The Ministerial Declaration of the 2025 UN High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on 23 July 2025 reaffirms the centrality of research in policymaking, innovation and capacity building for the SDGs. And yet, in the absence of academic freedom, this potential cannot be realised. Promoting academic freedom means unleashing researchers from constraints so they are able to undertake the research necessary to inform sustainability policy and innovation; it means reinforcing the ability of teachers and professors to educate the next generation of researchers, and the ability of those students to learn unhindered how they may contribute to sustainable futures.
Nevertheless, the 2024 report on academic freedom by the UN Special Rapporteur argues that the core components of academic freedom—teaching, discussion, research, and dissemination—are under threat worldwide, documenting mounting attacks on academic freedom through governmental restrictions, privatization and private sector managerial practices, as well as the educational, research and teaching institutions themselves. The threats of—and documented restrictions and violations of—academic freedom have far-reaching consequences that extend well beyond the individual experiences of academics. In addition to being a human right for all researchers, educators and students at all levels of education, academic freedom benefits society as a whole, not just the interests of academics. Threats to academic freedom are often aimed at controlling public opinion and restricting academic and scientific debate that might identify novel problems to address or innovative solutions.
In 2026, NORRAG will convene a series of Policy Dialogues to support learning from expert engagement to explore academic freedom and institutional autonomy as a key underpinning of sustainable, democratic and educated futures. It is also one of the critical issues facing higher education policy and planning in the 21st century. Working with partners, the proposed programme of engagement will mobilise multi-disciplinary knowledges to strengthen how decision makers might address this complex, inter-sectoral policy area through discussions focused on policy, institutional processes and governance. We will be working closely with our partners in the Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF), the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA), and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF).
Expert Sessions (2026)
Each expert session will involve closed-door consultations with a multi-disciplinary group of experts, facilitated discussions, and documentation of key ideas, learning, priorities, and recommendations. Meeting reports will be produced following each consultation.
Alongside online thematic sessions, we will organise regional in-person sessions in collaboration with the Africa Coalition for Academic Freedom (ACAF), the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA), and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF), and NORRAG in Europe. These in-person events will include policy customers and experts relevant to distinct regional and national academic freedom concerns, as well as invited global actors.
The need for distinct regional approaches implementing the right to academic freedom was highlighted at a side event to the 59th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and in our inaugural event to NORRAG’s Academic Freedom programme.
