‘Unusually steep’ decline in US university autonomy, index shows

Academic freedom has deteriorated in 50 countries over the past decade, while improving in just nine, according to a report which also warns that the decline in university autonomy in the US has been faster than in places such as Hungary, Turkey and India.

The findings were published in the latest edition of the Academic Freedom Index (AFI), an annual benchmarking report compiled by researchers at Germany’s University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

The AFI covers both individual and institutional dimensions of academic freedom, such as freedom to research and teach, campus integrity and freedom of academic exchange. It is built on peer-reviewed methodology and draws on the expertise of 2,357 scholars worldwide. 

The report highlights that, overall, academic freedom remains more protected in Latin America, Europe, North America, Oceania and large parts of Southern and West Africa compared with Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

Institutional autonomy “remains slightly more resistant to decline” compared with other indicators of academic freedom, although 43 countries experienced a significant deterioration in autonomy between 2015 and 2025.

In 21 of those cases, autonomy had been very well protected at the start of the study period, including in Austria, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Canada, the US, Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador and Peru. “This pattern could be interpreted as indicative of a broader trend of declining university autonomy in liberal democratic countries,” the authors of the report say.

In the US, institutional autonomy has deteriorated 50 per cent since 2015 and is now rated only “moderate” by country experts. The report says the decline in the US began in 2020, driven mostly by state-level actions by officials aligned with the Make America Great Again movement, which then accelerated sharply in 2025 under the second Trump administration. 

Federal actions included attempts to control how universities are accredited, tying funding to government demands and using research grants to influence admissions, hiring and governance. 

“The US case illustrates how quickly institutional autonomy can be damaged via coercive executive action, yet it also suggests that pushback by academic institutions, civil society organisations, and court action against illegal measures are key to protecting academic freedom in autocratising countries,” the report says. 

Institutional autonomy has also declined in Hungary, India and Turkey – countries that previously had relatively high scores for academic freedom – but more gradually compared with the US. Political attacks, legal reforms and administrative interventions have undermined the autonomy of higher education institutions in those countries, according to the report. 

Overall, the authors say fewer countries have experienced substantial changes in institutional autonomy over the past decade compared with changes in other dimensions, particularly the freedom to research and teach and the freedom of academic and cultural expression.

But despite institutional autonomy being less volatile as an indicator, any decline in the dimension is a cause for concern, they stressed.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com