Academic Freedom as a Human Right
Academic Freedom in Europe
New attempts by the U.S. administration to tie federal funding to an ideologically driven “Compact for Academic Excellence” have sent shockwaves through universities, raising alarms about political steering of curricula and governance. These developments are not isolated: they echo tactics increasingly used worldwide, including within the EU, where subtle regulatory and financial pressures are reshaping the academic landscape. To counter this erosion, the EU must treat academic freedom not as a sectoral issue, but as a fundamental right under Article 13 CFR, embedding clear guardrails in governance, funding, and legal protection.
Threats to academic freedom
New attempts by the US administration to tie preferential federal funding to an ideologically motivated “Compact for Academic Excellence” have jolted universities and prompted warnings about direct political steering of curricula, governance and campus speech. Whatever one makes of these proposals on their own terms, they are a vivid reminder for Europe that academic freedom is rarely lost in a single dramatic moment; it is eroded by the steady accumulation of incentives, conditions and governance tweaks.
The US is not an outlier. The government’s actions mirror the type of legal and administrative pressures faced by academia in many countries, including within the EU. This pressure also cannot be viewed in isolation from widespread threats to democratic institutions and civil society and increasing efforts to silence voices that do not align with government narratives.
Politically driven closures of study programmes and research activities in some fields, as well as serious restrictions on the freedom of expression of academics have been documented in the EU and Council of Europe Member States by the Academic Freedom Index and NGOs such as Scholars at Risk. Their findings from around the world show that academic freedom faces threats not only from political interference to university autonomy, but also that individual scholars face threats and intimidation for their work. These global developments matter for Europe because they amplify domestic tactics already visible in some Member States.
The EU has one of the few supranational rights provisions that directly reference academic freedom and, although its wording is compact, it provides a legal foothold the Union can use. Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR) provides: “The arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected.” Taken together with the wider context of shrinking civic space, Article 13 highlights the Union’s capacity, and responsibility, to embed concrete guardrails in governance, funding and legal protection across the Union.
Under pressure
In many parts of Europe, indirect political interference is reshaping the conditions of academic work. The European Parliament’s Academic Freedom Monitor maps structural and legal trends in Member States, including governance and funding changes. Scholars at Risk and other NGOs document incident‑level (de facto) attacks on scholars and institutions. These monitoring efforts point to recurrent risk clusters: (i) undue restrictions on institutional autonomy, including governance reforms that shift power from academic bodies to boards with governmental influence; (ii) erosion of academic self-governance, via top-down appointments or ministerial vetoes over hiring and curricula; (iii) worsening working conditions, with precarity that deters ‘controversial’ research; and (iv) instrumentalised public funding, where selective grants and targeted cuts reward conformity and punish dissent. A further pattern is the lack of consultation in higher-education law-making, excluding academics and students from reform processes.
Closure or “restructurings” can be used to hollow out fields considered sensitive by governments. Hungary’s removal of gender studies from the accredited list and related programme closures are well documented. Disciplinary actions against outspoken staff, and reputational or legal campaigns, which are often SLAPP-style, are designed to chill publication and public engagement. Even when no single measure looks egregious, the accumulation chills campus climate. Researchers avoid “risky” questions, curricula narrow, and talent exits. The loss is society’s: fewer independent voices in public debate and less evidence in policy. EP monitoring finds slow, uneven EU-wide erosion; with precarity, governance reforms, and security-policy spillovers among today’s main drivers.
A right and a democratic value
Academic freedom is not a privilege of scholars; it is increasingly recognised as a human right and a democratic safeguard. As emphasised in the Council of Europe’s recent policy brief on Academic Freedom: Human Rights Perspective it “protects processes that support evidence-based inquiry and policymaking that inform the decisions that affect people’s lives. Without it, democracy is at risk.” In a democratic society, academic freedom ensures access to reliable information on complex or disputed issues, protects against manipulation, historical distortion, and scientific and cultural bias.
While there is no universally agreed definition, there is a growing consensus on the parameters of academic freedom as a right. In her 2024 report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education stated: “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’.” Further, she endorsed the Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom which provide in Principle 3 that “The protection, promotion, and enjoyment of academic freedom require the autonomy of academic, research, and teaching institutions.”
This emerging international understanding has not yet been matched by comparable legal development within the EU. Article 13 CFR has received markedly limited elaboration and its scope and limits remain unclear (Ceran, 2025, see also Kosta, 2020). Most notably, it was referred to by the Court of Justice in European Commission v Hungary Judgment C-66/18 (2020), the Court read Article 13 as protecting both individual and institutional dimensions of academic freedom (autonomy). However, while the Court found a separate breach of Article 13 CFR, this could only occur because of the applicability of GATS and internal market law, which triggered the application of the Charter (per Art. 51(1)). Although the ECHR has no stand‑alone “academic freedom” clause, Strasbourg has long protected academic freedom under Article 10 (freedom of expression): the Court has held that it includes the right of academics to criticise their institutions and to disseminate knowledge (e.g., Sorguç v Turkey), and has underlined the role of university autonomy in safeguarding expression (Kharlamov v Russia, Erdoğan and Others v Turkey).
Four functions of academic freedom illustrate why its protection matters for democracy and rights in practice. First, it safeguards the independence of knowledge production from political or economic capture. Second, it enables pluralism of viewpoints in teaching and research, which underpins democratic debate. Third, it ensures reliable evidence to inform policymaking and judicial decision-making. Fourth, it cultivates resilience against disinformation, historical distortion, and authoritarian narratives. Each function connects academic freedom to other Charter rights; freedom of expression and information (Article 11), education (Article 14), cultural, religious and linguistic diversity (Article 22), showing why Article 13 cannot be read in isolation (see Ceran, 2025 above).
There are a growing range of initiatives across Europe that aim to define, monitor and promote academic freedom. Examples include the Council of Europe’s Academic Freedom in Action Project, the European Parliament’s Academic Freedom Monitor. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has reiterated that academic freedom is a core Bologna value first in the Rome Communiqué (2020) and again in the Tirana Communiqué (2024) calling for the protection of institutional autonomy and the rights of staff and students. At EU level, Directive (EU) 2024/1069 (the Anti‑SLAPP Directive) provides minimum procedural shields against abusive cross‑border litigation; protections that matter directly for scholars, editors, and universities facing retaliatory suits. Recent EU-level measures such as the Commission’s ERA Action 6 (linking a new academic-freedom monitoring mechanism with initiatives on research security), Parliament’s January 2024 resolution promoting a permanent fellowship for researchers at risk, and the Council’s May 2024 Recommendation on research security (which stresses that any security measures must promote and defend academic freedom and institutional autonomy), add further layers to this picture.
Together these efforts form a nascent European acquis on academic freedom, but one that remains fragmented; some instruments are rights-based, others are risk-based. To avoid parallel or securitised standards, the Union needs a coherent, human-rights-centred framework under Article 13 CFR that treats academic freedom as an integral Charter right rather than a by-product of research-security policy. That coherence, grounded in human-rights law rather than sectoral regulation, is what the next phase of EU action on academic freedom must deliver.
From recognition to implementation
The EU should adopt a whole-of-Union, rights-based approach to academic freedom, strengthening its recognition and implementation through binding provisions at EU and Member-State level.
As noted in the EP Monitor Report on academic freedom there is a “scarcity of authoritative sources on the scope and nature of [Article 13 CFR] in EU law, its key dimensions could be further clarified.” Academic freedom may be derived from Article 13 CFR, but it sits at the crossroads of Charter rights, education and research competences, media and defamation law, anti-SLAPP initiatives, and foreign-interference regimes. The Commission could request a non‑binding Opinion from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) to clarify Article 13’s individual (research/teaching/speech) and institutional (autonomy/governance) dimensions, and propose operational standards for autonomy, governance, due process for discipline, fair hiring, and protection against retaliation. The FRA, and the Council of Europe, and other rights-focussed bodies must be in the discussion to help harmonise the EU understanding of academic freedom so it isn’t narrowed by the institutions or Member States to freedom of scientific research or reduced to merely an issue of freedom of expression. Efforts are also needed to connect the academic freedom initiatives across Europe.
EU programmes already reference academic freedom. Defining workable safeguards and proportionate, due-process conditionality – what compliance looks like, how allegations are assessed, and what remedial steps follow – can align incentives without turning funding into a blunt weapon. Commission guidelines, programme conditionality in Horizon Europe/Erasmus+, should define compliance criteria, and integrate academic freedom into the Rule of Law cycle so that “respect for academic freedom” has both content and consequences.
It is also important to take a human rights perspective in order to mainstream academic freedom within wider civic space and rule-of-law debates, and surface under-reported threats: SLAPPs against scholars; transnational repression by foreign states on European campuses; exclusion of academics and students from policymaking. Public authorities, funders and universities can frame these as fundamental‑rights issues – not least to counter anti-science narratives.
Recognising academic freedom as a core fundamental right is essential to Europe’s resistance to democratic backsliding and keeping knowledge independent and accessible. Without coordinated EU engagement, and a coherent human rights focus, Article 13 risks remaining a promise. With these steps, the Union can help ensure academic freedom is a lived right in the EU legal order.
FOCUS is a project which aims to raise public awareness of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, its value, and the capacity of key stakeholders for its broader application. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.