FREE.UNI – Fostering Resilient and Engaged Universities for Democracy
The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory has initiated a new project titled FREE.UNI: Fostering Resilient and Engaged Universities for Democracy. The project addresses one of the most urgent challenges of our time: the growing pressure on academic freedom and university autonomy under conditions of democratic backsliding worldwide. Bringing together partners from Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America, FREE.UNI will document how universities are targeted by autocratization while also highlighting strategies of resistance. Case studies will include Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Brazil, Ghana, India, and others.
Universities are increasingly drawn into authoritarian playbooks through legal restrictions, financial manipulation, ideological control, and market-driven reforms. At the same time, they remain key sites of democratic renewal, where students, faculty, and solidarity networks mobilize to defend freedom of inquiry and civic engagement.
Recent scholarship and policy documents underscore the urgency of this work. Research shows that attacks on academic freedom are often early indicators of democratic decline, frequently preceding restrictions on the judiciary or media. Universities are not passive victims but deeply political institutions, simultaneously vulnerable to capture and capable of sustaining democratic critique. As the Bonn Declaration on Freedom of Scientific Research (2020) and the ERA Policy Agenda (2022–2024) affirm, academic freedom is both a cornerstone of democratic societies and a prerequisite for research excellence. By situating universities at the center of debates on autocratization and democratic resilience, FREE.UNI introduces innovative theoretical and comparative depth to a field of growing strategic importance for Europe and beyond.
At a time when authoritarian tendencies are gaining ground, FREE.UNI emphasizes that protecting universities is not only about defending higher education – it is about safeguarding democracy itself.