How academic freedom is changing around the world — by the numbers

University staff and students call for better funding for French education at a protest in Lyons.Credit: Antoine Boureau/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty

Academic freedom is deteriorating globally, according to the Scholars at Risk (SAR) network, a human-rights organization based at New York University.

The network’s latest annual report documents 382 attacks on academic freedom by state authorities, affecting scholars, students and academic institutions in 59 countries and territories, between July 2025 and June 2026. That’s fewer incidents, but across more regions, than the previous year (which had seen 395 attacks in 49 countries and territories). The analysis, titled Free to Think 2026, defines an attack as a violent or fatal assault on scholars and students, wrongful prosecution or imprisonment, sacking or expulsion from institutions or restrictions to academic freedom or to travel.

Attacks on higher education are “about controlling the flow of information”, says Robert Quinn, founding executive director of SAR.

Sources: Free to Think 2026; V-Dem Dataset (https://go.nature.com/47UZF3P)

Tensions between universities and governments “represent some of the front lines of the debates and political clashes happening around the world”, says Mushfiq Mobarak, an economist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Other events counted in the SAR report include government interference with research topics or funding on ideological grounds. “While often justified in neutral terms — such as fiscal discipline, public accountability, or anti-discrimination — these interventions are often used to impose ideological control”, the SAR report explains.

But academic freedom has substantially improved in some places, notably Bangladesh (see ‘Freedom in figures’). Nature highlights five countries where scholars have experienced recent changes to their freedoms.

United States: increasing interference

Data from the Academic Freedom Index Update 2026 report, published in March, show a steep decline in academic freedom in the United States (see ‘Rapid deterioration’). The trend is very troubling, says Quinn, who notes that it is not limited to the past five years. Its start precedes the return of US President Donald Trump to office in 2025. “The pressures on higher education are not limited to one election [or] one administration,” he says.

Sources: Free to Think 2026; Academic Freedom Index Update 2026

The country’s recent restrictions on immigration, such as travel bans and greater scrutiny of social-media accounts, contributed to a 35% drop in the number of international student visas granted by the United States during the summer of 2025 compared with that of 2024, according to Inside Higher Ed’s analysis of data released by the US State Department.

Indonesia: getting worse

The government of Indonesia, led by President Prabowo Subianto since 2024, launched a violent crackdown on protests in 2025, which included raids on student demonstrations and suspending students thought to have anti-government views. The same year, the country’s military law was amended to allow officers to take roles in civic institutions without having to resign from the armed forces. Since then, researchers have reported an increased presence of military personnel on campuses and more government surveillance of universities.

Herlambang Wiratraman, who studies law and social justice at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, helped to establish a legal framework to protect academic freedom. He says that the situation in the country’s universities is getting worse amid intrusions by the current administration, including appointing presidents of universities and controlling research funds and agendas.

Hungary: a bright spot

In contrast to the overall trend, in Hungary, a government elected in April led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar has rolled back various restrictions on university autonomy that were introduced during Viktor Orbán’s 16-year premiership.

During that time, many universities were managed by trusts run by boards whose members were often political appointees. In 2022, the Council of the European Union froze funds for 21 Hungarian universities and restricted access to the EU’s flagship research programme, Horizon Europe, and its exchange scheme Erasmus+. In October, the EU Council announced that it would restore full participation to these initiatives and release €4.2 billion (US$4.7 billion) in funding for Hungarian universities.

The SAR report says that the new administration in Hungary offers reason for cautious optimism.

“A lot of researchers and scientists are now joining the government,” says Balázs Lengyel, an economic geographer at the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies in Budapest. Many of them are being appointed “at the state-secretary level”.

Bangladesh: all indicators on the rise

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02998-0

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