Academic freedom

Academic freedom is a widely used and championed phrase, but an often poorly defined concept with different meanings in different cultures and different contexts. It can refer to the alleged right of students, teachers or academic institutions to do or be protected from a number of different things.

Freedom From What or To Do What?

Apart from the traditional German concept, which has few advocates today, it is generally believed that inquiry by students and faculty members is legitimately limited by academic requirements, but should be free from external restraints, as this is the best climate for the pursuit of truth.

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A group called "Students for Academic Freedom" defines it simply as, "The freedom to teach and to learn." They contend in "The Academic Bill of Rights" that academic freedom promotes "intellectual diversity" and helps achieve a university's primary goals, i.e., "the pursuit of truth, the discovery of new knowledge through scholarship and research, the study and reasoned criticism of intellectual and cultural traditions, the teaching and general development of students to help them become creative individuals and productive citizens of a pluralistic democracy, and the transmission of knowledge and learning to a society at large."

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