Intellectual freedom is a fundamental prerequisite for all truth-seeking business and for all artistic creation, and it is important for safeguarding and strengthening democracy. Academic freedom must therefore be a normative right for anyone involved in research.
Confidence in research depends on the researchers being free and without ties, and that research results are continuously the subject of critical testing by other researchers. There is a special responsibility on universities and colleges to ensure this, which requires that the research institutions are autonomous, that the researchers are given the opportunity to choose their topic and method, to publish research results, and that research and teaching take place according to established ethical and professional standards.
Several impulses and trends are putting academic freedom under renewed pressure: the increasing emphasis on utility values, strategic specialisation and external funding, the disappearance of collegiate bodies, the growing number of scientific personnel employed in temporary positions, changes in public administration’s use of research and several cases involving distrust in and misuse of research. The undermining of academic freedom not only compromises the quality of research, but also weakens informed and critical societal debate and confidence in research-based knowledge.
