A highlight of the Free Academic Summer School was a fascinating lecture by Dr Angelo Vito Panaro on ‘Academic Freedom Index: Methods to Measure Academic Freedom’.

Dr. Panaro presented sobering findings from the 2025 Academic Freedom Index update, which tracks academic freedom across 179 countries and territories worldwide. The report identifies 34 countries and territories that have experienced a statistically significant and substantially meaningful decline in academic freedom compared to ten years ago, while only eight countries saw an increase in academic freedom.

The Academic Freedom Index (AFI) assesses de facto levels of academic freedom across the world based on five indicators: freedom to research and teach; freedom of academic exchange and dissemination; institutional autonomy; campus integrity; and freedom of academic and cultural expression. The AFI rests on assessments by 2,363 country experts worldwide, standardized questionnaires, and a well-established statistical model, implemented and adapted by the V-Dem project.

The presentation underscored that academic freedom is particularly at risk in countries with pronounced social and political polarisation, making this research increasingly relevant for understanding contemporary challenges facing higher education institutions worldwide.

We extend our gratitude to Dr. Panaro for sharing these crucial insights and for his ongoing commitment to monitoring and protecting academic freedom globally.

For more information on the Academic Freedom Index: https://academic-freedom-index.net/

Dr Panaro is a postdoctoral researcher at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg and a member of the Academic Freedom Project Team.