Newsletter

April 2020

A Brief Guide to Academic Freedom

Andrew David Irvine

Academic freedom is what protects professors and others from having to accept any form of “party line.” It is the freedom academics have to pursue academic work as they see fit, evaluated only on the basis of academic, rather than non-academic, criteria. Having academic freedom means that student, faculty and professional academic work will be judged without reference to non-academic considerations, without reference to a person’s religion or lack of religion, a person’s political or sexual preferences, a person’s national origin, or the religious and political views of his or her colleagues. It is academic freedom that makes universities inclusive.

Throughout history, groups and individuals have lobbied universities to help them promote their preferred social, political or religious causes. Members of a university should be free to participate in such causes if they wish. In fact, universities rightly encourage their members to investigate questions of their own choosing and to make public the results of their findings. But the university as an institution has no more right to take an official position on the question of whether Canada and her allies need to develop a stronger military posture in the Middle East than it does on the truth or falsity of the Nicene Creed. It has no more ability to claim that Canada needs more oil and gas pipelines than it does to claim that water is H₂O. How could it? Would the university president, who might happen to be a mathematician, simply begin making pronouncements about chemistry? Or biology? Or history? Would the senior administration take a vote among the university’s members to decide whether π really is an irrational number?

This practice of distinguishing the university from its members is central to the idea of academic freedom. By ensuring that the university itself takes no official position on ideas of any kind (other than those needed to fulfill its mission), members of the university become free to argue dispassionately for or against any such claim and to accept or reject academic positions as they see fit.

Once governments gain the power to require universities to advance one political or religious view rather than another, or universities gain the power to require faculty to accept one scientific theory rather than another, or educators gain the power to require students to believe one historical account rather than another, academic freedom will be lost. Once we begin incorporating political or religious tests into student grading, or into academic hiring and promotion, the academic mission of the university will be compromised. Once a university takes an official position on substantive matters of fact, other than those needed to carry out its mission, its reputation as a place for disinterested investigation and debate will be gone. Once a university or the people speaking on its behalf become partisans in the on-going social, religious, legal, scientific, historical or public-policy debates of their day, public trust in the objectivity of university teaching and research will inevitably be diminished. Along with scholarly, research and teaching excellence, academic freedom is thus one of the core academic values of any modern university. It is these values that make the modern university inclusive and effective.

With these considerations in mind, academic freedom may be understood as applying, in different ways, to the university as a whole, to its faculty and academic staff, to its students and to its alumni.

1. Academic Freedom for the University

The academic freedom of the university includes the freedom within the law for the university to

• offer teaching and research programs of its own choosing
• set and control its own curriculum
• hire faculty on the basis of academic merit rather than for political, religious, ethnic or other reasons, and thus be able to reassure job applicants that their applications are being evaluated solely on the basis of academic considerations
• promote faculty on the basis of academic considerations alone
• remove faculty on the basis of academic considerations alone
• admit students according to criteria the university alone selects
• evaluate student work and credential graduates on the basis of criteria the university alone selects
• enter into agreements and partnerships with governments and other institutions for the mutual benefit of their respective constituencies, and
• use, acquire and dispose of property as it sees fit.

These freedoms are typically protected through

• legislation or other founding documents which created the university and which guarantee the right to self-government, and
• the right to rely on a diversity of funding sources, which gives the university independence from any single funding source.

The existence of these rights and freedoms

• does not imply that the university will be unaccountable (in appropriate ways) to its membership, and
• does not imply that the university will be unaccountable (in appropriate ways) to its sources of funding and support.

2. Academic Freedom for Faculty and Academic Staff (including Scholars, Researchers, Educators, Artists, Performers, Librarians, Archivists and Curators)

The academic freedom of scholars, researchers, educators, artists, performers, librarians, archivists, curators and other faculty and academic staff employed by, or appointed in, the university includes the freedom within the law to

• do research, to advance scholarship, to produce, perform or display creative works and to carry out other academic work and duties without fear of sanction for unpopular beliefs, words or actions, or on the basis of other non-academic criteria
• teach and mentor undergraduate, graduate and non-degree students within the university, to set their own curriculum within guidelines established by the university, and to grade student work without fear of sanction for unpopular beliefs, words or actions, or on the basis of other non-academic considerations
• exercise their right to freedom of expression inside and outside the classroom, as well as in print and other media
• exercise their right to freedom of association, including the freedom to create and join professional associations and to invite speakers and colleagues to campus
• have their work evaluated (for tenure, promotion, committee and administrative appointments, etc.) solely according to academic criteria (including criteria relating to scholarship, research and teaching excellence, as well as to academic service), without regard to non-academic factors
• participate in the university’s governance, and
• criticize the university.

These freedoms are typically protected through

• legislation or other founding documents which created the university, as well as through oversight mechanisms internal to the university which ensure that only academic criteria may be used when evaluating academic work
• the granting of tenure, which ensures that academic faculty cannot be dismissed without just cause, and
• policies which ensure that dismissal and disciplinary procedures are governed by due process and other appropriate protections.

The existence of these rights and freedoms

• does not imply that the work of scholars, researchers, educators, artists, performers, librarians, archivists, curators and other faculty and academic staff is immune to criticism, and
• does not imply that scholars, researchers, educators, artists, performers, librarians, archivists, curators and other faculty and academic staff remain unaccountable to the university for carrying out the work for which they have been hired, or that their work is incapable of being evaluated on the basis of established academic criteria.

Academic freedom is the freedom academics need to carry out their work; it may not be used as a shield for academic incompetence.

3. Academic Freedom for Students

The academic freedom of students studying or doing research in the university includes the freedom within the law to

• study, learn and do research in the programs of their choice
• exercise their right to freedom of expression inside and outside the classroom, as well as in student newspapers, websites and other media
• exercise their right to freedom of association, including the freedom to create and join university clubs and societies, and to invite speakers to campus
• have their work evaluated according to academic criteria, without consideration of non-academic factors
• participate in the university’s governance, and
• criticize the university.

These freedoms are typically protected through

• legislation or other founding documents which created the university, as well as through oversight mechanisms internal to the university which ensure that only academic criteria may be used when evaluating a student’s academic work, and
• policies which ensure that disciplinary proceedings are governed by due process and other appropriate protections, including the guarantee that academic discipline will remain separate from academic evaluation.

The existence of these rights and freedoms

• does not imply that student work is incapable of being evaluated on the basis of established academic criteria.

Academic freedom is the freedom students need to carry out their studies; it may not be used as a shield for academic incompetence.

4. Academic Freedom for Alumni and other Members of Convocation

The academic freedom of alumni and other members of convocation includes the freedom within the law to

• exercise their right to freedom of expression as members of the university, on and off campus
• exercise their right to freedom of association, including the freedom to invite speakers to campus
• participate in the university’s governance, and
• criticize the university.

These freedoms are typically protected through

• legislation or other founding documents which created the university, as well as through policies internal to the university.

5. Academic Freedom and Academic Discipline

Academic freedom does not include the freedom to

• be disruptive or threatening in classrooms, laboratories or meeting halls, or during public lectures, sporting events, silent protests or other university-sanctioned events, or
• advocate or encourage disruptive or threatening behaviour.

In cases involving threatening or disruptive behaviour, the university has an obligation to

• provide the cost of any security necessary to ensure that the academic mission of the university is not compromised
• discipline students and other members of the university community who are under its jurisdiction, when and as appropriate, and
• involve the police, when necessary.

In summary, academic freedom is what gives the university the freedom to chart its own course. It is what gives scholars, researchers, educators, artists, performers, librarians, archivists, curators, students, alumni and others the freedom to go about their academic work, unencumbered by non-academic pressure and interference. Along with scholarly, research and teaching excellence, academic freedom is a core value of any modern institution of higher learning. It is neither a shield for academic incompetence nor a license for the “heckler’s veto.” Instead, it is an essential feature of any inclusive and effective modern university.

Andrew David Irvine (andrew.irvine@ubc.ca) is a professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.