News & Reports

‘Free to Think 2022’: Another Year of ‘Ruinous Attacks’ on Higher Education

The Scholars at Risk network’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project released on Tuesday a report documenting 391 attacks on higher education communities around the world over the past year.

The report, “Free to Think 2022”, is the latest in an annual series monitoring attacks on higher education. It covers the 12-month period ending August 31, 2022, a span that includes Russia’s war in Ukraine since last February and the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) produces its annual reports of attacks on higher education to raise awareness of the issue and to urge governments and other stakeholders to protect and promote academic freedom, which it argues benefits all members of society.

A Global Problem

The report states that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had “disastrous” consequences for higher education communities in both countries. Countless scholars and students were forced to flee, while shelling and airstrikes inflicted considerable damage to Ukrainian higher education and research infrastructure.

“These attacks have deadly and career-ending consequences for scholars and students, but they also endanger society at large. … These attacks must stop.”

Robert Quinn, founding executive director of Scholars at Risk

In Afghanistan, it says, the Taliban’s takeover reversed two decades of higher education progress, as the new authorities systematically denied female students and scholars their rights to education and academic freedom. Taliban-controlled universities arbitrarily dismissed academic and administrative personnel, often on ethnic grounds, and silenced criticism of the new government.

“Higher education communities around the world have suffered varied, ruinous attacks over the past year,” Robert Quinn, SAR’s founding executive director, said in a news release. “They range from the Taliban’s repression of scholars and students in Afghanistan and Russian forces’ devastation of Ukrainian university infrastructure, to Israeli-imposed restrictions on academic travel to the West Bank and U.S. lawmakers’ efforts to constrict discourse on campus.”

Quinn added that “these attacks have deadly and career-ending consequences for scholars and students, but they also endanger society at large, by undermining higher education’s unique ability to drive the social, political, economic, and cultural progress from which we all benefit. These attacks must stop.”

While attacks on academic freedom often occur in closed societies, where the right to think and speak freely is routinely oppressed, they also occur in more open, democratic, and stable societies, leaving no country immune from their threat, says the report. 

In the United States, for example, dozens of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were targeted with bomb threats in early 2022, causing significant disruptions to academic activity and leaving students suffering from trauma, anxiety, and stress.

Just the Tip of a Deeper Problem

The 391 attacks reported this year represent only a fraction of the total number of attacks that Scholars at Risk believes occur annually.

The attacks include intentional acts resulting in wrongful death, physical harm, loss of liberty, limitations on academic travel, or loss of professional or academic standing. They also include the destruction, damage, closure, or seizure of higher education institutions, facilities, or equipment, and targeted violence aimed at killing or injuring multiple faculty members, students, and staff. 

Killings, Violence, and Disappearance 

Violent attacks on individuals and institutions pose one of the most serious threats to higher education, the report says.

While attacks on academic freedom often occur in closed societies, where freedom of expression is routinely oppressed, they also occur in more open, democratic societies, leaving no country immune from their threat, says the report.

Since the monitoring project’s inception in 2011, SAR has registered 831 violent attacks, including 181 in the current reporting period (nearly half all attacks in the 2022 report).

The latest report describes bombings and other armed attacks on campuses in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Pakistan, as well as targeted killings of individual scholars in Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The report also notes incidents of deadly violence by police and security forces against student protesters in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Nigeria during the past year.

It also describes how threats of violence were used to silence, harass or punish scholars in Colombia, India, and Northern Ireland.

In a separate section dealing with Palestine, the report cites the Israeli military airstrikes on August 5, 2022, that damaged a branch of Al-Quds Open University in northern Gaza, injuring hundreds of people and killing several students. 

Wrongful Imprisonment and Prosecution 

This year’s report documents 83 incidents involving wrongful imprisonment or prosecution to punish scholars or restrict their academic activity and associations.

It cites the two-month detention of Ayman Mansour Nada, a journalism professor at Cairo University, for his public criticism of some of Egypt’s media personalities and country’s media landscape in general. After his release in November 2021, Nada was later issued a one-year suspended prison sentence and fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds (roughly $1,020) for “publicly and maliciously publishing false news about Egyptian media that would disturb public peace and harm the public interest,” says the report. 

In Kuwait, the report says, prosecutors charged Safaa Zaman, a computer science professor at Kuwait University, with a “fake news” offense after she publicly discussed data security threats posed by the Kuwait Civil Service Commission’s keeping of some data on computer servers in Egypt.

“Such broad barriers to movement threaten the long-term development of quality higher education in the occupied Palestinian territories and, by consequence, Palestinians’ scientific, social, and economic progress,” the report states.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights noted that Zaman’s remarks were “within her field of specialisation” and were made “using evidence-based information.” Nevertheless, she was accused of “broadcasting false news that undermines the prestige of the state” and “exposes the country to the risk of severing its relationship with a friendly country”, Egypt.

A criminal court acquitted Zaman on March 29, 2022, and appellate court upheld that decision in September.

Loss of Position

Scholars at Risk’s report also monitors incidents in which higher education and state authorities have used job threats or other disciplinary actions to restrict the exercise of academic freedom.

One extreme example in this category was the March 2022 decision by Sudan’s military-led government to dissolve the councils of 30 public universities and replace their presidents, who had been appointed by the prior civilian-led government. The newly appointed officials are loyal to the Islamic movement, said Waleed Ali Ahmed, a council member of the Sudanese Professionals Association. 

Travel Restrictions 

SAR also monitors restrictions on scholars’ freedom of movement, which it says is fundamental to quality higher education, advancing the exchange of ideas and bolstering international collaborations to address the world’s problems. 

In Algeria, for example, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research barred Algerian scholars from participating in conferences or seminars in Morocco, after the ministry found “anti-Algerian articles” in a Moroccan journal. The decision had little impact on knowledge production, Algerian academics said, because research collaborations between the two North African countries were already limited. Nevertheless, they deplored the decision as an affront to academic freedom.

In Palestine, the report says, “the government of Israel continues to impose on scholars and students an array of policies that restrict their movement. These include long-standing restrictions, such as checkpoints and travel permits imposed on all Palestinians, as well as targeted pressures that impact the global academic community.”

It cites a new directive imposed this year that restricts international scholars’ and students’ travel to and working in the West Bank. The directive limits the duration of foreign scholars’ residency in the West Bank and places burdensome requirements on applicants and future permit holders, the report says.

It adds that Israeli border restrictions also impede the importation of equipment, books, and educational materials that quality higher education requires.

“Such broad barriers to movement threaten the long-term development of quality higher education in the occupied Palestinian territories and, consequently, Palestinians’ scientific, social, and economic progress,” the report states.

Violations of Student Expression 

Attacks on student expression remain the most frequent type of attack, comprising roughly 41 percent of the incidents reported in the past year. 

In another form of attack on students’ academic freedom and right to education, the report cites media reports of Moroccan faculty members demanding sexual favors from female students in exchange for good grades. 

In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers carried out violent campus raids, including notable incidents  at Birzeit University, the report says. It detailed one incident in December 2021, when over 100 Israeli soldiers stormed the campus, beat and detained several guards, broke into various academic faculties, and forcefully dispersed civilians and students who engaged them in clashes. 

Security forces under the Palestinian Authority have also detained and used force against student activists and campus protesters, including student detentions at An-Najah National University, Palestine Polytechnic University, and Hebron University.

Military forces have also used violent means to quell student demonstrations in Sudan and Yemen.

In another form of attack on students’ academic freedom and right to education, the report cites media reports of Moroccan faculty members demanding sexual favors from female students in exchange for good grades. 

The SAR report says students who refused the professors’ demands have faced repercussions like being expelled on false accusations of cheating on an exam.

A Call for Universal Action

In order to defend everyone’s freedom to think, question, and share ideas, Scholars at Risk calls on governments and international bodies to develop policies and guidelines to protect and promote academic freedom regionally and globally. 

The report urges states to raise awareness of attacks on higher education by publicly acknowledging them, highlighting such attacks in their own reporting on human rights issues, endorsing the intergovernmental Safe Schools Declaration, and reviewing reports on topics related to academic freedom.

It also calls on universities and educational institutions to join the SAR Network to demonstrate solidarity for colleagues worldwide, to support scholars affected by attacks by offering them positions of academic refuge, and to promote understanding and respect for core higher education values like academic freedom, institutional autonomy, accountability, equitable access, and social responsibility.

Also see a collection of articles from Al-Fanar Media related to academic freedom in the Arab world.

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