Post-secondary educational institutions serve the common good of society through
searching for, and disseminating, knowledge, truth, and understanding and
through fostering independent thinking and expression in academic staff and
students. Robust democracies require no less. These ends cannot be achieved
without academic freedom.
Academic freedom includes the right, without restriction by prescribed doctrine,
to freedom of teaching and discussion; freedom in carrying out research and
disseminating and publishing the results thereof; freedom in producing and
performing creative works; freedom to engage in service to the institution and
the community; freedom to express freely one’s opinion about the institution,
its administration, or the system in which one works; freedom from institutional
censorship; freedom to acquire, preserve, and provide access to documentary
material in all formats; and freedom to participate in professional and
representative academic bodies.
Academic freedom does not require neutrality on the part of the individual.
Academic freedom makes intellectual discourse, critique, and commitment
possible. All academic staff must have the right to fulfill their functions
without reprisal or repression by the institution, the state, or any other
source.
All academic staff have the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion,
expression, assembly, and association and the right to liberty and security of
the person and freedom of movement. Academic staff must not be hindered or
impeded in exercising their civil rights as citizens, including the right to
contribute to social change through free expression of opinion on matters of
public interest. Academic staff must not suffer any institutional penalties
because of the exercise of such rights.
Academic freedom requires that academic staff play a major role in the
governance of the institution. Academic freedom means that academic staff must
play the predominant role in determining curriculum, assessment standards, and
other academic matters.
Academic freedom must not be confused with institutional autonomy. Post-secondary institutions
are autonomous to the extent that they can set policies independent of outside influence. That very
autonomy can protect academic freedom from a hostile external environment, but
it can also facilitate an internal assault on academic freedom. To undermine or
suppress academic freedom is a serious abuse of institutional autonomy.
