Academic freedom is a fundamental principle of any university and research system or institution, and is essential for a healthy democracy. The concept can be traced back to the birth of the Humboldtian research university model in Germany in the early 1800s. Despite international declarations and constitutional and legal protections, in recent years there has been renewed interest in academic freedom around the world owing to major challenges and threats from governments, industry and civil society. This study complements existing efforts to monitor academic freedom, by screening and assessing possible policy options to strengthen and improve implementation of Recital 72 in Horizon Europe, identifying opportunities and bottlenecks and proposing applicable solutions.
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Table of Contents
- Cover_forPMEU 1
- EPRS_STOA_STUD_757804_HorizonEurope-AF_main 3
- 1. Introduction 9
- 1.1. Background 10
- 1.2. State of play 11
- 1.3. Concept, meaning and related notions 17
- Figure 1 - The Onion model of academic freedom 20
- 1.4. Recent concerns 23
- Figure 2 – Decline in the respect for academic freedom 24
- 1.5. Academic freedom in the European policy context 25
- 1.6. The goal and the structure of the study 28
- 2. Methodology 29
- 2.1. Analytical framework 29
- Figure 3 - Political repression in the university sector 32
- 2.2. Methodological assessment 32
- 2.3. Data collection design 33
- 2.4. Target identification 34
- Table 1 - Interviewees' selection criteria 34
- Table 2 - Interviewees' contact and feedback 35
- Table 3 - Final list of interviewees 35
- 3. Results and discussion 37
- 3.1. Evidence from the interviews 37
- 3.1.1. Definitions and dimensions 37
- 3.1.2. Risk sources 38
- 3.1.3. Policy options 44
- Table 4 - Overview of the policy options to act on academic freedom within the HEU Programme 45
- 3.2. The perspective of the European Commission 49
- 4. Concluding remarks 54
- References 56
- Blank Page 2
