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Academic freedom is a universal right and fundamental for quality higher education and scientific progress. "There are many self-commitments by states and institutions to uphold and safeguard academic freedom, yet the Academic Freedom Index demonstrates that universities are under pressure in many countries around the world," said Katrin Kinzelbach from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). "Of course, there are major differences between countries, but overall we found that only about 20 percent of the world's population lives in countries where academic freedom is well protected."
The Academic Freedom Index (AFi) is the result of a collaboration between researchers in Germany and Sweden, as well as more than 2000 country experts from around the world. "The Academic Freedom Index 2020 covers 175 countries and territories worldwide, which is up from 144 countries in 2019. In a highly collaborative effort, scholars from around the world have assessed an important precondition for their own work: the freedom indispensable for scientific inquiry," explained Staffan I. Lindberg from the V-Dem Institute in Gothenburg. The expert coded data get aggregated using a custom-built Bayesian measurement model.