course “Social Problems in India.”^[43]

When universities justified event cancellations, they often pointed to the content of the event or extramural statements made by the invited speakers. For instance, both Banaras Hindu University and Mumbai University canceled lectures due to the speakers’ vocal criticisms of the BJP-led government.^[44] In other instances, institutions offered no substantive reasoning. When Delhi University canceled a seminar titled “Land, Property and Democratic Rights,” it cited “administrative reasons.” The event’s convenor resigned in protest, speculating that the cancellation was tied to the lecture’s focus on judicial interpretations of the right to property.^[45]

Student protestors on Indian campuses faced pressure from university authorities, police, and opposing student factions.^[46] Some institutions, such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Jamia Millia Islamia, cited a lack of official permission and “unauthorized” gatherings to penalize students engaging in peaceful protests. TISS filed a police complaint against students organizing a peaceful memorial for G. N. Saibaba (an Indian scholar and activist who died in 2024 after repeated imprisonments), resulting in criminal charges of unlawful assembly, “promoting enmity between groups,” and “injuring national harmony.”^[47] Jamia Millia Islamia served show-cause notices to students peacefully demonstrating on the fifth anniversary of the 2019 police crackdown related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).^[48]

On a broader scale, the University of Delhi implemented a temporary blanket ban on all public meetings, rallies, and demonstrations, which resulted in the cancellation of cultural festivals, press conferences, iftar gatherings, and any assembly of five or more people. When the ban expired, the university notified the campus community that all future protests would require approval 72 hours in advance, warning that violators would risk expulsion or police action.^[49]

At Azim Premji University (APU), a campus discussion group led to police complaints and suspensions after it was disrupted by non-students. On February 25, 2026, the Spark Reading Circle at the university organized a discussion commemorating the 35th anniversary of a mass sexual assault. A group of non-student members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a nationalist student organization, disrupted the discussion by graffitiing walls, shouting at students trying to attend the event, and allegedly assaulting an undergraduate. After two and a half hours, police removed the ABVP members. While the university’s security manager filed a police complaint against the disruptors, the registrar also filed a complaint against the discussion group organizers, accusing them of “instigating trouble” and “defaming” the university. The APU Student Council expressed concern over the escalation of a campus-level matter into a criminal case, including the fact that the discussion group organizers faced legal repercussions not faced by those who had harassed them. On May 8, 2026, APU suspended one of the students for two years on charges of “defiance of institutional processes,” “misrepresenting facts,” and “failing to de-escalate a volatile situation.”^[50]

Ideological polarization between student groups, particularly the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and left-wing All India Students Association (AISA) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), transformed academic and cultural events into “political flashpoints.”^[51] Policy shifts, academic decisions, and debates about national identity, caste, religion, and historical interpretation led to student protests. In some instances, demonstrations resulted in clashes between opposing student factions.

Most clashes between students fell along political lines.^[52] Specific incidents included student election campaign confrontations, such as on August 28, 2025, when members of the ABVP reportedly fought with members of the NSUI during an event at Cachar College about alleged “vote theft.”^[53] Other incidents related to controversies over event content. For example, on October 7, 2025, ABVP members clashed with students at the English and Foreign Languages University who were holding a protest in solidarity with Palestine. Police subsequently registered criminal charges against six protesters and three ABVP members.^[54] Occasionally, the altercations resulted in serious injury, as seen on February 20, 2026, when student groups clashed at Jadavpur University during election campaigning, leaving two professors and six students injured.^[55]

Sometimes, police intervention suppressed demonstrations.^[56] Police forces throughout India clashed with and detained students over peaceful protests related to election delays, academic accreditation, and sexual harassment cases.^[57] For instance, on July 19, 2025, authorities arrested several student leaders from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi Vidyarthi (BRSV), the student wing of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi party, during a protest at Osmania University in Telangana.^[58] The students had gathered on campus to distribute pamphlets detailing the impacts of a reservoir project. They maintained that they were raising awareness peacefully when police intervened and detained over 20 students. On August 5, 2025, Indian police clashed with members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) during protests demanding the resumption of student union elections in Rajasthan.^[59] Security forces deployed water cannons to disperse NSUI members marching through the streets. Authorities detained 36 NSUI members, including several prominent leaders.

In a few extreme cases, officers allegedly abducted students in retaliation for their public expression. On July 9, 2025, the Delhi Police Special Cell abducted three activists from the Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch, a democratic organization known for protesting state oppression and caste violence at Delhi University.^[60] Ten days later, the same unit abducted Rudra, a philosophy student and the sole editor of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Nazariya magazine, which publishes critiques of the Indian state.^[61] The students were all eventually released.

Indonesia

Military presence on campus, the suppression of dissent, and digital security tensions all featured in Indonesia’s higher education space in 2025-2026, with the AFI ranking remaining at “severely restricted.” The Indonesian government co-opted university governance, restricting institutional bureaucracies and granting government officials voting rights in public university rector elections.^[62]

Figure 16: Academic freedom in Indonesia fell significantly for the third year in a row, dropping from 0.6 (“moderately restricted”) in 2023 to 0.33 (“severely restricted”) in 2026.

Figure 17: Each of the AFI indicators declined in 2025-2026.

Members of the higher education community raised concerns about the Indonesian National Armed Forces becoming increasingly present and visible on campuses. Members of the military openly recruited during university orientations, promoted student regiments, and sponsored lectures on national defense.^[63] In May 2026, military personnel halted university screenings of an investigative documentary exploring land conflicts in Papua. Pesta Babi (Pig Feast) was co-directed by an anthropologist and highlighted the ongoing effects of colonialism in Indonesia. Military personnel, police, and campus administrators forcibly disrupted showings at several universities, including the University of Mataram and UIN Mataram. University representatives and TNI personnel said the cancellations were to maintain “public order” and that the documentary was inappropriate for public viewing.^[64]

Candidates in student elections with views critical of the government experienced physical and online threats. At the University of Indonesia, students involved in the election for the Student Executive Board (BEM) who had shared posts online about government involvement in BEM activities were subjected to anonymous threats, including doxxing, hacking, death threats, and harassment. Some received packages containing intimidating objects such as funeral shrouds, wheelchairs, knives, scissors, gardening tools, and, in one case, a traditional Javanese dagger.^[65] The BEM Chairman at Gadjah Mada University, Tiyo Ardianto, received abduction and death threats following an open letter linking child suicide in the province of East Nusa Tenggara to systemic poverty and government policy failures.^[66]

In other cases, universities punished students for their anti-government views. The University of August 17, 1945 suspended Damar Setyaji Pamungkas, a management student, over an event Pamungkas organized questioning the designation of former President Suharto as a national hero. The Dean ordered Pamungkas to cancel the event, calling it a political exercise. Pamungkas maintained it was an educational event aimed at re-examining Suharto’s legacy of human rights violations and corruption. The university cancelled the event and bypassed normal disciplinary procedures to suspend Pamungkas for “failing to comply” and “mobilizing the masses.”^[67]

Student protestors experienced police violence in multiple forms. In August 2025, public protests grew over austerity measures, mass layoffs, and lawmaker allowances. After police struck and killed a motorcycle taxi driver during a protest, campuses assumed the role of “safe zones” and medical hubs for injured demonstrators.^[68] Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protestors on the campuses of Bandung Islamic University and Pasundan University, causing respiratory damage to several students.^[69] Police forcibly detained students during other peaceful demonstrations, including one at Cenderawasih University demanding the right to Papuan self-determination and another in Massakar city commemorating the violent 1961 TRIKORA Military Operation.^[70]

Iran

Iranian higher education was under pressure even before the war with the United States and remained “completely restricted” with respect to academic freedom. During the reporting period Iranian authorities violently cracked down on student protests, enacted legislation that increased surveillance on higher education, and arrested and detained students and scholars, charging some with espionage and executing several as a clear warning to others. The United States’ and Israel’s war against Iran destroyed university infrastructure and halted academic activity.^[71]

Figure 18: Despite having been “completely restricted” for two decades, academic freedom in Iran was at its lowest in 2025 (0.06).

Figure 19: According to the AFI, academic freedom in Iran was particularly restricted with respect to freedoms of academic exchange and dissemination and the freedom to research and teach.

In an attempt to censure public debate, Iranian security forces arrested academics for public statements they made drawing on their academic expertise. On November 3, 2025, economist Parviz Sedaghat was arrested in apparent retaliation for speaking publicly about the Iranian economy and government. Social history researcher Mohammed Maljoo was arrested apparently for participating in a public debate about the roots of extremism in Iran. Several other researchers and writers whose work focuses on social justice issues were arrested on the same day, including sociologist Mahsa Asadollahnejad and translators Shirin Karimi and Heyman Rahim.^[72]

Nationwide protests erupted in Iran after the Iranian rial hit a record low at the end of December 2025. The government responded with extreme force. Although estimates vary, reports suggest the government arrested over 53,000 people and killed at least 7,000.^[73] Students joined the protests, holding campus gatherings and rallies at nearly 40 universities. Despite legal protections for university autonomy, the government deployed security forces and plainclothes agents to campuses. These forces detained students to prevent them from leaving university grounds to join street protests, resulting in the mass arrest of both students and academic staff.^[74]

In late December, Iranian security personnel, the Basij paramilitary militia, and plainclothes officers used physical force and tear gas against nonviolent student protestors at the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir Polytechnic, and Shahid Beheshti University (Melli), leaving several students injured and detained.^[75] To further prevent students from organizing, some universities evacuated dormitories and restricted access to buildings. For instance, on January 4, 2026, security forces locked protesting students inside Tarbiat Modares University, apparently to block them from joining public demonstrations.^[76] In early January, universities officially closed their campuses, postponing exams and switching to online learning. Shortly afterward, on January 8, 2026, the government imposed a 20-day internet blackout, effectively cutting off all access to academic materials.^[77]

Once universities reopened, students protested again. They held anti-government demonstrations on campus, boycotted classes, and rallied against the continued detention of students and in honor of civilians killed by security forces. Those protests were again met with force, resulting in clashes at the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, and Khajeh Nasir University.^[78] At some universities, pro-government groups held counter-rallies. Security forces, as well as the Basij paramilitary force, maintained a heavy presence on campuses.^[79]

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran. As the conflict progressed, US and Israeli airstrikes hit more than thirty universities and educational institutions. Dozens of campuses, including Sharif University of Technology, the Iran University of Science and Technology, Isfahan University of Technology, and Shahid Beheshti University sustained severe material losses to educational infrastructure.^[80] The Secretary General of the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO reported that the bombing targeted specialized scientific laboratories involved in pharmaceutical manufacturing and advanced technology, carrying strategic and cultural implications for the state of scientific and industrial research across Iran.^[81]

The effects of the bombing were widespread. Local authorities reported that military strikes killed between 30 and 60 Iranian university students.^[82] Access to education across the country was halted, with universities closed and a new internet blackout. Lack of internet connectivity meant students also faced increasingly unstable access to global higher education networks, impacting application processes, scholarship interviews, assignment deadlines, and online learning systems and database access. Conferences and workshops were postponed or canceled, and research laboratories were disrupted due to direct damage, security restrictions, and the displacement of staff and students.^[83]

At the beginning of April 2026, the regime executed students involved in public protests.^[84] According to human rights sources, court-appointed lawyers represented Mohammad Amin Biglari and Amirhossein Hatami when they were on trial for alleged protest violence. Private lawyers hired by families were denied access to case files or the ability to defend the students. Hatami was executed on April 2, 2026, and Biglari on April 5, 2026.^[85]

Separately, on May 11, 2026, Iranian authorities executed Erfan Shakourzadeh, a 29-year-old satellite technology researcher and aerospace engineering postgraduate student at Iran University of Science and Technology. Shakourzadeh was arrested in February 2025 and charged with espionage for allegedly providing details on his workplace and other sensitive information to US and Israeli intelligence agencies. According to Iranian human rights groups, he was convicted and hanged on the basis of a false confession. Having spent multiple months in prison, Shakourzadeh was at least the fifth person executed for espionage since the US and Israel launched military strikes against Iran.^[86]

The war also had a significant impact on imprisoned scholars, including Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who has been on death row since 2017 following his 2016 arrest.^[87] When the conflict began, management at Evin Prison reportedly collapsed as staff evacuated and locked the doors, trapping the inmates inside. Dr. Djalali’s family lost all contact with him, receiving no information regarding his condition, as the lack of prison staffing suspended access to food, medical care, and necessities. Airstrikes around the prison intensified the chaos inside the facility, leaving detainees increasingly desperate and distressed.^[88]

Nigeria

Despite a relatively high level of academic freedom nationwide, portions of the Nigerian higher education sector faced insecurity through abductions and school closures as a result of non-state armed “bandit” groups targeting university students and instructors for ransom.

Figure 20: The AFI rated Nigeria as “fully free” (0.88).

Figure 21: The picture for academic freedom is complex in Nigeria, according to the AFI. Whereas some indicators point to an expansion of academic freedom (i.e., in the areas of freedom of academic exchange and dissemination and institutional autonomy), others point to a contraction (i.e., in the areas of freedom of academic and cultural expression and freedom to research and teach).

As in previous years, criminal and armed groups opportunistically abducted university students, notably in northern Nigerian states. Sources have frequently described groups of “bandits” kidnapping students and staff in pursuit of ransom. Unidentified gunmen abducted students from Ambrose Alli University and Rivers State University’s satellite campus in Emuoha.^[89]

Several universities closed in response to armed group activity, limiting student access to quality education. At least 10 higher education institutions in Kebbi and Bauchi states shut indefinitely to ensure student safety amid an increase in kidnappings, including State Polytechnic, Dakingari; Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero; College of Health Sciences and Technology, Jega; Abdullahi Fodio University of Science and Technology; Federal Polytechnic Bauchi; and the College of Education, Argungu. Academic advocates warned of severe long-term effects from these closures, including declining enrollment rates and the risk of brain drain.^[90]

Student protesters faced violence and arbitrary detentions in response to campus demonstrations. At Lagos State University, campus security violently dispersed students who were peacefully protesting a policy change regarding grade cutoffs. Video footage captured security forces chasing, dragging, and beating students. Several protesters sustained injuries that required medical attention, with some reportedly hospitalized.^[91] At Ambrose Alli University, Nigerian police raided several student hostels and detained at least 52 students following a protest held earlier that day.^[92] Although students had organized a peaceful demonstration, the event was reportedly “hijacked” by outside actors. Nevertheless, armed police entered the hostels, forcibly removed students from their rooms, and carried out indiscriminate arrests; several of those detained denied any involvement in the January 10 protests. Two days later, the detained students were arraigned on charges including malicious damage and armed robbery and held in custody for 14 days.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Israeli military actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory negatively affected academic freedom. Academic freedom was “completely restricted” in Gaza and “severely restricted” in the West Bank. In Gaza, scholars, students, and higher education institutions contended with the effects of widespread destruction of learning environments. Following a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, educational authorities began the uncertain process of rebuilding.^[93] In the West Bank, Israeli forces arrested university students, faculty, and staff and raided universities.^[94]

Figure 22: The AFI rated Gaza’s academic freedom as 0.1 and the West Bank’s academic freedom as 0.35.

By the time of the ceasefire, eighty percent of university buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, including centers of scientific research, medical training, innovation, and cultural life.^[95] According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 17,237 school students, 1,271 university students, and 967 educational staff had been killed in Gaza from October 7, 2023, through September 16, 2025.^[96]

Under the ceasefire, higher education institutions began to reopen and rebuild. The Islamic University of Gaza opened classrooms to hundreds of students in November 2025.^[97] In April 2026, Scholars Without Borders launched “University City,” a locally made makeshift academic space in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. Within walls made from wood and metal sheets, dozens of academic institutions rotated weekly to accommodate up to 600 students a day.^[98]

Nevertheless, academic life in Gaza remained severely disrupted. Students studied in damaged classrooms, overcrowded shelters, or tents. Some watched recorded lectures on solar-powered laptops in an effort to adapt to the destruction of Gaza’s electrical grid. It remained difficult for students to attend online classes, submit assignments, communicate with professors, or apply to international scholarships.^[99] At the end of the spring 2026 semester, universities held final exams on beaches.^[100]

Over 1,500 Gazan students admitted to universities abroad were unable to travel overseas for their studies because of border shutdowns and challenges in obtaining the necessary documentation, such as passports, birth certificates, or academic transcripts.^[101] Universities across Europe, particularly in Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom, began developing evacuation scholarships to expedite visa processes.^[102] Gazan students began arriving in Europe in 2026.

In the West Bank, Israeli military forces raided universities and arrested students, scholars, and university staff. In September 2025, Israeli forces detained over two dozen students and university personnel from their homes, bringing them to the campuses of Hebron University and Palestine Polytechnic University to interrogate them and warn against holding “inciting” activities.^[103]

On three separate occasions, Israeli forces raided Birzeit University, detaining university security guards, damaging or defacing university and student property, and leaving leaflets warning against participation in student organizations.^[104] On January 6, 2026, Israeli forces forcibly entered the campus of Birzeit University in response to a student rally organized in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.^[105] Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. After some students threw stones at the soldiers, Israeli forces fired live ammunition, injuring dozens of students. Eleven required hospitalization.^[106] Israeli forces also detained the university’s Vice President of Academic Affairs for questioning, forcibly entered several buildings on campus, and confiscated materials belonging to student activists.

Pakistan

From growing state control over higher education to violent attacks on students, members of the Pakistani academic community faced multi-faceted threats to academic freedom. Baloch students and scholars, in particular, were victims of abductions and enforced disappearance. The AFI rated academic freedom in Pakistan in 2025 as “severely restricted.”

Figure 23: According to the AFI, academic freedom has declined in Pakistan over the past three years, falling from “moderately restricted” (0.55) in 2022 to “severely restricted” (0.27) in 2025.

Figure 24: Data from the AFI shows that the greatest declines in academic freedom in Pakistan are in areas of the freedoms to research and teach and freedoms of academic exchange and dissemination.

University students protested educational policy shifts. In Punjab province, university students protested against new legislation that empowered the Higher Education Minister to oversee university syndicates, replacing faculty representatives.^[107] On November 9, 2025, students from the Jeay Sindh Students’ Federation in Sindh province launched a “long march” to advocate for a reduction in educational fees, an end to enforced disappearances and campus harassment, the withdrawal of security forces from educational institutions, and the lifting of a ban on student unions. Pakistani police forces halted the march shortly after it began, used batons to break up the gathering, and detained several students.^[108]

On-campus clashes between student groups disrupted academic life on several occasions. In February, student groups violently clashed on the campuses of the University of Agriculture in Peshawar and the Abbottabad University of Science and Technology.^[109] The clash in Abbottabad left one student dead and two injured. On May 17, 2026, student groups at the University of Sindh clashed outside the Faculty of Arts, injuring nine students.^[110] In all three instances, the violence involved gunfire.

Baloch citizens continued to suffer abductions, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions, which have dated back to the 1970s and have increased over the past decade.^[111] Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, army, and Frontier Corps have been credibly accused of targeting Baloch activists, professionals, journalists, and students.^[112] Reports suggest at least nine Baloch student disappearances from the University of Balochistan, Sindh Agricultural University, Ghazi University, and Turbat University.^[113] The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)  indicates that upwards of forty were abducted.

Philippines

Bomb threats disrupted campus operations in the Philippines after students held anti-corruption protests around the country.^[114] Police arrested hundreds of demonstrators, including students, sometimes using disproportionate force.^[115] Academic communities expressed concern about the relationship between university communities and the military, pointing to declarations of university-military cooperation and the establishment of army positions within proximity of university spaces.^[116] The AFI ranking dropped from “mostly free” to “moderately restricted” for the first time in two decades.

Figure 25: Academic freedom in the Philippines fell from 0.66 (“mostly free”) to 0.59 (“moderately restricted”).

Figure 26: According to the AFI, academic freedom in the Philippines was most affected by a decline in institutional autonomy.

Student protestors from various universities demonstrated against the Marcos administration over alleged corruption and mismanagement in national flood management infrastructure projects.^[117] During a mass mobilization on September 21, 2026, police forcibly arrested multiple students, including Mattheo Wovi Villanueva from the University of the Philippines. During the demonstration, Villanueva served as a security marshal and provided paralegal support to a member of the protest’s media team. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protest crowds, arresting nearly 200 people, including Villanueva. Footage circulating on social media showed police dragging, beating, and kicking him. Villanueva later reported that police in riot gear beat him and others “for almost three hours” while they were crammed together inside a tent on Mendiola Street. Authorities held Villanueva for four days before releasing him.^[118]

More than 17 universities across the Philippines received bomb threats after the protests. The threats appeared to be in retaliation for the protests and intended to silence or discredit protesters. In almost every case, the university received late night or early morning threats via anonymous email or Facebook accounts. The universities suspended classes, disrupting academic activity to evacuate campuses for police inspections. Politicians and activists have claimed that threats may have been intended to justify increased police and military presence in schools or to enforce crackdowns against dissent.^[119]

Russia

Russia’s four-year war in Ukraine has affected Russian students, scholars, and the higher education system overall. The government used campuses to promote military recruitment and increase student enrollment in the armed forces. The Russian government continues to censor and surveil academics and apply the “undesirables” law to control dissent. The AFI rated Russia as “completely restricted.”

Figure 27: Academic freedom declined from “severely restricted” (0.21) in 2024 to “completely restricted” in 2025. (0.18)

Figure 28: Data from the AFI shows that academic freedom in Russia was most significantly constrained with respect to campus integrity.

The Russian government wields significant control over higher education. Reports suggest the government vets scholarly publications and monitors academics’ social media.^[120] In July 2025, President Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring all educational and scientific organizations to register international scientific collaborations with the Federal Security Service (FSB), which means all scientific research conducted with foreign nationals is subject to government approval. The government also limited or completely restricted archive access for certain international scholars, citing their opposition to military action in Ukraine or in retaliation for Western economic sanctions.^[121]

In August 2025, military authorities driven by manpower shortages developed a concentrated recruitment strategy for universities. The strategy assigned universities recruitment quotas and instructed them in targeting failing students with short-term contracts, substantial sign-on bonuses, debt waivers, and free tuition.^[122] By the end of March 2026, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education formally required rectors from Russia’s largest universities to contract at least 2 percent of students with the Ministry of Defense. Students, however, reported inconsistent and misleading contract terms and unexpected transfers from promised drone units to higher-risk and higher-casualty frontline positions.^[123] On May 12, 2026, the first student recruited into such a contract—23-year-old Valery Averin of the Buryat Republican Technical School of Construction—died in the war.^[124]

Russia increasingly weaponized its 2015 “undesirables” law against higher education institutions, particularly in Europe and the United States. The law grants the Prosecutor General and Foreign Ministry the power to blacklist international institutions deemed a threat to national security, public order, or health. Entities labeled “undesirable” are banned from operating within Russia, and citizens who engage with them face severe criminal risks.^[125] The number of academic institutions targeted under the law increased significantly by 2026. Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, George Washington University, Tufts University, and Stanford University were all named undesirable between July 2025 and May 2026.^[126] Scholars affiliated with undesirable organizations faced tangible threats: on January 27, 2026 the Chertanovsky District Court in Moscow found guilty and fined Salavat Abylkalikov, a Philipp Schwartz Fellow and researcher in sociology and demography at the University of Regensburg, on charges of “participation in the activities of an undesirable organization” after he gave an interview to the independent and officially undesirable media outlet Meduza regarding Russia’s demographic crisis.^[127]

Other restrictions on foreign scholars included the detention of Ukrainian marine biologist Leonid Pshenichov in retaliation for his Antarctic marine research, which they claimed undermined Russian economic interests,^[128] and indefinite entry bans on thirty Japanese citizens, including several scholars and researchers, in response to Japan’s continued “policy of sanctions against Russia in connection with the special military operation.”^[129] Such targeted actions undermine international academic exchange and engagement with Russia and the region.

Senegal

Violence erupted on Senegal’s university campuses at the end of 2025 after months of protests over delayed scholarships. The AFI reported a noticeable decline in campus integrity, from 0.83 to 0.76, resulting in an overall ranking decrease from “fully free” to “mostly free.”

Figure 29: Academic freedom fell from “fully free” (0.83) to “mostly free” (0.76) in 2025.

Figure 30: According to the AFI, academic freedom in Senegal was most constrained with respect to campus integrity.

Against the backdrop of a national economic crisis, students had been holding peaceful demonstrations for over a year to demand backlogged stipends and financial aid. The unrest peaked at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) on December 2-3, 2025, when university authorities called in law enforcement, citing risks to safety, property, and academic continuity. Students threw rocks at police entering the campus, who retaliated with tear gas. Reports indicated that at least 16 students and up to 11 police officers were injured, with 10 students detained. Although the Senegalese government announced the immediate release of funds after the incident, subsequent distribution delays and the closure of campus cafeterias sparked even larger, more violent protests months later.^[130] After a week of intensified unrest at UCAD, security forces entered the campus on February 9, 2026, firing tear gas into the buildings while students retaliated by throwing stones. Video footage showed campus buildings engulfed in flames. Police detained an estimated 109 students.^[131]

Security forces deployed to the campus allegedly entered student residence halls during the unrest, ostensibly to search for threats. The president of the Student Association of the Faculty of Medicine reported that officers who entered student rooms assaulted Abdoulaye Ba, a second-year medical student, before taking him to a nearby student welfare office. Ba, who reportedly had not been participating in the protests, suffered fatal head trauma and severe blood loss. He was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. During a press conference on February 17, 2026, the public prosecutor claimed Ba had fallen from the third floor of a building while trying to escape from a fire. Student organizations and Ba’s family disputed those claims. In the aftermath of the confrontation, Senegalese authorities closed UCAD’s residences and dining halls “until further notice,” halting academic activity.^[132]

Serbia

Student protests occurred throughout Serbia for the second year following the collapse of the Novi Sad railway canopy in November 2024. Beginning in January 2025, student blockades of universities disrupted academic activities as students organized and attended anti-corruption protests, calling for elections to replace President Aleksandar Vučić. The government responded more forcefully to student protests than during the previous year. Some universities collaborated with the government to suppress campus activism by abruptly changing enrollment deadlines, meaning that students who were away from campus at protests had difficulty re-enrolling and were deprived of their student status. Supportive faculty and staff were also subject to firings. On March 31, 2026, Serbian police intensified their actions against universities when they raided the Rectorate of the University of Belgrade, a provocative action seen as an attempt to intimidate the university community. Serbia’s AFI ranking declined in 2025, falling sharply from “mostly free” to “moderately restricted.”

Figure 31: Academic freedom in Serbia in 2024 was 0.77 (“mostly free”) and declined to 0.6 (“moderately restricted).

Figure 32: As police violence increased in retaliation to student protests, the campus integrity and institutional autonomy metrics on Serbia’s campuses dropped.

Following the Novi Sad railway canopy collapse, student activists launched large-scale university blockades between November 2024, and January 2025, intended to shut down academic activity and mobilize public support. The movement grew to involve over 300,000 Serbians.^[133] By the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, student blockades had largely ended, and classes resumed across previously occupied faculties.^[134]

The Serbian government responded with intimidation, surveillance, arbitrary arrests, and physical attacks against students in an increasingly repressive protest environment.^[135] During the largest protest in Serbian history on March 15, 2025, police used a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) to disperse a crowd of an estimated 275,000 to 325,000 persons. The unprecedented scale of the March 2025 protests and the use of a sonic weapon against peaceful demonstrators marked a turning point in the movement, shifting the focus from local outrage to a broader, national demand for government accountability and anti-corruption reform. (See Free to Think 2025 for more details).^[136]

Throughout the summer and fall of 2025, police used force against students protesting and blockading buildings, including the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and stun grenades.^[137] Some universities sanctioned the police response—at the beginning of September 2026, the Dean of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education at the University of Novi Sad called the police to help him break the blockade of a building students had occupied since November. When students gathered peacefully to protest the Dean’s attempt to break the blockade, Serbian police in riot gear used stun grenades and beat students with batons before detaining them.^[138]

In late March 2026, police intensified their actions against the Serbian academic community by raiding the Rectorate of the University of Belgrade.^[139] According to Serbian law, police are prohibited from entering campuses unless called by university administrators. The police justified their entry into the University of Belgrade as part of an investigation into the death of a 25-year-old student, who fell from a fifth-floor window at the Faculty of Philosophy on March 26, 2026. At 11:00 a.m. on March 31, officers from the Criminal Police Directorate entered the university without prior notice, legal justification, or a defined scope. Official state media broadcast the raid live.

After the police entered, student protesters gathered nearby and accused the authorities of attempting to intimidate the academic community.^[140] Violent clashes erupted after the police used batons to disperse the crowd. Following the incident, Rector Vladan Đokić affirmed the university’s support for an independent investigation into the 25-year-old student’s death, while denouncing the raid as unrelated and intended to humiliate the institution. The following week, Rector Đokić released a statement accusing the Serbian police of conducting door-to-door arrests of its students. The statement called for an end to arrests, the release of students, and a public list of all arrests with their individual legal justifications.^[141]

Beyond police violence, the Serbian government took actions that the university community viewed as retaliation against those who supported the protests. These included firings, salary reductions, a heightened police presence on campuses, and funding cuts to public universities. Academics reported a “pattern of revenge” characterized by the placement of political party appointees into research and university bodies, stricter limits on paid research time, and delayed research funding. Researchers speculated in May 2026 that a prolonged delay in the government issuing new research funding calls was due to the government retaliating by withholding money from the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia.^[142] The government’s explanation for the delay cited only “unforeseen circumstances.”

Government appointees within university governing bodies interfered in the employment of university faculty and staff.^[143] The Senate of the University of Novi Sad voted by secret ballot, without an official decision or justification, to deny Jelena Kleut a promotion from associate to full professor.^[144] Kleut, an expert on new media and the freedom of speech, received positive evaluations and met all formal and professional requirements for the position. Under university policy, the denial effectively terminated her employment. Faculty, students, and media freedom organizations rallied around Kleut, accusing the university of refusing her promotion because she openly supported the student movement and its demands. Students protesting her dismissal in January 2026 were met with force.^[145] The acting Dean of the Council of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Belgrade, also a government appointee, dismissed the secretary of the faculty for submitting a report challenging the dismissal of the former Dean over allegations of ethics violations.^[146] The former Dean had also been supportive of student protests.^[147] Months later, on June 4, 2026, the Senate of the University of Novi Sad voted by secret ballot to deny the reappointment of Vladimir Mihić, an associate professor of psychology. Like Kleut, Mihić had actively supported student protests while having positive student evaluations. The reappointment denial broke from the standard practice of the University of Novi Sad.^[148]

Other faculty members who supported the student protests were threatened with retaliation. Four faculty members at the University of Novi Sad, colleagues of Jelena Kleut in the Department of Media Studies, received menacing emails with identical messages reading: “Read. The black hand has marked you. It knows everything. Take care. Friend.” The Black Hand, officially known as “Unification or Death,” was a secret Serbian military society formed to unite all territories that have a South Slavic majority into a Greater Serbia. All four professors had been supportive of student protests, and each had publicly rallied behind Professor Kleut.^[149]

Syria

The fall of the Assad regime in December 2024 led to significant political and social upheaval in Syria. The Assad regime had severely restricted academic freedom, firing, imprisoning, or killing university professors expressing dissent. Academic freedom remained in flux in 2025-26 as a transitional government came into power. The higher education sector saw a pattern of attacks on and detentions of students, particularly those from Druze communities. The Syrian Democratic Forces seized control of several colleges affiliated with the state-run Al Furat University, expelling the university’s deans and administrative staff and suspending teaching for the year.^[150] AFI increased rank marginally in 2025, from 0.06 to 0.2, though it remained “completely restricted.”

Figure 33: The AFI increased from 0.06 in 2023 to 0.2 in 2025, though still remaining “completely restricted.”

Figure 34: Disaggregated data from the AFI shows a more complicated picture. While institutional autonomy and campus integrity declined from 2024 to 2025, other indicators increased.

The reporting period was still marked by identity-based violence that affected the higher education sector.^[151] On July 17, 2025, armed individuals, including students, attacked Druze students in a student dormitory at the University of Aleppo. The attack came amid escalating tensions between Bedouin and Druze communities in Sweida governorate, located in southern Syria, and a wave of armed attacks on Druze communities living there. According to local media reports, at the University of Aleppo, students attacked their peers from Sweida with sticks and stones, causing minor injuries.^[152]

Other violence on campuses impacted the overall functioning of academic institutions. Clashes between the transitional government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces in Aleppo in January 2026 left nine killed and led to the closure of academic institutions in the city.^[153] On October 12, 2025, unidentified gunmen attempted to assassinate the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Damascus University, Ali Al-Lahham, on campus grounds. Gunmen entered the campus carrying machine guns and hand grenades. They went directly to the Dean’s office and threw a hand grenade at Al-Lahham before fleeing. The grenade did not detonate, and no one was injured. The motives behind the attack were unconfirmed, but sources indicated that it may have followed a disagreement over academic evaluations.^[154]

Transitional authorities carried out arbitrary detentions, with reports of torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons, brief detentions of journalists and activists, and deaths in custody.^[155] On December 27, 2025, Syrian Interim Government forces detained two civil engineering students from the University of Aleppo as they were returning home from classes, taking them to an unknown location. The students were both released within 48 hours. It was not clear why they were detained.^[156] On February 16, 2026, Syrian authorities detained Dr. Muhammad Khair al-Ghabban al-Husseini, a scholar of Quranic Sciences and the president of the International Universities Union, for his public commentary on conditions in Idlib refugee camps. Authorities did not provide legal justification for his detention.^[157]

Türkiye

Restrictions on university autonomy and a shrinking space for scholars and students to express dissent marked an AFI “completely restricted” ranking for Türkiye with respect to academic freedom.

Figure 35: According to the AFI, in 2025, Türkiye was “completely restricted” (0.09) and ranked in the bottom 10 percent of countries globally with respect to academic freedom.

Figure 36: Most indicators remained consistently low.

On July 1, 2025, Türkiye’s parliament passed an omnibus law granting the president the sole authority to appoint rectors at both public universities and private foundation universities.^[158] This legislative move effectively overturned a June 2024 Constitutional Court ruling that had declared presidential rector appointments unconstitutional effective June 1, 2025. By passing the July 2025 law, parliament overrode the top court’s decision, cementing the president’s power to install university leadership without adherence to standard eligibility requirements or input from the academic community.^[159]

Violations of university autonomy occurred across Turkish universities. Human rights reports documented nepotism-based appointments, positions created for specific individuals, and the unjust dismissal of faculty members.^[160] In one case, on May 21, 2026, Erdoğan directly intervened in higher education by forcibly closing İstanbul Bilgi University. The decree cited a legal provision that allows the government to shut down higher education institutions if their education quality is “inadequate.” The justification appeared to be a pretext, as the university had recently obtained standard quality accreditations.^[161] The government rescinded the order days later after domestic and international outcry, allowing the university to continue operations.^[162] The incident illustrated how the Turkish state’s actions to expand influence and narrow the space for dissent operate in the higher education space.^[163]

Academics faced imprisonment for expressing political dissent. Political scientist Emrah Gülsunar spent 36 days in jail over a social media post discussing the legitimacy of seeking foreign support to overthrow dictatorial regimes. Gülsunar argued that the discussion was part of his academic work and fell within the scope of political science. “Telling a political scientist not to discuss regimes is like telling a physicist not to talk about thermodynamics,” he stated.^[164]

Since the president’s appointment of Melih Bulu as rector of Boğaziçi University in 2021, the faculty have held five years of regular protests against the undermining of university autonomy; these protests continued in 2025 and 2026.^[165] Student protests over the controversial appointment were met with police violence. Student protestors, labeled “terrorists” by the government, claimed surveillance and periodic detentions.^[166]

Turkish police forcibly arrested students protesting on campus. During a peaceful protest against Erdoğan’s visit to the Boğaziçi University on February 13, 2026, police detained two students holding a banner that read “Get out, one-man rule, from our university.” They were transferred to a local police station and released the following day on probation and banned from traveling abroad.^[167] On January 10, 2026, police charged six Istanbul University students with “illegal assembly and march,” “refusal to disperse,” and “public incitement to commit a crime” for participating in a protest that had taken place on campus the previous day. Students had gathered to demonstrate against military action by the Syrian transitional government in Kurdish residential areas of Aleppo, Syria. During the protest, an individual from outside the university community made a provocative “Gray Wolf” hand gesture (the Gray Wolves are an ultranationalist youth movement) at the students, provoking a brawl. Among the six students charged, four were arrested and two were placed under judicial control measures. The four who were arrested were held in prison for nearly three months and claimed ill-treatment, including being beaten and experiencing overly crowded living quarters and 24/7 camera surveillance.^[168]

Private campus security and members of ultranationalist groups also used force against university students engaged in student organizing or protesting on campus. On November 21, 2025, private security forces hired by Anadolu University forcibly responded to students protesting the university cafeteria’s reservation system, prompting a scuffle.^[169] On April 14, 2026, a group of individuals, allegedly members of the ultranationalist Gray Wolves group, attacked a group of Ege University (EU) students who were handing out leaflets on behalf of the Student Union at the university’s metro station. Three students were injured and taken to the EU Faculty of Medicine Hospital on the university’s campus. Following that attack, students reported that EU private security guards permitted the attackers back onto EU’s campus, where they attacked a group of students who had gathered outside of the hospital and were waiting to visit those injured. An additional 19 students were reportedly injured in the second attack.^[170]

Ukraine

After four years, Russia’s war on Ukraine continued to affect higher education and research institutions as academic communities adapted to war. Russian air strikes damaged university buildings on at least 17 separate occasions.^[171] Between 2014 and 2024, the number of institutions and the total student enrollment declined by more than 50 percent. Nevertheless, Ukrainian higher education persists; the representation of Ukrainian higher education institutions in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings more than doubled from 2022 to 2026, signaling increased alignment with European standards.^[172] The AFI ranking remained at “severely restricted” in 2025.

Figure 37: According to the AFI, academic freedom has declined sharply in Ukraine from 2021 to 2024, falling from 0.62 (mostly free) to 0.28 (severely restricted), though it saw a slight upward trend from 2024 to 2025.

Figure 38: According to the AFI, the freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, as well as institutional autonomy, had a significant dropoff following the first year of war with Russia. In this reporting period, freedoms have mostly plateaued, with a slight increase in the freedom of academic and cultural expression.

Students reported in 2026 that their academic priorities had shifted since the onset of the war, demonstrating increased interest in technological innovation and drone development as supported by university curricular transitions.^[173] Universities integrated basic military skills into their programs, with lessons ranging from cyberattack prevention and critical thinking to practical first aid.^[174]

Legislation passed in 2024 empowered students to create individualized curricula and allowed universities to develop interdisciplinary programs, while also recognizing non-traditional and informal education options. To manage frequent interruptions and displacement, higher education communities adopted flexible learning modes (remote, in-person, and hybrid) within the same classrooms.^[175] While some institutions relocated or established “universities in exile,” others constructed reinforced shelters beneath their facilities.^[176] Over 70 percent of Ukrainian educational institutions safely conducted practical studies underground, with some operating upwards of 12 hours a day to accommodate all students within limited spaces.^[177]

United States

The reporting period saw escalating pressures on higher education in the United States. The federal government and state authorities used executive and legislative actions that undermined university autonomy, including restrictions on academic content and expression. These actions created an enabling environment for monitoring, covert recording, and scrutiny of classroom expression that triggered widespread faculty self-censorship^[178] and contributed to several dozen cases in which faculty members and staff were disciplined for statements or publications made inside or outside of the classroom.^[179]

According to the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), since 2020, academic freedom has declined dramatically in the US. In 2019, the AFI rated the US as “fully free” with respect to academic freedom. By 2025, it was rated “moderately restricted” (its precise AFI score of 0.4 meant that the country was on the verge of being rated “severely restricted”). The US’s decline in university autonomy was particularly rapid, deteriorating by 50 percent over a 10-year period from 2015 to 2025.

Figure 39: Academic freedom dropped sharply in 2025, falling from “mostly free” (0.68) to “severely restricted” (0.4).

Figure 40: Every academic freedom indicator declined significantly in the United States.

Government Restrictions on University Autonomy

The US administration and some state legislatures pressured universities into political or ideological compliance, including through new executive actions targeting specific institutions and state-level legislation restricting university autonomy, academic freedom, and free expression on campus. Many of these actions targeted programs and curriculum on gender, sexual orientation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Throughout the reporting period, the US administration attempted to impose its ideological priorities on research funding. As reported in Free to Think 2025, the government targeted several institutions individually, threatening to strip them of federal research funding if they did not accede to demands regarding governance, curriculum, and other aspects of campus life. While some institutions refused—notably including Harvard—six universities made deals with the federal government: the University of Pennsylvania,^[180] Columbia University,^[181] Brown University,^[182] the University of Virginia,^[183] Cornell University,^[184] and Northwestern University.^[185] Most of the deals involved the payment of a financial sum, as well as a commitment to make policy changes.

In October 2025, the US administration announced the so-called “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education,” which attempted to incentivize universities into committing to the administration’s political agenda in exchange for priority access to federal research funds.^[186] Only two universities—Valley Forge Military College and New College of Florida—expressed willingness to sign onto the Compact, and the US government appeared to drop the Compact after failing to secure commitments from universities.^[187]

In May 2026, the US administration introduced another strategy for implementing political objectives through research funding. The Office of Management and Budget proposed new rules for the approval of government grants and contracts, including research funding. The proposed rules would introduce a process by which senior political appointees would have ultimate responsibility for awarding new research grants and terminating existing ones, bypassing merit-based assessments by expert review panels.^[188]

A number of executive departments took or threatened retaliatory actions against universities that failed to implement the administration’s ideological priorities. On February 27, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Department of Defense would cut academic ties with 21 higher education institutions in retaliation for their allegedly engaging in “woke indoctrination.” It was unclear exactly what activities the Department of Defense was cutting, and, as of the time of writing, the Department had not communicated directly with any of the universities affected.^[189]

Also in February 2026, the Department of Education warned higher education leaders that sharing student information with the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement—a 13 year research project providing data that enables universities to support students’ civic engagement—could violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law protecting the privacy of student records.^[190] Some higher education analysts expressed concern that the warning was an attempt to suppress student engagement in public affairs, including voting.

State legislatures and politically appointed university governing bodies developed new legislation and policies undermining university autonomy, eroding tenure protections,^[191] censoring teaching and research, and creating opportunities for external actors to influence university decisions. In total, during 2025, 23 states passed laws or policies that undermined autonomy and censored higher education.^[192]

On April 16, 2026, Tennessee governor Bill Lee signed into law a bill amending the faculty disciplinary policies at the state’s public higher education institutions to concentrate disciplinary authority in a single official, eroding procedural due process protections and shared governance.^[193] On February 5, 2026, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt issued an executive order that largely eliminated tenure at public higher education institutions across the state.^[194]

Other states passed legislation that created a larger role for elected officials in university governance. On June 20, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that strengthened the authority of public university governing boards over curriculum and weakened faculty governance by reducing the size of faculty senates.^[195]

In some states, elected officials took actions to interfere in curricular autonomy, often using public higher education institutions’ governing boards as instruments to exert their influence over university policies.^[196] The Florida state government targeted sociology, including by imposing a new introduction to a sociology textbook that effectively excised material related to media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, and gender, sex, and sexuality.^[197] Later in the spring, the governing boards of the state university system and state college system each voted to remove introduction to sociology courses from the list of courses required to earn a bachelor’s degree (the courses will remain available as electives).^[198] In late 2025 in Texas, the Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University systems introduced new policies requiring faculty members to seek approval for course materials related to race, gender, and sexual identity, resulting in the cancellation of courses and closure of the Texas A&M Gender Studies program.^[199] In early 2026, Texas Tech barred graduate theses, academic programs, and teaching related to sexual orientation and gender identity.^[200]

Restrictions on Intramural and Extramural Academic Expression

In a number of states, public university systems and individual universities developed new policies restricting intramural and extramural expression. In many cases, new laws and policies were vaguely worded and overly broad, increasing the likelihood that faculty and students would self-censor to avoid sanctions.^[201]

Increasingly, students reported in-class statements by faculty members to university administrators or elected officials, seeking to have those faculty members disciplined. Some universities encouraged such reporting. For example, the Texas A&M Board of Regents approved a new “24/7 reporting mechanism” that encouraged students to report what they deem to be “inaccurate or misleading course content.”^[202] In February 2026, the University of North Carolina briefly introduced a new policy officially allowing administrators to secretly record faculty members. The policy was reversed two weeks later.^[203]

Such reports—often accompanied by unwanted media attention, public pressure campaigns, and threats by elected officials to pull university funding—led to faculty losing their positions.^[204] In some cases, faculty also faced threats of violence against them or their families. For example, in October 2025, Mark Bray, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers, fled the United States for Spain with his family following a public campaign against him (including death threats) for his academic work on antifa, a left-wing anti-fascist, anti-racist political movement that opposes far-right ideologies.^[205]

Public pressure campaigns leading to the suspension or firing of faculty members were also increasingly common. At least 60 faculty members and teachers faced professional retaliation for comments that they made after the September 10, 2025, on-campus killing of Charlie Kirk,^[206] a political activist and cofounder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit group that advocates for conservative values on high school, college, and university campuses.^[207] Some higher education institutions later paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits by faculty and staff who sued after being disciplined for their comments.^[208]

In some cases, universities explicitly acknowledged the role of public pressure in contributing to disciplinary decisions. In January 2026, the University of Arkansas announced that it had rescinded its offer to Emily Suski, a law professor and associate dean at the University of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice School of Law, to serve as the dean of its law school. The university stated that its decision was influenced by feedback from elected officials about Suski’s signing of an amicus brief filed with the US Supreme Court, which supported transgender students’ right to play on sports teams aligned with their gender identity.^[209]

Universities cancelled or censored numerous events, conferences, or publications related to disfavored or controversial topics, such as abortion, immigration, race, or gender, in response to public or political pressure. On January 23, 2026, a Turning Point USA Campaign including appeals to Texas Tech System Chancellor Brandon Creighton prompted the cancellation of a talk by retired doctor and abortion rights activist Shelley Sella at Texas Tech University’s Health Sciences Center.^[210] On December 1, 2025, the University of Alabama’s Office of Student Media canceled two student publications—one a fashion and wellness magazine, the other focused on black culture—in connection with non-binding US Department of Justice guidance recommending restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion activities on college campuses.^[211]

In Ogden, Utah, Weber State University (WSU) informed campus event speakers that their presentations must refrain from using certain words or addressing certain topics (such as, diversity, equity, and inclusion; anti-racism; bias; critical race theory; implicit bias; oppression; intersectionality; prohibited discriminatory practices; racial privilege; and promoting stereotypes based on personal identity characteristics) in order to comply with Utah House Bill 261^[212] banning diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Speakers pulled out of multiple events in response.^[213]

Access to US Higher Education

US executive actions and state-level policies put international and undocumented students and scholars in a particularly precarious position. In 2025, Presidential Proclamations 10949 and 10998 either fully or partially suspended nationals from 39 countries from entering the United States.^[214] The travel bans, combined with a new policy mandating that US immigration officials review the social media accounts of all foreign students applying for visas to study in the United States,^[215] contributed to a 35.6 percent drop in new international student visas during the summer of 2025.^[216] Two states—Texas and Florida—separately directed universities to temporarily stop processing new H-1B visas for foreign workers.^[217] At the time of writing, Iowa was attempting to do the same.”^[218]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained and initiated removal proceedings against international scholars and students working in the United States. For example, on November 22, 2025, ICE officials arrested Vahid Abedini, the Farzaneh Family Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma, at the airport while on his way to Washington, DC for a Middle East Studies Association conference. At the time of his arrest, Abedini was in the US legally on an H1-B visa, originally at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he had worked as a visiting assistant professor, and subsequently at the University of Oklahoma. Abedini had no criminal record. He was held and questioned for unknown reasons for three days before being released on November 25.^[219] On February 26, 2026, ICE officials detained Elmina Aghayeva, an undergraduate senior major in neuroscience and politics. They entered Aghayeva’s Columbia University-owned apartment building without a warrant and under the false pretenses of searching for a missing child. Aghayeva was released later that afternoon after Columbia president Clare Shipman issued a public statement. Aghayeva remains in removal proceedings.^[220] ICE detained other university students at asylum hearings,^[221] during holiday travel,^[222] or in public.^[223]

Venezuela

Major political change in Venezuela provided potential space for changes in the academic freedom landscape. The Maduro administration jailed scholars and cut university budgets, contributing to a dramatic decline in student enrollment. Venezuelan professors reported low wages, institutional instability, inaccessibility of research resources, and restrictions on classroom content. In January 2026, the United States abducted President Nicolas Maduro, bringing him to the United States to face federal drug and weapon charges. The intense crackdown faced by scholars, students, and universities appeared to be waning under the administration of Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, opening new possibilities for reshaping academic life.^[224] The AFI rated Venezuela as “completely restricted” for the second year.

Figure 41: According to the AFI, academic freedom in Venezuela was “completely restricted” (0.13).

Figure 42: Institutional autonomy was the most constrained academic freedom indicator in Venezuela in 2026.

After the contested July 28, 2024, election, the Maduro government intensified pressure on universities, imprisoned political activists, and criminalized student activism in Venezuela. According to scholarly analysis, the regime sought to control the higher education sector and maintain power through budget cuts, interference in university governance elections, the imposition of state-controlled admission systems, and the harassment of students and faculty. In July 2025, the National Council of Universities eliminated the internal admission tests traditionally used by universities to regulate enrollment, a move observers condemned as a violation of university autonomy.^[225]

The Maduro government was also known for jailing scholars and students seen as critical of the regime.^[226] State security forces–and unidentified persons suspected to be working for them–forcibly disappeared academic community members on at least five separate occasions. Venezuela’s National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command arrested economics professor Ricardo Berrios for comments he made about the nation’s economic policy. The government accused him of terrorism, criminal association, conspiracy with a foreign government, and treason, simply for sharing his perspective as an economist. Venezuelan forces also arrested a urology professor for a Facebook post celebrating opposition leader María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize, a law professor for criticizing the government at a university meeting, and a visiting lecturer known for human rights activism.^[227]

Suspected security forces also abducted several student activists from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), including student council member Simón Bolívar Obregón and Vente Venezuela youth leader Javier Cisneros.^[228] The Federation of University Centers at UCV denounced both detentions as attempts to silence dissenting voices. In at least one case, Venezuelan security forces arrested students for conducting academic work viewed as critical of the government. On October 31, 2025, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service arrested two UCV art students while they were conducting thesis research at the Aragua Penitentiary Center.^[229] The students, who planned to produce a documentary for their graduate thesis, were intercepted, detained, and arrested after taking a photograph of the prison’s facade.

The United States operation to capture Maduro damaged research infrastructure. On January 3, 2026, a US missile strike severely damaged several buildings at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), the nation’s leading institution for basic science research. Two missiles destroyed the mathematics building and caused significant damage to the chemistry, physics, ecology, and nuclear technology facilities. According to Venezuela’s Minister for Science and Technology, these buildings housed servers and infrastructure essential to their computer networks.^[230]

Following Maduro’s capture, analysts wrote that the interim government was attempting to project stability and openness to the international community,^[231] including by permitting dissent.

The Venezuelan Student Movement held its first opposition protest in over a year in February, sparking conversation about the Rodriguez administration’s tolerance of dissent. On National Youth Day, students marched through several cities to demand the release of political prisoners. Having previously avoided public demonstrations out of fear following the July 2024 repression, students gathered at over a dozen universities. Observers noted an absence of direct crackdowns at the protests; despite strategic police deployment, security forces allowed the marches to proceed freely. This apparent openness continued into April, when teachers launched a 24-hour strike for wage adjustments, an action that also went off without violence.

Zimbabwe

Academic freedom in Zimbabwe was severely limited by surveillance, arrests, abductions, and violence targeting students and scholars. State authorities, as well as unidentified individuals, cracked down on students protesting a controversial constitutional amendment.

Figure 43: Academic freedom was “completely restricted” in 2025, remaining at 0.16.

Figure 44: Academic freedom in Zimbabwe was limited across all indicators, with institutional autonomy score particularly low.

The government announced Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 3 in February 2026. The bill proposed extending presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years and replacing the direct election of the president with a system where Parliament elects the head of state. The proposal spurred a wave of protests on university campuses, where campus and state security forcibly broke up gatherings. Human rights organizations warned that authorities harassing, abducting, and arbitrarily detaining those opposing the amendment could narrow the space for dissent.^[232]

In August 2025, the Zimbabwe Republic Police arrested three students from Midlands State University for distributing flyers opposing the amendment. The students spent 14 days in detention before being granted bail and appeared in court in October to face charges of “subverting constitutional government” and “incitement to commit public violence.” Following his release on bail, one of the students was suspended from the university and then reported missing. In March 2026, the courts withdrew the charges against the students.^[233]

Throughout March 2026, unidentified individuals abducted students publicly opposing the amendment. Dylan Cole from the Chinhoyi University of Technology, Tafara Baynes Magodora from Bindura University of Science Education, and Munashe Dongonda and Denford Sithole from Bulawayo Polytechnic were all abducted after attending public consultations about the bill. Each of the students was reportedly released, and both Magodora and Sithole suspended their studies and went into hiding due to safety concerns.^[234]

^[1]  Katrin Kinzelbach, Staffan I. Lindberg, Lars Lott, and Angelo Vito Panaro. 2026. Academic FreedomIndex–2026Update. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and V-Dem Institute. doi: 10.25593/open-fau-2865.

^[2] Tash Mosheim, “Universities in Afghanistan ‘no longer functioning’,” Times Higher Education, February 13, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-afghanistan-no-longer-functioning.

^[3] Katrin Kinzelbach, Staffan I. Lindberg, Lars Lott, Angelo Vito Panaro. 2026. Academic FreedomIndex–2026Update. Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and V-Dem Institute. doi: 10.25593/open-fau-2865.

^[4] Orfan, S. N., & Lavigne, E. (2025). From scholars to militants: university leadership and the demographics of senior administrators in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Studies in Higher Education, pp. 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2025.2592849; and Tash Mosheim, “Taliban supporters dominate Afghan university leadership,” Times Higher Education, December 8, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/taliban-supporters-dominate-afghan-university-leadership.

^[5] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, August 25, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-25-multiple-institutions/.

^[6] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, November 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-01-multiple-institutions/.

^[7] SAR AFMP, Baran Health Sciences Institute, May 18, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-18-baran-health-sciences-institute/.

^[8] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, September 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-14-multiple-institutions-2/.

^[9] SAR AFMP, multiple institutions, March 31, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-31-multiple-institutions/.

^[10] SAR AFMP, Herat University, April 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-15-herat-university/.

^[11] SAR AFMP, Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University, April 27, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-27-sayed-jamaluddin-afghani-university/.

^[12] Nahid Neazy, “Bangladeshi academics’ brief window of freedom may be closing again,” Times Higher Education, May 4, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/bangladeshi-academics-brief-window-freedom-may-be-closing-again; Staff Correspondent, “Govt appoints VCs at 7 univs, new UGC chief,” The Daily Star, March 17, 2026, https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/govt-appoints-vcs-7-univs-new-ugc-chief-4130561; and BDDigest, “BNP government appointed partisan vice-chancellors to 10 universities in a single day, excluding the vice-chancellors appointed during Yunus’s tenure,” May 15, 2026, https://en.bddigest.com/bnp-government-appointed-partisan-vice-chancellors-to-10-universities-in-a-single-day-excluding-the-vice-chancellors-appointed-during-yunuss-tenure/.

^[13] Staff Correspondent, “UGC to be dissolved, ‘Bangladesh Higher Education Commission’ to be formed,” Bonik Barta, December 28, 2025, https://en.bonikbarta.com/bangladesh/HEhHNXs0yenEoVkJ.

^[14] SAR AFMP, Chittagong University, January 10, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-10-chittagong-university/.

^[15] SAR AFMP, Rajshahi University, November 19, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-19-rajshahi-university/; and SAR AFMP, University of Asia Pacific, January 18, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-18-university-of-asia-pacific-2/.

^[16] SAR AFMP, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, August 27, 2025,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-27-bangladesh-university-of-engineering-and-technology/; and SAR AFMP, Sylhet Polytechnic Institute, February 3, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-03-sylhet-polytechnic-institute/.

^[17] Sally Weale, “China-critical UK academics describe ‘extremely heavy’ pressure from Beijing,” The Guardian, November 6, 2025,
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/nov/06/china-critical-uk-academics-speak-out-extremely-heavy-pressure-beijing; Radio Free Asia, China’s Transnational Repression, Radio Free Asia, April 29, 2025, https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-transnational-repression/; and UK-China Transparency, Cold Crisis: Academic freedom and interference in China studies in the UK, UKC Transparency, August 2025, https://ukctransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Cold-Crisis-Academic-freedom-and-interference-in-China-studies-in-the-UK.pdf.

^[18] Radio Free Asia, China’s Transnational Repression, Radio Free Asia, April 29, 2025, https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/29/china-transnational-repression/; Vikram Nijhawan, “When You’re Afraid That Your Classmate Is a Spy,” The Local Toronto, September 16, 2025, https://thelocal.to/chinese-international-students-transnational-repression/; and UK-China Transparency, Cold Crisis: Academic freedom and interference in China studies in the UK, UKC Transparency, August 2025, https://ukctransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Cold-Crisis-Academic-freedom-and-interference-in-China-studies-in-the-UK.pdf.

^[19] SAR AFMP, École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, July 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-31-ecole-superieure-de-commerce-de-paris/.

^[20] Wing Kuang, “Student allegedly jailed in China for six years after taking part in pro-democracy protests in Australia,” The Guardian, April 21, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/21/student-allegedly-jailed-china-after-pro-democracy-protests-australia.

^[21] SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, June 3, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-06-03-university-of-california-berkeley/.

^[22] SAR Scholars in Prison Project, Rahile Dawut, China, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/actions/rahile-dawut-china/#Case%20Information.

^[23] SAR AFMP, Central University Nationalities, January 15, 2014, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2014-01-15-central-university-nationalities/.

^[24] SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, October 4, 2018,  www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-10-04-unaffiliated/.

^[25] SAR AFMP, Xinjiang Pedagogical University, January 29, 2018,  www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2018-01-29-xinjiang-pedagogical-university/.

^[26] SAR AFMP, Hong Kong Baptist University, December 5, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-05-hong-kong-baptist-university/.

^[27] SAR AFMP, Chinese University of Hong Kong, February 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-13-chinese-university-of-hong-kong/.

^[28] Tash Mosheim, “Scholar forced to apologise after speaking out on Hong Kong fire,” Times Higher Education, December 3, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/scholar-forced-apologise-after-speaking-out-hong-kong-fire.

^[29] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, February 5, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-05-multiple-institutions/.

^[30]  SAR AFMP, Universidad del Valle, October 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-08-universidad-del-valle/; SAR AFMP, Universidad del Valle, September 24, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-24-universidad-del-valle/; and SAR AFMP, Universidad del Valle, February 26, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-26-universidad-del-valle/.

^[31] SAR AFMP, Industrial University of Santander, October 6, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-06-industrial-university-of-santander/; SAR AFMP, Industrial University of Santander, March 4, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-04-industrial-university-of-santander/; and SAR AFMP, Universidad del Cauca, February 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-24-universidad-del-cauca/.

^[32] SAR AFMP, Universidad del Atlántico, October 2, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-02-universidad-del-atlantico/; SAR AFMP, Universidad del Atlántico, October 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-14-universidad-del-atlantico/; SAR AFMP, Universidad del Atlántico, October 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-30-universidad-del-atlantico/; and SAR AFMP, Universidad del Atlántico, November 10, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-10-universidad-del-atlantico/.

^[33] Civil.ge, “Georgia’s University Reform Is Not a Neutral Initiative. It’s a Political Act,” January 28, 2026, Civil Georgia, https://civil.ge/archives/718654; IA Red Spring, Education in Georgia has become an arena for fierce political struggle, ИА Красная Весна, February 16, 2026, https://rossaprimavera.ru/news/3095324f; Khatia Shamanauri, “Georgia Tightens Grip on Dissent with Controversial Laws,” February 11, 2026, Jamestown, https://jamestown.org/georgia-tightens-grip-on-dissent-with-controversial-laws/; and Sandro Tabatadze, “Georgia’s Higher Education ‘Reform’: The Capstone of an Authoritarian Turn,” October 31, 2025, RevDem, https://revdem.ceu.edu/2025/10/31/georgia-higher-education-reform/.

^[34] Tamuna Chkareuli, Why Georgia’s most vocal university now faces the biggest cuts, OC Media, March  6, 2026, https://oc-media.org/why-georgias-most-vocal-university-now-faces-the-biggest-cuts/; “Georgia Today, Promises of Quality, Instruments of Control: How Centralized Reform Reshapes Georgian Higher Education,” Georgia Today, February 26, 2026, https://georgiatoday.ge/promises-of-quality-instruments-of-control-how-centralized-reform-reshapes-georgian-higher-education/; Seher Asaf, “‘We’re still fighting’: Georgian academics battle drastic reforms,” Times Higher Education, April 2, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/were-still-fighting-georgian-academics-battle-drastic-reforms; Francesco Brusa and Aleksej Tilman, Georgia, the university fighting against education reform, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, March 18, 2026, https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/cp_article/georgia-luniversita-che-lotta-contro-la-riforma-dellistruzione/; Emily Dixon, “Georgian universities ‘may collapse’ under reforms, scholars fear,” Times Higher Education, November 16, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/georgian-universities-may-collapse-under-reforms-scholars-fear; Straits Times, “Georgia overhauls higher education as it shifts away from the West, “The Straits Times, April 15, 2026, https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/georgia-overhauls-higher-education-as-it-shifts-away-from-the-west; and Social Justice Center, February 2026, “Ongoing Reforms in the Education System, Unfolding Against the Background of Aggressive Autocratization, Will Have Destructive Social and Educational Consequences,” https://socialjustice.org.ge/en/products/agresiuli-avtokratizatsiis-fonze-ganatlebis-sistemashi-mimdinare-reformebs-damangreveli-sotsialuri-da-saganmanatleblo-gavlena-ekneba.

^[35] Mikheil Gvadzabia, “Georgian parliament approves controversial education amendments,” OC Media, February 6, 2026, https://oc-media.org/georgian-parliament-approves-controversial-education-amendments/.

^[36] Luka Gventsadze, “Professors, Students Vow to Resist ‘Unconstitutional’ Plan to Gut Ilia State University,” Civil Georgia, February 13, 2026, https://civil.ge/archives/721332; Giorgi Tskhadaia, Vivat Academia: Reform or Control?, Forbes Georgia, January 19, 2026, https://forbes.ge/vivat-academia-rephorma-thu-kontroli/; Civil.ge, “GD Scraps Plan to Merge Georgia’s Technical University with Tbilisi State University,” Civil Georgia, February 9, 2026, https://civil.ge/archives/720624; Tamuna Chkareuli, “Why Georgia’s most vocal university now faces the biggest cuts,” OC Media, March  6, 2026, https://oc-media.org/why-georgias-most-vocal-university-now-faces-the-biggest-cuts/; and Francesco Brusa and Aleksej Tilman, “Georgia, the university fighting against education reform,” Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, March 18, 2026, https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/cp_article/georgia-luniversita-che-lotta-contro-la-riforma-dellistruzione/.

^[37] Waquar Hasan, Academic Freedom Declines Globally; India Among Countries Facing Sustained Erosion, The Hindustan Gazette, March 20, 2026, https://thehindustangazette.com/national/new-delhi/academic-freedom-declines-globally-india-among-countries-facing-sustained-erosion-44496.

^[38] Azher Ahmad and Maleeha Shafi, “Crisis of academic freedom and the collapse of enforceability in India’s higher education,” Maktoob Media, July 4, 2025, https://maktoobmedia.com/public/post?id=104419&slug=crisis-of-academic-freedom-and-the-collapse-of-enforceability-in-indias-higher-education.

^[39] Sravasti Dasgupta, “Eight Policy Rollbacks and Curriculum Rows That Defined Education Under the Modi Government,” The Wire India, March 3, 2026, https://thewire.in/government/a-decade-of-rollbacks-and-rows-eight-times-pm-modis-education-ministry-came-under-scrutiny; Namrata Banerjee, “Judiciary” chapter row: NCERT authors blacklisted by SC, Supreme Court Observer, March 11, 2026, https://www.scobserver.in/journal/judiciary-chapter-row-ncert-authors-blacklisted-by-sc/; and SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, March 11, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-11-multiple-institutions/.

^[40] Muhammad Batish, “Silencing Kashmir: India’s Ban on Critical Scholarship,” Kashmir Media Service, August 10, 2025, https://kmsnews.org/kms/2025/08/10/silencing-kashmir-indias-ban-on-critical-scholarship.html; and Human Rights Defenders, India: Kashmir book ban violates freedom of expression and academic freedom, International Federation for Human Rights, August 8, 2025, https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/india/india-kashmir-book-ban-violates-freedom-of-expression-and-academic.

^[41]  SAR AFMP, South Asian University, June 16, 2023, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2023-06-16-south-asian-university/.

^[42] SAR AFMP, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, December 9, 2025,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-09-srm-institute-of-science-and-technology/

^[43] SAR AFMP, Jamia Millia Islamia, December 23, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-23-jamia-millia-islamia/.

^[44] SAR AFMP, Banaras Hindu University, January 20, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-20-banaras-hindu-university/;  SAR AFMP, Mumbai University, January 31, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-31-mumbai-university/.

^[45] SAR AMFP, Delhi University, October 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-30-delhi-university/.

^[46] PTI, Universities nationwide responding to student dissent through punitive action, intimidation, The Print India, March 7, 2026, https://theprint.in/india/universities-nationwide-responding-to-student-dissent-through-punitive-action-intimidation-activists/2872707/.

^[47] SAR AFMP, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, October 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-13-tata-institute-of-social-sciences/.

^[48] SAR AFMP, Jamia Millia Islamia, December 18, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-18-jamia-millia-islamia/.

^[49] SAR AFMP, Delhi University, February 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-17-delhi-university/; and Aakriti Handa, “Why Indian Universities Are Witnessing a ‘Bloody Spring’”, The Quint, March 18, 2026, https://www.thequint.com/quintlab/student-protests-jnu-du-AISA-ABVP-NSUI-UGC-rules-gujarat-lucknow-panjab-university/.

^[50] SAR AFMP, Azim Premji University, February 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-25-azim-premji-university/; and Ashwin BM, “Azim Premji University student suspended for 2 years over February 24 campus ruckus; peers protest,” May 9, 2026, Deccan Herald, https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/bengaluru-azim-premji-university-student-suspended-for-2-years-over-february-24-campus-ruckus-peers-protest-3996735.

^[51] Aakriti Handa, “Why Indian Universities Are Witnessing a ‘Bloody Spring.’”

^[52] SAR AFMP, Lucknow University, January 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-17-lucknow-university/; SAR AFMP, CMS College, August 21, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-21-cms-college/; and SAR AFMP, Utkal University, August 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-05-utkal-university/.

^[53] SAR AFMP, Cachar College, August 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-28-cachar-college/.

^[54] SAR AFMP, English and Foreign Languages University, October 7, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-07-english-and-foreign-languages-university/.

^[55] SAR AFMP, Jadavpur University, February 20, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-20-jadavpur-university/.

^[56] Aakriti Handa, “Why Indian Universities Are Witnessing a ‘Bloody Spring’”.

^[57] SAR AFMP, Panjab University, November 10, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-10-panjab-university/;

^[58] SAR AFMP, Osmania University, July 19, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-19-osmania-university/.

^[59] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, August 5, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-05-multiple-institutions/.

^[60] SAR AFMP, Delhi University, July 9, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-09-delhi-university/.

^[61] SAR AFMP, Delhi University, July 19, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-19-delhi-university/; and Nikita Jain, “Stripped, beaten, sexually assaulted: Detained activists allege torture by Delhi Police,” March 18, 2026, Maktoob Media, https://maktoobmedia.com/public/post?id=114238&slug=stripped-beaten-sexually-assaulted-detained-activists-allege-torture-by-delhi-police.

^[62] WIB, 3 Major Threats to Academic Freedom in 2026, Tempo, January 25, 2026, https://www.tempo.co/politik/3-ancaman-besar-terhadap-kebebasan-akademik-di-2026-2109818.

^[63] WIB, 3 Major Threats to Academic Freedom in 2026, Tempo, January 25, 2026, https://www.tempo.co/politik/3-ancaman-besar-terhadap-kebebasan-akademik-di-2026-2109818; and Researchers at The Indonesian Institute, Policy Paper: Mapping Academic Freedom Violations to Promote Academic Freedom Protection Policies in Universities in Indonesia, The Indonesian Institute Center for Public Policy Research, 2025, p. 40, https://www.theindonesianinstitute.com/mapping-academic-freedom-violations-to-promote-academic-freedom-protection-policies-in-universities-in-indonesia/.

^[64] Human Rights Monitor, “Authorities disperse documentary screening at University of Mataram,” June 19, 2026, https://humanrightsmonitor.org/case/authorities-disperse-documentary-screening-at-university-of-mataram/; Radhiyya Indra, “Crackdown on documentary on Indonesia’s Papua sparks fears over free speech, military overreach,” May 13, 2026, Asia News, https://asianews.network/crackdown-on-documentary-on-indonesias-papua-sparks-fears-over-free-speech-military-overreach/; and SAR AFMP, University of Mataram, May 7, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-07-university-of-mataram/.

^[65] SAR AFMP, University of Indonesia, January 12, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-12-university-of-indonesia/; and SAR AFMP, University of Indonesia, January 18, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-18-university-of-indonesia/.

^[66] SAR AFMP, Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, February 16, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-16-gadjah-mada-university-yogyakarta/.

^[67] SAR AFMP, University of Indonesia, November 10, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-10-university-of-indonesia/; and Rohman Wibowo, “Why Are Students Criticizing Soeharto’s Hero Status Suspended?”, Tirto, November 18, 2025, https://tirto.id/mahasiswa-kritisi-status-pahlawan-soeharto-diskors-mengapa-hlZY.

^[68] Kafil Yamin, “Police criticised for response to protests near campuses,” University World News, September 3, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250903183156168.

^[69] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, September 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-01-multiple-institutions/.

^[70] SAR AFMP, Cenderawasih University, September 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-30-cenderawasih-university/; and SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, December 19, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-19-multiple-institutions/.

^[71] Tash Mosheim, “Iranian Scholars Fear Tougher Clampdown as Protests Spread,” Times Higher Education, January 9, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iranian-scholars-fear-
tougher-clampdown-protests-spread; Roohola Ramezani, “Iran’s HE System Is Still Trapped in Politics of the Past,” University World News, December 17, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251216074038776&; Mani Haqiqat, “The Minister of Intelligence announced the review of a new plan to ‘counter infiltration’,” DW, August 25, 2025, https://p.dw.com/p/53ie6; and Mostafa Aslani, “Iran Regime’s ‘Countering Foreign Influence’ Plan Threatens Free Speech and Academic Freedom,” Iran News Update, November 19, 2025, https://irannewsupdate.com/news/infightings/iran-regimes-countering-foreign-influence-plan-threatens-free-speech-and-academic-freedom/.

^[72] SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, November 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-03-unaffiliated/; SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, November 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-03-unaffiliated-2/; and SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, November 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-03-unaffiliated-3/.

^[73] Jim Dickinson, “Iran’s Students Are Again at the Centre of Nationwide Unrest,” Wonkhe, January 2, 2026, https://wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/irans-students-are-again-at-the-centre-of-nationwide-unrest/; Roohola Ramezani, “Iran’s Students Are Pushing for Revolution,” Times Higher Education, January 15, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/irans-students-are-pushing-revolution; and Center for Human Rights in Iran, July 16, 2026, Authorities Escalate Crackdown on Iranian Students Amid Post-War Repression, https://iranhumanrights.org/2026/07/authorities-escalate-crackdown-on-iranian-students-amid-post-war-repression/.

^[74] For cases verified by SAR, see: SAR AFMP, University of Tehran, December 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-30-university-of-tehran/; and SAR AFMP, University of Tehran, December 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-31-university-of-tehran/.

^[75] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, December 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-28-multiple-institutions/; SAR AFMP, Amirkabir University, December 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-30-amirkabir-university/; and SAR AFMP, Shahid Beheshti University, December 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-31-shahid-beheshti-university/.

^[76] SAR AFMP, Tarbiat Modares University, January 4, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-04-tarbiat-modares-university/.

^[77] Roohola Ramezani, “Iran’s Students Are Pushing for Revolution,” Times Higher Education, January 15, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/irans-students-are-pushing-revolution; Tash Mosheim, Iranian Scholars Fear Tougher Clampdown as Protests Spread, Times Higher Education, January 9, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iranian-scholars-fear-tougher-
clampdown-protests-spread; “‘The Regime’s Fear of the National Revolution; a Series of Postponements of Exams, Locking the Doors of Dormitories,’” Telegram, January 11, 2026, https://t.me/EEAUT/10021; and Pardis Mahdavi, “Iran’s Universities Have Long Been a Battleground, Where Protests Happen and Students Fight for the Future,” The Conversation, January 20, 2026, https://theconversation.com/irans-universities-have-long-been-a-battleground-where-protests-happen-and-students-fight-for-the-future-273742.

^[78] SAR AFMP, University of Tehran, February 22, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-22-university-of-tehran/; SAR AFMP, Sharif University of Technology, February 22, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-22-sharif-university-of-technology/; and SAR AFMP, Khajeh Nasir University, February 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-24-khajeh-nasir-university/.

^[79] Bridges Post, “Hundreds of students and pupils killed in Iranian protests amid accusations against security forces,” Jusoor Post, February 9, 2026, https://jusoorpost.com/ar/posts/69133/mktl-myat-altlab-oaltlamyth-fy-ahtgagat-ayran-ost-athamat-llaghz-alamny; Deepa Parent, “‘Our Classrooms Are Empty Because the Graveyards Are Full’: Iran’s Students on Why They Are Protesting Again,” The Guardian, February 23, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/23/classrooms-empty-graveyards-full-iran-students-why-protesting-again; Mali Rezaei , “Iran’s Universities at the Edge of Regime Change,” ABC Religion & Ethics, March 5, 2026, https://www.abc.net.au/religion/mali-rezaei-iran-
universities-at-the-edge-of-regime-change/106421722; and Tash Mosheim, “Fresh Protests Rock Iranian Campuses after Deadly Crackdown,” Times Higher Education, February 23, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/fresh-protests-rock-iranian-
campuses-after-deadly-crackdown.

^[80] Lexi Lonas Cochran, “Strikes on Iranian Universities Raise War Crime Questions, Fears of Retaliation,” The Hill, April 2, 2026, https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5811380-iran-war-university-strikes-war-crimes/; SAR AFMP, Sharif University of Technology, April 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-06-sharif-university-of-technology/; SAR AFMP, Iran University of Science and Technology, March 28, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-28-iran-university-of-science-and-technology/; and SAR AFMP, Isfahan University of Technology, March 28, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-28-isfahan-university-of-technology/.

^[81] “Iran: 30 Universities and World Heritage Sites Targeted in US-Israeli Attacks,” Al Quds, April 5, 2026, https://alquds.com/en/posts/234308; Maedeh Zaman Fashami, “Science in the Crossfire: Iran’s Universities Resilient amid Bombardment,” Tehran Times, April 5, 2026, https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/525187/Science-in-the-crossfire-Iran-s-universities-resilient-amid; and Michele Catanzaro, “‘Heartbreaking’: Iranian Scientists on Losing Labs, Libraries and Liberty,” Nature 653, no. 8114 (May 4, 2026): 338–39, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01394-y.

^[82] Muslim Mirror Desk, “310 Students and Teachers Killed, over 750 Schools Damaged in US-Israeli War on Iran,” Muslim Mirror, April 7, 2026, https://muslimmirror.com/310-students-and-teachers-killed-over-750-schools-damaged-in-us-israeli-war-on-iran/.

^[83] Roohola Ramezani, “Iran’s Recent Student Protests Point to a Monarchist Post-War Future,” Times Higher Education, March 13, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/irans-recent-student-protests-point-monarchist-post-war-future; Manija Mirzaie, “Conflict, No Internet, Politics Isolate Students, Academics,” University World News, April 10, 2026, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260410101751713; and Ebrahim Karimi, “War Follows Us Iranian Scientists far from Home,” Iran International, April 2, 2026, https://www.iranintl.com/en/202604022325?emci=901f8d64-cc2e-f111-9a48-000d3a14b640&emdi=fb740337-d62e-f111-9a48-000d3a14b640&ceid=14388151.

^[84] “Iran: Seven Protesters and Dissidents at Risk of Imminent Execution after Four Men Arbitrarily Executed in Secret within 24 Hours,” Amnesty International USA, March 31, 2026, https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/iran-seven-protesters-and-dissidents-at-risk-of-imminent-execution-after-four-men-arbitrarily-executed-in-secret-within-24-hours/; and “Seven Protest-Related Cases: Defendants at Risk of Death Sentences or Execution,” IranWire, April 7, 2026, https://iranwire.com/en/news/150897-seven-protest-related-cases-defendants-at-risk-of-death-sentences-or-execution/.

^[85] “Iran: Seven Protesters and Dissidents at Risk of Imminent Execution after Four Men Arbitrarily Executed in Secret within 24 Hours,” Amnesty International USA, March 31, 2026, https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/iran-seven-protesters-and-dissidents-at-risk-of-imminent-execution-after-four-men-arbitrarily-executed-in-secret-within-24-hours/.

^[86] SAR AFMP, Iran University of Science and Technology, May 11, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-11-iran-university-of-science-and-technology/; and CBS News, “Iran hangs grad student accused of spying for the CIA and Israel’s intel agency,” May 11, 2206, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-hangs-grad-student-accused-spying-cia-mossad/.

^[87] SAR Scholars in Prison Project, Ahmadreza Djalali, Iran, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/actions/ahmadreza-djalali-iran/.

^[88] Albin Lindström, “Djalali’s Wife: No Contact since the Protests Broke Out,” Expressen, January 11, 2026), https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/sverige/djalalis-fru-ingen-kontakt-sedan-protesterna-brot-ut/; Petter Bodelsson, “Reports of Chaos in Prisons – Djalali’s Wife: ‘Very Worried,’” TV4 Nyheterna, March 2, 2026, https://www.tv4.se/artikel/44AB8a6QQtMC1DRmABONEs/rapporter-om-kaos-i-faengelser-djalalis-fru-mycket-oroli; and “Humanitarian Catastrophe in Iranian Prisons,” ClubZ, March 10, 2026, https://clubz.bg/172153.

^[89] SAR AFMP, Ambrose Alli University, December 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-01-ambrose-alli-university/; and SAR AFMP, Rivers State University, December 2, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-02-rivers-state-university/.

^[90] Abdulganiyu Abdulrahman Akanbi, “Universities and Schools Close amid Spike in Kidnappings,” University World News, November 27, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251126145202985&.

^[91] SAR AFMP, Lagos State University, November 11, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-11-lagos-state-university/.

^[92] SAR AFMP, Ambrose Alli University, January 10, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-10-ambrose-alli-university/.

^[93] Ahmed Al-Najjar, “Makeshift Gaza University Offers Chance to Resurrect Academic Studies,” Al Jazeera, April 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/11/makeshift-gaza-university-offers-chance-to-resurrect-academic-studies; and Tarek Abd Elgalil, “Minister Appeals for Help to Safeguard Higher Education,” University World News, November 14, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251114124006162.

^[94] Committee on Academic Freedom, “Letter to Protest the Intensification of Israel’s Assaults on the Education Sector in the Occupied West Bank,” Middle East Studies Association, June 23, 2025, https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2025/06/23/letter-to-protest-the-intensification-of-israels-assaults-on-the-education-sector-in-the-occupied-west-bank.

^[95] Taqwa Ahmed Alwawi, “On the Systematic Annihilation of Gaza’s Educational Future,” Literary Hub, April 16, 2026, https://lithub.com/on-the-systematic-annihilation-of-gazas-educational-future/; and Tarek Abd Elgalil, “Minister Appeals for Help to Safeguard Higher Education,” University World News, November 14, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251114124006162.

^[96] Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Palestinian Children Are Deprived of Education for the Third Year in a Row [EN/AR] – Occupied Palestinian Territory,” ReliefWeb, September 16, 2025, https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/palestinian-children-are-deprived-education-third-year-row-enar (citing statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education).

^[97] Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi, “Gaza’s Students Kept Studying amid the Rubble. Now Universities Hope to Rebuild.,” The Intercept, November 7, 2025, https://theintercept.com/2025/11/07/gaza-universities-scholasticide-israel-palestine/; and “Islamic University of Gaza Resumes In-Person Classes for 1st Time in 2 Years,” TRT World, November 29, 2025, https://www.trtworld.com/article/975870511e47.

^[98] Ahmed Al-Najjar, “Makeshift Gaza University Offers Chance to Resurrect Academic Studies,” Al Jazeera, April 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/11/makeshift-gaza-university-offers-chance-to-resurrect-academic-studies; and Srisakul Leelapiraphan, “‘Tracing Foreign Lands’: Khan Younis, a Temporary University Town for Education in Gaza,” Matichon, April 22, 2026, https://www.matichon.co.th/foreign/indepth/news_5687766.

^[99] Ahmed Al-Najjar, “Makeshift Gaza University Offers Chance to Resurrect Academic Studies,” Al Jazeera, April 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/11/makeshift-gaza-university-offers-chance-to-resurrect-academic-studies; Tarek Abd Elgalil, “Minister Appeals for Help to Safeguard Higher Education,” University World News, November 14, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20251114124006162; Taqwa Ahmed Alwawi, “On the Systematic Annihilation of Gaza’s Educational Future,” Literary Hub, April 16, 2026, https://lithub.com/on-the-systematic-annihilation-of-gazas-educational-future/; “Education in Gaza Continues under the Shadow of War.,” Hibya Haber Ajansı, April 11, 2026, https://hibya.com/gazzede-egitim-savasin-golgesinde-surduruluyor-904353; and Ola Al-Asi, “Young and Old Struggle to Get Their Studies Back on Track in Gaza,” Al Jazeera, February 11, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/2/11/young-and-old-struggle-to-get-their-studies-back-on-track-in-gaza.

^[100] “Education Is Not Abandoned in Gaza/ Students Take Exams on the Beach amidst the Ruins of War,” Politiko, May 11, 2026, https://politiko.al/english/bota/arsimi-nuk-dorezohet-ne-gaza-studentet-japin-provime-ne-plazh-mes-rrenojave-i554717.

^[101] Taqwa Ahmed Alwawi, “On the Systematic Annihilation of Gaza’s Educational Future,” Literary Hub, April 16, 2026, https://lithub.com/on-the-systematic-annihilation-of-gazas-educational-future/; “Rafah Crossing Restrictions Derail Palestinian Student’s Academic Dreams,” Al Jazeera, April 9, 2026, https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/4/9/rafah-crossing-restrictions-derail-palestinian-students-academic-dreams; Reem A. Hamadaqa , “70 Palestinian Students Admitted to Canadian Universities Are Trapped in Gaza. We Need Canada to Defend Our Right to Education,” Mondoweiss, August 23, 2025, https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/70-palestinian-students-admitted-to-canadian-universities-are-trapped-in-gaza-we-need-canada-to-defend-our-right-to-education/; “Protests by Stranded Gaza Students Demanding Easier Travel Arrangements,” Al Jazeera, April 21, 2026, https://aja.ws/3sl3qq.

^[102] Emily Dixon, “‘Life-Saving’ Gaza Student Evacuations Need ‘Collective Effort,’” Times Higher Education, October 3, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/life-saving-gaza-student-evacuations-need-collective-effort; Tash Mosheim, “Some Gazan Students ‘May Be Left Behind’ as UK Begins Evacuation,” Times Higher Education, September 16, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/some-gazan-students-may-be-left-behind-uk-begins-evacuation; and Nick Eardley, “Gazan Students Granted Approval to Study in UK,” BBC, August 26, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgqnjqgp719o.

^[103] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, September 14, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-14-multiple-institutions/.

^[104] SAR AFMP, Birzeit University, September 22, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-22-birzeit-university/.

^[105] SAR AFMP, Birzeit University, January 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-06-birzeit-university/.

^[106] Al Jazeera Staff, “Israeli assault on Palestinian university wounds dozens in West Bank raid,” January 6, 2026, Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/6/israeli-forces-injure-11-palestinian-in-university-raid-in-ramallah; and Stav Levaton, “IDF says Birzeit University raid aimed to disrupt pro-terror gathering,” January 6, 2026, Times of Israel, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-birzeit-university-raid-aimed-
to-disrupt-pro-terror-gathering/.

^[107] Saad Malook, “Quest for Sovereignty of Universities in Pakistan,” The Friday Times, September 29, 2025, https://www.thefridaytimes.com/29-Sep-2025/quest-sovereignty-universities-pakistan; “Higher Education Sector Sees Major Cut in Funding,” Dawn, June 11, 2025, https://www.dawn.com/news/1916384; Madiha Riaz, “The Unfunded Mandate of Pakistani Universities,” Brecorder, January 13, 2026, https://www.brecorder.com/news/40401846/the-unfunded-mandate-of-pakistani-universities; and “Erosion of Varsities  Autonomy Feared,” The Express Tribune, August 27, 2025, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2563388/erosion-of-varsities-autonomy-feared.

^[108] SAR AFMP, Jeay Sindh Student Federation, November 9, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-09-jeay-sindh-student-federation/.

^[109] SAR AFMP, University of Agriculture, February 11, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-11-university-of-agriculture/; and SAR AFMP, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, February 14, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-14-abbottabad-university-of-science-and-technology/.

^[110] News Desk, “Armed clash between student groups erupts at Sindh University, two injured,” 24 News, May 17, 2026, https://www.24newshd.tv/17-May-2026/armed-clash-student-groups-erupts-sindh-university-two-injured; and The Express Tribune, “Nine injured as varsity students clash,” May 18, 2026, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2608702/nine-injured-as-varsity-students-clash.

^[111] Amir Naeem, “Pakistan’s Baloch Students Are Vanishing, and No One Is Held Accountable,” The New Humanitarian, February 3, 2026, https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2026/02/03/pakistans-baloch-students-are-vanishing-and-no-one-held-accountable.

^[112] Baloch Student Action Committee, X (formerly Twitter), March 23, 2026, https://x.com/bsac_org/status/2036089511474798879?s=46&t=dOAjqFnMvAVUog9fBqfKlA.

^[113] SAR AFMP, Sindh Agricultural University, September 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-03-sindh-agricultural-university/; SAR AFMP, Ghazi University, November 2, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-02-ghazi-university/; SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, February 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-15-unaffiliated/; SAR AFMP, Polytechnic College, April 48, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-28-polytechnic-college/; SAR AFMP, University of Balochistan, March 23, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-23-university-of-balochistan/; and SAR AFMP, Turbat University, December 4, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-04-turbat-university/.

^[114] “University of the Philippines Students Protest Budget Cuts,” euronews, September 12, 2025, https://www.euronews.com/video/2025/09/12/university-of-the-philippines-students-protest-budget-cuts; Sam Beltran, “‘Chilling’ Corruption over Flood Projects in Philippines Fuels Campus Activism,” South China Morning Post, September 14, 2025, https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3325392/chilling-corruption-over-flood-projects-philippines-fuels-campus-activism; and Cristina Chi, “Youth-Led Protests Aim to Keep Pressure on Marcos as Corruption Scandal Drags On,” Philstar, October 17, 2025, https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/10/17/2480561/youth-led-protests-aim-keep-pressure-marcos-corruption-scandal-drags-on.

^[115] Arriane Dela Cruz, “Youth groups condemn arrest of students in September 21 riots,” Rappler, September 24, 2025, https://www.rappler.com/philippines/youth-groups-condemn-arrest-students-riots-september-21-2025/; and SAR AFMP, University of the Philippines, September 21, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-21-university-of-the-philippines/.

^[116] “Ateneo, AFP Renew Partnership Commitment,” Ateneo de Manila University, May 28, 2026, https://www.ateneo.edu/news/2025/09/30/ateneo-afp-renew-partnership-commitment; “UP and AFP ink Declaration of Cooperation,” University of the Philippines, August 13, 2024, https://up.edu.ph/up-and-afp-ink-declaration-of-cooperation/; and Cris Fernan Bayaga, “Students Denounce Campus Militarization,” Bulatlat, February 21, 2026, https://www.bulatlat.com/2026/02/21/students-denounce-campus-militarization/.

^[117] “University of the Philippines Students Protest Budget Cuts,” euronews, September 12, 2025, https://www.euronews.com/video/2025/09/12/university-of-the-philippines-students-protest-budget-cuts; Sam Beltran, “‘Chilling’ Corruption over Flood Projects in Philippines Fuels Campus Activism,” South China Morning Post, September 14, 2025, https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3325392/chilling-corruption-over-flood-projects-philippines-fuels-campus-activism; and Cristina Chi, “Youth-Led Protests Aim to Keep Pressure on Marcos as Corruption Scandal Drags On,” Philstar, October 17, 2025, https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/10/17/2480561/youth-led-protests-aim-keep-pressure-marcos-corruption-scandal-drags-on.

^[118] Arriane Dela Cruz, “Youth groups condemn arrest of students in September 21 riots,” Rappler, September 24, 2025, https://www.rappler.com/philippines/youth-groups-condemn-arrest-students-riots-september-21-2025/; and SAR AFMP, University of the Philippines, September 21, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-21-university-of-the-philippines/.

^[119] John Noel Herrera, “Police to Launch Bomb Threat Awareness Drive in City Schools – Philippine Information Agency,” Philippine Information Agency, November 24, 2025, https://pia.gov.ph/news/police-to-launch-bomb-threat-awareness-drive-in-city-schools/; and Vicensa Nonato, “At Least 17 Univ Campuses Receive Bomb Threats in October,” Philippine Collegian, November 18, 2025, https://phkule.org/article/1784/at-least-17-univ-campuses-receive-bomb-threats-in-october.

^[120] Emily Dixon, “Confront Russian Intelligence ‘Elephant in Room’, Academics Urged,” Times Higher Education, October 10, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/confront-russian-intelligence-elephant-room-academics-urged.

^[121] Emily Dixon, “Locked out of Archives, Scholars Forced to Study Russia from Afar,” Times Higher Education, November 6, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/locked-out-archives-scholars-forced-study-russia-afar; and Science News Staff, “Russian Scientists’ International Collaborations to Be Vetted by Security Services under New Law,” Science, July 17, 2025, https://www.science.org/content/article/russian-scientists-international-collaborations-be-vetted-security-services-under-new.

^[122] EFE, “Las Autoridades Rusas Promueven Alistamientos En Universidades E Institutos de Formación Profesional,” Diario ABC, March 4, 2026, https://www.abc.es/internacional/autoridades-rusas-promueven-alistamientos-universidades-institutos-formacion-20260304123327-vi.html; “Russian Universities Turned into Military Recruitment Centers amid Growing Militarization,” Mezha, January 23, 2026, https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/russian-universities-turned-into-military-recruitment-centers-amid-growing-militarization/.; and Nina Izmailova, “Putin’s War Has Birthed Quislings in Russia’s Ivory Towers,” University World News, March 11, 2026, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260310125210852.

^[123] Tom Masters, “Russia’s Education Ministry Sets 2% Quota for University Students to Fight in Ukraine,” Novaya Gazeta Europe, April 1, 2026, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/04/01/russia-s-education-ministry-sets-2-quota-for-university-students-to-fight-in-ukraine-en-news; Evgeny Duke, “How Russian Students Are Being Tricked into Serving in the UAV Forces,” Deutsche Welle, March 13, 2026, https://www.dw.com/ru/kak-studentov-v-rf-obmanom-zavlekaut-sluzit-v-vojskah-bpla/a-76354547; and “Russian State University for the Humanities Ordered to Recruit 200 Students for Drone Forces, Report Says,” UA Wire, March 15, 2026, https://www.uawire.org/russian-state-university-for-the-humanities-ordered-to-recruit-200-students-for-drone-forces-report-says.

^[124] Asya Lokina, “A Student Recruited by the Russian Ministry of Defense Has Died in Ukraine for the First Time.,” Deutsche Welle, May 12, 2026, https://www.dw.com/ru/na-vojne-v-ukraine-vpervye-pogib-student-zaverbovannyj-minoborony-rf/a-77135823; and Olga Ivshina, Anastasia Platonova, and Sophia Volyanova, “Russia looks to students to make up for mounting losses in Ukraine,” July 3, 2026, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8lnnr080go.

^[125] Molnia, “Russia’s Selective Openness Comes with Close Surveillance,” University World News, August 6, 2025, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20250804172833466.

^[126] SAR AFMP, Yale University, July 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-08-yale-university/; SAR AFMP, Tufts University, March 21, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-31-tufts-university/; SAR AFMP, Stanford University, April 10, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-10-stanford-university/; and Angelina Trefilova, “‘Admission Is Now a One-Way Ticket’: Kremlin Escalates Crackdown on Western Universities,” The Moscow Times, April 7, 2026, https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/07/admission-is-now-a-one-way-ticket-kremlin-escalates-crackdown-on-western-universities-amid-brain-drain-fears-a92377.

^[127] SAR AFMP, University of Regensburg, January 27, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-27-university-of-regensburg/.

^[128] SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, September 15, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-15-multiple-institutions/.

^[129] SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, November 11, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-11-multiple-institutions/.

^[130] SAR AFMP, Cheikh Anta Diop University, December 3, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-03-cheikh-anta-diop-university/.

^[131] SAR AFMP, Cheikh Anta Diop University, February 9, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-09-cheikh-anta-diop-university/.

^[132] “Senegalese Government Says Death of Student in Protests Is a ‘Tragedy,’” Africanews, February 11, 2026, https://www.africanews.com/2026/02/11/senegalese-government-says-death-of-student-in-protests-is-a-tragedy/; and Ngouda Dione and Diadie Ba, “Student Dies as Senegal University Protests over Finances Escalate,” Reuters, February 10, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/student-dies-senegal-university-protests-over-finances-escalate-2026-02-10/.

^[133] Jovana Gec, “Thousands Rally in Belgrade against Crackdown on Student-Led Protests,” AP News, January 28, 2026, https://apnews.com/article/serbia-protest-belgrade-students-d130989de248aa4a768cde2509d8b017; Katarina Baletic, “Mass Rallies, Marches and Roadblocks Dominate Serbia’s Streets in 2025,” Balkan Insight, December 22, 2025, https://balkaninsight.com/2025/12/22/mass-rallies-marches-and-roadblocks-dominate-serbias-streets-in-2025/bi/; and Sanja Kljajic, “Serbia: One Year after the Tragedy That Led to Mass Protests,” Deutsche Welle, October 31, 2025, https://www.dw.com/en/serbia-novi-sad-tragedy-one-year-anniversary-explained/a-74529170.

^[134] “STUDENTS given DEADLINE: Rector and Faculty Deans Set Date for Classes to Resume or Year Is Lost!,” Serbian Times, May 31, 2025, https://serbiantimes.info/en/students-given-deadline-rector-and-faculty-deans-set-date-for-classes-to-resume-or-year-is-lost/; “About Blockades,” Blokade.org, 2024, https://blokade.org/o-blokadama/; and Nikola Todorovic, “The new school year at Belgrade faculties STARTS ON MONDAY, professor from Law: “We have an announcement that everything will be fine”; One thing will not happen, here are all the details,” Blic, October 31, 2025, https://www.blic.rs/vesti/beograd/u-ponedeljak-pocinje-nova-skolska-godina-na-fakultetima-evo-kako-ce-izgledati/66kkg3e.

^[135] Emily Dixon, “UN Experts Urge End to Serbian ‘Crackdown’ on Student Protests,” Times Higher Education, August 4, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/un-experts-urge-end-serbian-crackdown-student-protests; and Željka Jevtić, “Retaliation against Universities: Threatened Autonomy of Higher Education,” NIN, September 10, 2025, https://www.nin.rs/english/news/88585/revenge-against-universities-autonomy-of-higher-education-under-threat.

^[136] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, March 15, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-03-15-multiple-institutions-2/; and Ashifa Kassam, “Calls grow in Serbia for investigation into claims ‘sound cannon’ targeted protesters,” The Guardian, March 21, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/21/calls-serbia-investigation-claims-sound-cannon-targeted-protesters.

^[137] SAR AFMP, State University of Novi Pazar, July 29, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-29-state-university-of-novi-pazar/; and SAR AFMP, Novi Sad State University, September 5, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-05-novi-sad-state-university/.

^[138] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, September 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-01-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[139] SAR AFMP, University of Belgrade, March 31, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-31-university-of-belgrade/.

^[140] Lela Vujanić, “Serbia’s Government Is Targeting the Public University,” Jacobin, April 11, 2026, https://jacobin.com/2026/04/serbia-university-belgrade-student-social-movements.

^[141] “After Arrests in Serbia, Students Demand Intervention from EU Institutions – Rks News,” Rks News, April 4, 2026, https://rks.news/after-arrests-in-serbia-students-demand-intervention-from-eu-institutions/; and “Rector Đokić: Stop the Arrest of Students and Release All Those Detained,” РТС News, April 3, 2026, https://www.rts.rs/vesti/drustvo/5919655/hapsenje-studenata-rektor-vladan-djokic.html.

^[142] Mićo Tatalović, “Serbian Academics Face Restrictions and Funding Cuts amid Ongoing Student Protests over Corruption,” Chemistry World, November 6, 2025, https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/serbias-researchers-still-at-loggerheads-with-government-one-year-into-mass-protests/4022441.article; Željka Jevtić, “Retaliation against Universities: Threatened Autonomy of Higher Education,” NIN, September 10, 2025, https://www.nin.rs/english/news/88585/revenge-against-universities-autonomy-of-higher-education-under-threat; Mićo Tatalović, “Serbia’s Academics Lose Jobs over Support for Student Pro-Democracy Movement,” Science Business, February 25, 2026, https://sciencebusiness.net/news/serbias-academics-lose-jobs-over-support-student-pro-democracy-movement; Mićo Tatalović, “Serbia’s National Research Fund ‘on Hiatus’ as Researchers Face Delays in Grant Evaluation,” Science Business, May 6, 2026, https://sciencebusiness.net/news/research-and-innovation-gap/serbias-national-research-fund-hiatus-researchers-face-delays; and European Parliament, “European Parliament resolution of 22 October 2025 on the polarisation and increased repression in Serbia, one year after the Novi Sad tragedy,” October 22, 2025, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2025-0248_EN.html.

^[143]  Mićo Tatalović, “Serbia’s Academics Lose Jobs over Support for Student Pro-Democracy Movement,” Science Business, February 25, 2026, https://sciencebusiness.net/news/serbias-academics-lose-jobs-over-support-student-pro-democracy-movement.

^[144] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, November 20, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-20-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[145] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, January 22, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-22-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[146] SAR AFMP, University of Belgrade, December 4, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-04-university-of-belgrade/.

^[147] Mićo Tatalović, “Serbia’s Academics Lose Jobs;” and “MEDICAL SCHOOL DEAN in BELGRADE REPLACED: Council Makes Decision, Students Claim Everything Was Done Illegally!,” Serbian Times, September 2, 2025, https://serbiantimes.info/en/medical-school-dean-in-belgrade-replaced-council-makes-decision-students-claim-everything-was-done-illegally/.

^[148] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, June 5, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-06-05-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[149] SAR AFMP, University of Novi Sad, February 4, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-04-university-of-novi-sad/.

^[150] SAR AFMP, Al Furat University, September 24, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-24-al-furat-university/.

^[151] “Syria: Freedom in the World 2025 Country Report,” Freedom House, 2025, https://freedomhouse.org/country/syria/freedom-world/2025; “Challenges to Higher Education in Syria in the Aftermath of Civil War,” Endangered Scholars Worldwide, January 24, 2025, https://www.endangeredscholarsworldwide.net/post/challenges-to-higher-education-in-syria-in-the-aftermath-of-civil-war; “World Report 2026: Rights Trends in Syria,” Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2026, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/syria; and Widyane Hamdach, “The Fall of Bashar Al-Assad: Winners, Losers, and Challenges Ahead,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, May 7, 2025, https://gjia.georgetown.edu/conflict-security/the-fall-of-bashar-al-assad-winners-losers-and-challenges-ahead/.

^[152] SAR AFMP, University of Aleppo, July 17, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-17-university-of-aleppo/.

^[153] “Schools, Institutions Closed in Syria’s Aleppo as Clashes Persist | International,” BSS News, January 7, 2026, https://www.bssnews.net/international/348815.

^[154] SAR AFMP, Damascus University, October 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-12-damascus-university/.

^[155] “World Report 2026: Rights Trends in Syria,” Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2026, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/syria.

^[156] SAR AFMP, University of Aleppo, December 27, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-27-university-of-aleppo/.

^[157] SAR AFMP, Unaffiliated, February 16, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-16-unaffiliated/.

^[158] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, July 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-01-multiple-institutions/.

^[159] Sophie Hogan, “New Turkish Rector Law ‘at Odds with European Standards’ – Research Professional News,” Research Professional News, August 1, 2025, https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-europe-politics-2025-8-new-turkish-rector-law-at-odds-with-european-standards/.

^[160] Euphrates Pistachio, “At Least 251 Human Rights Violations Occurred in Universities in One Year.,” Medyascope, March 3, 2026, https://medyascope.tv/2026/03/03/universitelerde-son-bir-yilda-en-az-251-hak-ihlali-yasand/.

^[161] SAR AFMP, Istanbul Bilgi University, May 21, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-21-istanbul-bilgi-university/.

^[162] Newsroom, “Istanbul Bilgi University reopens after presidential shutdown linked to fraud case,” Turkiye Today, May 25, 2026, https://www.turkiyetoday.com/nation/istanbul-bilgi-university-reopens-after-presidential-shutdown-linked-to-fraud-case-3220611.

^[163] Jim Egan, Turkey, Digital News Report 2026, June 16, 2026, Reuters Institute, https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026/turkey.

^[164] “Turkish Academic Gülsunar Released after 36 Days in Detention over Political Poll,” MLSA Turkey, November 18, 2025, https://www.mlsaturkey.com/en/turkish-academic-gulsunar-released-after-36-days-in-detention-over-political-poll.

^[165] Fırat Fıstık, “Boğaziçi University protests enter their 5th year: Countless human rights violations, investigations, and dismissals,” Medyascope, January 5, 2026, https://medyascope.tv/2026/01/05/bogazici-universitesi-protestolari-5-yilinda-sayisiz-hak-ihlali-sorusturmalar-ve-isten-cikarmalar/.

^[166] John Paul Rathbone, “The Culture War Roiling One of Turkey’s Top Universities,” Financial Times, August 15, 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/2a40aad8-03d3-4c86-9576-bfd5629db2c6?syn-25a6b1a6=1.

^[167] “President Erdoğan: Universities are not a liberated zone for marginal ideologies.,” BBC News Türkçe, February 13, 2026, https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/c4g4x3nzr51o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss; and SAR AFMP,  Boğaziçi University, February 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-13-bogazici-university/.

^[168] SAR AFMP, Istanbul University, January 9, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-09-istanbul-university/.

^[169] SAR AFMP, Anadolu University, November 21, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-21-anadolu-university/.

^[170] SAR AFMP, Ege University, April 14, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-14-ege-university/.

^[171] Iryna Sysak, “Over 400 educational institutions destroyed in Ukraine due to war – Lisovyi,” Radio Svoboda, May 30, 2026, https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/ponad-400-zakladiv-osvity-zruynovano-v-ukrayini-cherez-viynu/33768484.html; SAR AFMP, National University Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic, July 7, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-07-national-university-zaporizhzhia-polytechnic/; SAR AFMP, Lviv Polytechnic National University, July 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-12-lviv-polytechnic-national-university/; SAR AFMP, Volodymyr Vynnychenko Central Ukrainian State University, July 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-28-volodymyr-vynnychenko-central-ukrainian-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Sumy State University, August 18, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-18-sumy-state-university/; SAR AFMP, National University of Pharmacy, September 16, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-16-national-university-of-pharmacy/; SAR AFMP, Kyiv National Aviation University, December 27, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-27-kyiv-national-aviation-university/; SAR AFMP, Kherson State University, January 12, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-12-kherson-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University, January 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-13-volodymyr-dahl-east-ukrainian-national-university/; SAR AFMP, Lviv Polytechnic University, January 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-15-lviv-polytechnic-university/; SAR AFMP, Kherson State University, February 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-17-kherson-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Kharkiv National University of Arts, March 1, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-01-kharkiv-national-university-of-arts/; SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, April 15, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-15-multiple-institutions/;  SAR AFMP, National Aerospace University Kharkiv, April 6, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-06-national-aerospace-university-kharkiv/; SAR AFMP, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, May 3, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-03-oles-honchar-dnipro-national-university/; SAR AFMP, King Danylo University, May 13, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-13-king-danylo-university/; SAR AFMP, Kyiv School of Economics, May 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-24-kyiv-school-of-economics/; and SAR AFMP, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, May 24, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-05-24-national-academy-of-sciences-of-ukraine/.

^[172] Andrew Misura, “Ukrainian Higher Education: A Story of Loss and Adaptation,” University World News, January 7, 2026, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202601071317382; and Patrick Jack, “Lessons from Ukraine: ‘No Manual for War but It Pays to Prepare,’” Times Higher Education, October 31, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/lessons-ukraine-no-manual-war-it-pays-prepare.

^[173] Samuel Gelinas, “Ukrainians Reflect on War 4 Years On,” Greenfield Recorder, March 5, 2026, https://recorder.com/2026/03/05/resilience-ukraine-education-amid-war/.

^[174] Patrick Jack, “Lessons from Ukraine: ‘No Manual for War but It Pays to Prepare,’” Times Higher Education, October 31, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/lessons-ukraine-no-manual-war-it-pays-prepare.

^[175]Andrew Misura, “Ukrainian Higher Education: A Story of Loss and Adaptation,” University World News, January 7, 2026, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=202601071317382; and Patrick Jack, “Lessons from Ukraine: ‘No Manual for War but It Pays to Prepare,’” Times Higher Education, October 31, 2025, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/lessons-ukraine-no-manual-war-it-pays-prepare.

^[176] Rachel Brazil, “Universities in Exile: Displaced Scholars Count the Costs of Starting Afresh,” Nature, February 6, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-04160-8.

^[177] Beth Kennedy, “Ukraine’s International Education Sector Not Beaten by War,” The PIE News, November 4, 2025, https://thepienews.com/ukraines-international-education-sector-not-beaten-by-war/; Nicholas A Christakis, “I Traveled to Ukraine to Teach Sociology. It Left Me Amazed.,” The Washington Post, March 16, 2026, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/03/14/ukraine-war-kyiv-students-sociology/; and Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, “How Four Years of War Have Changed KPI,” QS Global Education News, March 18, 2026, https://qs-gen.com/how-four-years-of-war-have-changed-kpi/.

^[178] Dylan Ruediger, Chelsea McCracken, and Jonathan Barefield, The Impact of State and Federal Policies on Academic Researchers: Findings from a National Survey, Ithaka S+R, https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/the-impact-of-state-and-federal-policies-on-academic-researchers/.

^[179] See for example, the Middle East Studies Association. Employment Retaliation Database. Academic Freedom Initiative. https://afi.mesana.org/data-insight/employment-retaliation-database/; and Ellie Davis, Gavin Escott, and Claire Murphy, September 22, 2025, “Employees and Students at These Colleges Have Been Punished for Comments on Charlie Kirk’s Death,” Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/employees-and-students-at-these-colleges-have-been-punished-for-comments-on-charlie-kirks-death.

^[180] Alan Blinder, “Penn Agrees to Limit Participation of Transgender Athletes,” The New York Times, July 1, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/us/penn-title-ix-transgender-swimmer-trump.html.

^[181] Sharon Otterman, “Columbia’s Deal With Trump: What We Know,” The New York Times, July 23, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/nyregion/columbia-trump-settlement-what-to-know.html.

^[182] Associated Press, Brown University strikes agreement with White House to restore lost federal funding, NPR, July 31, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/31/nx-s1-5486581/brown-university-agreement-restore-federal-funding.

^[183] Michael C. Bender and Michael S. Schmidt, “University of Virginia Makes Deal With White House to Halt Investigations,” New York Times, October 22, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/university-of-virginia-trump-agreement.html.

^[184] Stephanie Saul and Alan Blinder, “Cornell Reaches Deal With Trump Administration to Restore Research Funds,” New York Times, November 7, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/cornell-deal-trump-administration.html.

^[185] Michael C. Bender, “Northwestern Agrees to a Deal With Trump Administration,” New York Times, November 28, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/us/politics/northwestern-deal-trump-administration.html.

^[186] Susan Svrluga, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Emily Davies, “Colleges weigh whether to sign on to Trump plan or forgo federal benefits,” New York Times, October 3, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/03/trump-administration-college-funding-compact/.

^[187] Tyler Evans, Alex Wolf, Patrick F. Linehan, Karima Maloney, Dwight J. Draughon, Shontel Stewart, and Drew Padley, November 12, 2025. Update on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, Steptoe. https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/update-on-the-compact-for-academic-excellence-in-higher-education.html.

^[188] Ryan Quinn, “White House Aims to Establish Political Oversight of Federal Grants,” Inside Higher Ed, May 29, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2026/05/29/omb-proposes-rules-establishing-political.

^[189] SAR AFMP, Multiple Institutions, February 27, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-27-multiple-institutions/.

^[190] Amanda Fuchs Miller, “The Ed Department Is Weaponizing FERPA to Restrict Student Voting,” Inside Higher Ed, February 20, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2026/02/20/ed-department-weaponizes-ferpa-restrict-voting-opinion.

^[191] Faculty tenure is a significant procedural safeguard for academic freedom and the production of public-facing knowledge, as it protects scholars pursuing new, innovative and potentially sensitive or controversial ideas from retaliation and loss of position. While state education officials may have the authority to revise tenure policies, they should do so in wide consultation with the higher education community, and they have an obligation to ensure that any revisions do not erode protections for academic freedom.

^[192] PEN America, “Expanding the Web of Control: America’s Censored Campuses 2025,” January 15, 2026, https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-campuses-25-web-of-control/.

^[193] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, April 16, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-16-multiple-institutions/.

^[194] SAR AFMP, Oklahoma Public Higher Education System, February 5, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-05-oklahoma-public-higher-education-system/.

^[195] SAR AFMP, multiple Institutions, June 20, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-06-20-multiple-institutions-2/.

^[196] Madison Weiss and Sara Partridge, “How University Governing Boards Can Protect the Independence of Colleges and Universities,” Center for American Progress, December 1, 2025, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-university-governing-boards-can-protect-the-independence-of-colleges-and-universities/.

^[197] Kathryn Palmer, “Florida Introduces ‘Sanitized’ Sociology Textbook,” Inside Higher Ed, January 29, 2026. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/01/29/florida-introduces-sanitized-sociology-textbook. Earlier, in October 2025, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas informed one of the sociologists, a professor at Florida SouthWestern State College (FSW), of his immediate removal from the statewide working group, accusing him of promoting “gender ideology” in his courses. SAR AFMP, Florida SouthWestern State College, October 30, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-30-florida-southwestern-state-college/.

^[198] Mary Lett, “Florida public university students no longer required to take sociology,” Tallahassee Democrat, March 26, 2026, https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/education/2026/03/26/florida-universities-remove-sociology-as-required-college-course/89329060007/.

^[199] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University, December 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-01-texas-tech-university/; SAR AFMP, Texas A&M University, November 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-13-texas-am-university/; and Texas A&M University Division of Marketing and Communications, Texas A&M University completes Spring 2026 course review to support academic integrity, January 30, 2026, https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2026/01/30/texas-am-university-completes-spring-2026-course-review-to-support-academic-integrity.

^[200] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University. April 9, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-04-09-texas-tech-university/.

^[201] AAUP, Against Anticipatory Obedience, January 2025, https://www.aaup.org/reports-publications/aaup-
policies-reports/policy-statements/against-anticipatory-obedience.

^[202] SAR AFMP, Texas A&M University, November 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-13-texas-am-university/.

^[203] Emma Whitford, “UNC Chancellor Scraps Secret Recording Policy,” Inside Higher Ed, March 2, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/03/02/unc-chancellor-scraps-secret-recording-policy.

^[204] SAR AFMP, Texas A&M University, September 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-08-texas-am-university/; Emma Whitford, “N.C. Community College Fires Professor for Kirk Comments,” Inside Higher Ed, February 24, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/02/24/nc-community-college-fires-professor-kirk-comments; and Robert Kuwada, “Fresno State lecturer, on leave for comments on Charlie Kirk, back in classroom,” Fresno Bee, January 21. 2026, https://www.fresnobee.com/news/article314393798.htm.

^[205] SAR AFMP, Rutgers University, October 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-08-rutgers-university/.

^[206] SAR AFMP, Utah Valley University, September 10, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-10-utah-valley-university/.

^[207] Stephanie Saul, “The Firing of Educators Over Kirk Comments Follows a Familiar Playbook,” New York Times, September 22, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/us/firing-educators-kirk-free-speech.html. Through its Academic Freedom Monitoring Project SAR reported on the following cases: SAR AFMP, Florida Atlantic University, September 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-13-florida-atlantic-university/; SAR AFMP, University of South Dakota, September 13, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-13-university-of-south-dakota/; SAR AFMP, Austin Peay State University, September 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-austin-peay-state-university/; SAR AFMP, Cumberland University, September 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-cumberland-university/; SAR AFMP, Emory University, September 18, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-18-emory-university/; SAR AFMP, Rider University, September 17, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-17-rider-university/; and SAR AFMP. Clemson University, September 16, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-16-clemson-university/.

^[208] Aisha Baiocchi, “Colleges Have Paid Nearly $3 Million to Employees Fired for Comments About Charlie Kirk,” Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2026, https://www.chronicle.com/article/colleges-have-paid-nearly-3-million-to-employees-fired-for-comments-about-charlie-kirk.

^[209] SAR AFMP, University of Arkansas, January 17, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-17-university-of-arkansas/; and SAR AFMP, University of Oklahoma, December 22, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-22-university-of-oklahoma/.

^[210] SAR AFMP, Texas Tech University, January 23, 2026,  https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-23-texas-tech-university/.

^[211] SAR AFMP, University of Alabama, December 1, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-12-01-university-of-alabama/.

^[212] SAR AFMP, Utah System of Higher Education, January 30, 2024, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2024-01-30-utah-system-of-higher-education/.

^[213] SAR AFMP, Weber State University, November 20, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-20-weber-state-university/; and SAR AFMP, Weber State University, September 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-28-weber-state-university/.

^[214] US Department of State, Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States, Updated February 2, 2026, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/suspension-of-visa-issuance-to-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-security-of-the-united-states.html.

^[215] Kat Lonsdorf, “U.S. will review social media for foreign student visa applications,” NPR, June 19, 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/06/19/g-s1-73572/us-resumes-visas-foreign-students-access-social-media.

^[216] Johanna Alonso and Katherine Knott, “New Student Visas Dropped 35.6% Last Summer,” Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2026, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2026/03/10/new-student-visas-dropped-356-last-summer.

^[217] Rebecca Trager, “Texas and Florida’s suspension of new H-1B visas will hit science hard at public universities,” Chemistry World, March 12, 2026, https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/two-us-states-warned-suspension-of-new-tech-visas-for-universities-will-hurt-science/4023109.article.

^[218] Brooklyn Draisey, “Senate panels advance bill to restrict noncitizen hiring at state universities,” Iowa Capital Dispatch, March 11, 2026. https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2026/03/11/senate-panels-advance-bill-to-restrict-noncitizen-hiring-at-state-universities/.

^[219] SAR AFMP, University of Oklahoma, November 22, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-11-22-university-of-oklahoma/.

^[220] SAR AFMP, Columbia University, February 26, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-02-26-columbia-university/.

^[221] Dionne Searcey, “Church and College Leaders Work to Free a Detained Afghan Student,” New York Times, November 16, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/nyregion/afghan-asylum-immigration-bard-trump.html.

^[222] Andrew Weber, “ICE said it made a ‘mistake’ deporting a 19-year-old, Austin-raised college student,” KUT News, January 16, 2026, https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2026-01-16/austin-tx-any-lopez-belloza-ice-immigration-enforcement-boston-student-deported.

^[223] Katherine Dailey, “Cleary University student-athlete from Venezuela detained by ICE in Lincoln Park,” Michigan Advance, May 29, 2026, https://michiganadvance.com/2026/05/29/cleary-university-student-athlete-from-venezuela-detained-by-ice-in-lincoln-park/.

^[224] Helen Packer, “‘Profound Political Change’ Needed to Revive Venezuelan Science,” Times Higher Education, January 7, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/profound-political-change-needed-revive-venezuelan-science; “The Full Collapse of Venezuelan Academia,” Caracas Chronicles, October 1, 2025, https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2025/10/01/the-full-collapse-of-venezuelan-academia/; Julian E Barnes, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt, “Inside ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ the U.S. Effort to Capture Maduro,” New York Times, January 3, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/us/politics/trump-capture-maduro-venezuela.html; and Ryan Goodman, “Maduro Capture Operation and the President’s Duty to Faithfully Execute U.N. Charter,” Just Security, January 3, 2026, https://www.justsecurity.org/127962/maduro-capture-operation-and-presidents-duty-to-faithfully-execute-un-charter/.

^[225] Helen Packer, “‘Profound Political Change’ Needed to Revive Venezuelan Science,” Times Higher Education, January 7, 2026, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/profound-political-change-needed-revive-venezuelan-science; and “Violations of University Autonomy Increased by More than 300% in July,” El Nacional, August 20, 2025, https://www.elnacional.com/2025/08/violacion-a-la-autonomia-universitaria-aumento-mas-de-300/.

^[226] Helen Packer, “‘Profound Political Change’ Needed”.

^[227] SAR AFMP, Valle del Momboy University, September 28, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-28-valle-del-momboy-university/; SAR AFMP, Universidad de los Andes, October 20, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-20-universidad-de-los-andes/; SAR AFMP, Universidad de los Andes, August 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-31-universidad-de-los-andes/; and SAR AFMP, Fermin Toro University, September 12, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-09-12-fermin-toro-university/.

^[228] SAR AFMP, Central University of Venezuela, July 18, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-07-18-central-university-of-venezuela/; and SAR AFMP, Central University of Venezuela, October 24, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-24-central-university-of-venezuela/.

^[229]  SAR AFMP, Central University of Venezuela, October 31, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-10-31-central-university-of-venezuela/.

^[230] SAR AFMP, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, January 3, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-01-03-venezuelan-institute-for-scientific-research/.

^[231] “Venezuelan Students Demand the Release of Political Prisoners in Multiple Cities,” Confidencial 30, February 12, 2026, https://confidencial.digital/mundo/estudiantes-venezolanos-exigen-liberacion-de-presos-politicos-en-multiples-ciudades; “Venezuela: University Students Lead First Opposition Protest in the Post-Maduro Era,” La Nacion, January 23, 2026, https://www.lanacion.com.ar/agencias/venezuela-los-universitarios-en-primera-protesta-opositora-de-era-post-maduro-nid23012026/; and “Empty Classrooms and Protests: University Strike in Venezuela Was 90% Effective,” El Nacional, April 23, 2026, https://www.elnacional.com/2026/04/paro-universitario-en-venezuela-se-cumplio-en-90/.

^[232] Clemence Manyukwe, “Fear Grips Students amid Signs of Intensifying Repression,” University World News, March 31, 2026, https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260330205612676; and Tiana Nowzari, “Zimbabwe Students Detained for Protesting Proposed Constitutional Amendment,” Jurist, April 28, 2026, https://www.jurist.org/news/2026/04/zimbabwe-students-detained-for-protesting-proposed-constitutional-amendment-report/

^[233] SAR AFMP, Midlands State University, August 8, 2025, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2025-08-08-midlands-state-university/.

^[234] SAR AFMP, Chinhoyi University of Technology, March 21, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-21-chinhoyi-university-of-technology/; SAR AFMP, Bindura University of Science Education, March 30, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-30-bindura-university-of-science-education/; and SAR AFMP, Bulawayo Polytechnic, March 30, 2026, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/report/2026-03-30-bulawayo-polytechnic/.

Attacks on higher education are a global phenomenon, occurring in democratic and autocratic states and in all regions. They warrant a global response.

The right of scholars and students to research, teach, learn, and speak freely is under global threat. As described in this report, governments, security forces, and individuals carried out 382 attacks against higher education between July 2025 and June 2026. Gunmen attempted or succeeded with assassinations of scholars and researchers in Pakistan, Guatemala, and Syria, targeting their scholarship or higher education-related work. Unknown individuals abducted or forcibly disappeared students in Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and Venezuela in retaliation for their exercise of their rights to free expression and association. Security forces arrested faculty members or students in Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Tanzania. Higher education institutions in Serbia, India, Indonesia, the United States, and Canada dismissed or suspended students for their academic, extramural, or political expression. Governments used their legislative, regulatory, and policymaking powers to constrain universities’ curricula or administrative decisions.

Government interference in higher education posed a concerning threat to academic freedom, as in cases in the United States, where state governments passed legislation that weakened tenure and shared faculty governance or restricted teaching; or India, where the government of Jammu and Kashmir banned the sale, distribution, and possession of 25 books addressing Kashmir’s sociopolitical history. Actions like these are particularly threatening because they provide a new model for the relationship between states and educational institutions that prioritizes ideological compliance over independent thought.

Despite these threats, multilateral institutions and international civil society are making progress cementing protections for academic freedom. The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on the right to education (A/HRC/59/L.11), adopted on July 7, 2025, recognized academic freedom as a key dimension of the right to education and noted with appreciation the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom. The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on the freedom of opinion and expression (A/HRC/62/L.12/Rev.1), adopted on July 6, 2026, recognized the connection between freedom of opinion and expression and academic freedom; acknowledged the “essential role” of academic communities (together with journalists, human rights defenders, and other civil society actors) in promoting and protecting the right to freedom of opinion and expression; expressed alarm at increasing attacks against scholars, academics, and students, among other civil society actors; and expressed concern about “laws criminalizing or otherwise limiting legitimate academic inquiry or teaching.”

We must build on this work to strengthen global, regional, national, and local protections for academic freedom and ensure that external interference in higher education does not become the norm. As articulated in the Principles, protecting higher education is a shared responsibility. State authorities, higher education institutions, civil society, and the broader public can take the following actions to protect higher education.

State authorities have the primary responsibility to protect scholars and students who face immediate risks and to refrain from political interference in the higher education sector. This includes:

• Expressing concern about attacks on higher education communities; publicly acknowledging the crucial importance of academic freedom to social and scientific progress, democratic advancement, and international cooperation; and recognizing a right to academic freedom grounded in existing international human rights standards. This includes endorsing the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom and the Safe Schools Declaration.
• Establishing mechanisms to support at-risk or displaced scholars and students. This includes programs to offer funding to scholars and students to continue their academic work in safety.
• Investigating attacks on higher education, making every effort to hold perpetrators accountable, and ensuring the security of all members of the community.
• Respecting university autonomy by ensuring the security and integrity of the university while refraining from militarization, surveillance, financial penalties, interference with hiring and admissions, and interference in the methods or content of teaching or research.
• Reviewing laws that have been used to prosecute wrongfully scholars and students, and amending or repealing them as necessary to ensure that scholars and students can think, question, and share ideas without fear of retribution.
• Adopting immigration policies that fully protect the right to academic travel by facilitating entry and exit from countries for academic purposes.
• Ensuring that security forces respond to student expression and protest activities in an appropriate and proportional manner, focused on de-escalation and consistent with recognized international human rights standards.

Higher education institutions must act as the frontline defenders of higher education and promote a broad public understanding that academic freedom and university autonomy are essential if universities are to provide a space for students, scholars, and others to learn, ask difficult questions, produce knowledge, and share ideas with their peers and the public. This includes:

• Pressing state authorities for greater protection for the higher education community and accountability for perpetrators of attacks on higher education.
• Strengthening shared governance and ensuring that administrative and curricular decisions are based on academic standards rather than political or donor pressure.
• Defending academic freedom and the free expression rights of members of the higher education community, including by ensuring faculty and students due process in all disciplinary proceedings.
• Committing to respecting the campus space, both physical and virtual, as a safe, free arena where ideas can be expressed and debated without fear of physical harm or undue restriction. This includes the right of students to engage in expressive activity, on or off campus, in a manner that is consistent with higher education values and human rights principles.
• Supporting scholars impacted by attacks by offering positions of academic refuge to these individuals through Scholars at Risk, the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF), PAUSE, the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, and other similar endeavors.

Civil society and the general public must act in solidarity with scholars, students, and other higher education actors by building coalitions, sharing information, and creating joint strategies. Resisting the isolation, division, and fear from attacks on higher education is only possible through collaborative action. This includes:

• Funding and expanding local coalition—including the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas, the Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom, and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom—to facilitate implementation of regional protection principles, monitoring, and legal support.
• Normalizing support models used by organizations like the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science by offering displaced scholars free memberships, mentorship, and speaking platforms.
• Awareness-raising by sharing Free to Think 2026, using the hashtags #AcademicFreedom and #Free2Think2026 in their posts, following @ScholarsAtRisk on Twitter and Facebook, and reposting SAR’s social media posts.

The below table includes 382 attacks arising from 321 verified incidents in 59 countries and territories, as reported by Scholars at Risk’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. Note that the total number of attacks exceeds the total number of incidents reported because one incident may involve more than one type of conduct.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) gratefully acknowledges the members of higher education communities worldwide who have inspired us through their courage and dedication. We acknowledge especially the researchers contributing to the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project by reporting and analyzing incidents, and helping to develop advocacy responses, and to everyone who provided information, drafted text, and offered important feedback on the countries highlighted in Free to Think 2026. We thank the Office of the Provost and New York University for hosting SAR, Maynooth University, Ireland, for hosting SAR Europe, and the many other member institutions, associations, partners, and individuals that contribute to our work beyond the monitoring project. These include the Mellon Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Endeavor Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Demoret Foundation, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Teagle Foundation, the Vivian G. Prins Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Winston Foundation, our anonymous donors, the members of SAR’s Board and Ambassadors Council, and the many friends of SAR who help us each day to protect more scholars.

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

The report graphics and layout were designed by Susannah Hainley.

The report was copy edited by Stephen Laifer.

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

Cover/Hero Image: Serbian riot police assemble outside the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law building where student demonstrators took shelter on May 23, 2026 following a police crackdown.

Photo: Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images