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Academic freedom faces systematic assault worldwide. From arrests and imprisonment in authoritarian states to witch-hunts and curriculum censorship in democracies, the fundamental right to pursue knowledge freely is under threat across all contexts.

Against this backdrop, education unionists, academics, and experts gathered in London on 15 October for an international conference on academic freedom, co-hosted by Education International (EI) and its member organisation, the University and College Union (UCU). The event brought together union leaders and researchers from the Philippines, Kenya, Türkiye, Norway, the United States, and beyond to confront urgent challenges and strengthen collective strategies to protect academic freedom globally.

The stakes: defending truth and democracy

Opening the conference, EI Deputy General Secretary Haldis Holst outlined the scope of threats facing 33 million education professionals worldwide. She explained that political interference is silencing critical voices, marketisation is subordinating inquiry to profit, tenure systems are eroding, shared governance is being undermined, and intentional defunding is designed to weaken institutional independence.

"What is at stake is not just the freedom of individual academics; it is the very capacity of higher education and research to serve as a force for positive change in society," Holst stated. "We are defending the pursuit of truth and the very ideals that sustain democratic societies."

Academic fields addressing pressing societal challenges, including humanities, social sciences, gender studies, climate science, and postcolonial scholarship, face disproportionate targeting, she noted. Research is being systematically redirected from inquiry-driven exploration towards innovation serving narrowly defined economic interests, Holst explained. Conservative and religious organisations increasingly scrutinise, discipline, and suppress scholars whose work challenges prevailing narratives.

She went on to describe how the attacks vary by context. In authoritarian regimes, academics face arrests and imprisonment. In democracies, they confront witch hunts and defamatory campaigns. Precarious contracts create workforces too vulnerable to challenge power. The consequences are devastating, from harassment and dismissal to the loss of entire academic careers.

Opportunities for collective action

Despite these challenges, Holst highlighted significant opportunities for advancing protections. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education has endorsed the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom, which EI helped develop with UN experts, scholars, and civil society actors.

Holst went on to explain that several of the UN recommendations on the Teaching Profession recognise and reaffirm the importance of academic freedom, providing a powerful opportunity to hold governments and employers accountable for ensuring its protection. Moreover, the recent Santiago Consensus, adopted at the World Summit on Teachers, called for the adoption and implementation of these recommendations.

A critical milestone lies ahead, Holst emphasised: the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel will be amended and updated. This negotiation represents a pivotal moment for education unions to ensure stronger, clearer language affirming academic freedom as a fundamental professional right for all academics. EI is leading preparations for this process, having established a high-level task force and commissioned research led by Professor Howard Stevenson from the University of Nottingham. The study, entitled "In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises," analyses key sector trends and union perspectives on the Recommendation's relevance and use.

Holst concluded by reminding that EI's flagship Go Public! Fund Education campaign provides a strong platform to advance these goals.

UK higher education in crisis

UCU General Secretary Jo Grady grounded these global trends in the stark reality facing UK higher education: 5,000 redundancies, 4,000 course closures, and academics investigated and persecuted for expressing solidarity with or teaching about Gaza.

"Freedom to teach, research, and speak truth to power is core to democracy," Grady stated. "Managerialism, marketisation, casualisation—these aren't separate issues. They're all attacks on academic freedom."

Global threats, local consequences

In his keynote address, Robert Quinn, Executive Director of Scholars at Risk Network, outlined key global threats: legal restrictions on teaching race, gender, and colonialism; government interference in university governance; declining tenure protections; and harassment of academics working on politically sensitive issues. He underlined the critical role of unions and the need for the sector to raise awareness about the importance of academic freedom and its close connection to defending democracy.

Quinn argued that the ‘crisis moment’ confronting the sector presents an opportunity to mobilise public support, and to broaden networks and alliances.

Throughout the day, union leaders shared firsthand accounts of escalating repression and union responses:

Dr Todd Wolfson, President of the American Association of University Professors and Vice-President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), described how the Trump administration is weaponising funding cuts and political interference to control knowledge production. The AFT, representing 1.8 million members, is mobilising through litigation, campaigns against Project 2025's assault on public higher education, and defence of academics targeted for their research. The union has launched a petition calling for Congress to protect higher education from political interference, restore federal research funding, and safeguard student aid programmes. "Academic freedom is not just about the rights of individual professors — it is about the right of societies to access independent knowledge and research," Wolfson stated.

Carl Marc Ramota, from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in the Philippines, detailed attempts to criminalise faculty members and undermine institutional autonomy under authoritarian pressure. He emphasized the effectiveness of establishing committees to promote Academic Freedom and Human Rights on campuses.

Evrim Gülez, from Eğitim-Sen in Türkiye, highlighted state repression silencing critical scholarship and targeting educators for political persecution. In this context, the union has been providing legal and material support for targeted academics and has established a solidarity fund for those dismissed from their universities.

Marketisation and managerialism

The afternoon session explored how marketisation and managerialism erode academic freedom through funding models, casualisation, and performance management systems. Jorunn Dahl Norgård from the Norwegian Association of Researchers, shared the efforts of Nordic unions to document the state of academic freedom in their countries and ongoing advocacy to strengthen protections, whether through legislation, as in Iceland, or constitutional provisions, as in Sweden and Norway.

Grace Nyongesa, national Chairperson of Kenya's Universities' Academic Staff Union, shared developments concerning the growing reliance on part-time lecturers and attempts to privatise the higher education system - attempts the union successfully resisted by rallying behind the Go Public! Fund Education campaign. Pr Terrence Karran and Dr Chavan Kissoon from the University of Lincoln discussed research findings from a study commissioned by the UCU on the impact of increased digital monitoring of academic performance in the UK.

The role of education unions

A central theme throughout the conference was the critical role of education unions in defending academic freedom as a fundamental professional right. When 33 million education professionals across 180 countries organise collectively through Education International, isolated acts of repression become international scandals and structural reforms become negotiable. EI leverages international frameworks—UNESCO recommendations, UN principles—to hold governments and employers accountable.

The conference builds on momentum from EI's earlier gathering in Calgary with the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and coincides with a parallel conference in Kerala, India, addressing academic freedom challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.

Go Public! Building solidarity

The conference concluded with participants breaking into working groups to develop concrete strategies for protecting and advancing academic freedom at local, national, and international levels.

Through global solidarity and collective organising, education unions are building the power needed to defend the pursuit of truth and the democratic ideals that sustain free societies.

To learn more about EI's work in the higher education and research sector, please go here.

To support the AFT's campaign to protect US higher education, please visit: actionnetwork.org/petitions/trump-higher-ed-compact-2025.