Rethinking Academic Freedom at Universities

Although the role of a university is to discover and disseminate new ideas, globally it is increasingly deviating from its ideal path due to some external pressures in recent years. Instead of becoming a place for alternatives and promoting free-space to question the status-quo, it is aligning itself to the current social structures, corporate values and bureaucratic invasions. The systematic intervention of such hegemonic forces has significantly shrunken the space for ‘academic freedom’, the lifeblood of a university. This study, therefore, reiterates the significance and necessities of academic freedom for cultivating new ideas, preserving democratic values and fostering societal progress instead of producing mere professionals and bureaucrats. In order to do so, this paper critically reexamines the very notion of ‘academic freedom’, its current state and the hurdles it must overcome.