Academic freedom and international research collaborations - do universities need a foreign policy?

We are joined this week by Tena Prelac, Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) at the University of Oxford, who is a member of the Academic Freedom and  Internationalisation Working Group. We discuss the rise in self-censorship amongst UK academics, academic freedom and what the role of international research funding, collaborations and partnerships play in this.  The importance of academic freedom is explored with practical examples given by Tena to help universities navigate the issues involved. We conclude that although universities do not need to be James Bonds they do need to seriously investigate whether they should develop a foreign policy.

Outputs from the project to date include:
Freedom House report on Transnational Repression and Academic Freedom, by Saipira Furstenberg, John Heathershaw and me: https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-report/2020/internationalization-universities-and-repression-academic-freedom 

Draft Model Code of Conduct by the Academic Freedom and Internationalisation Working Group: https://hrc.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/AFIWG/AFIWG%20-%20DRAFT%20MODEL%20CODE%20OF%20CONDUCT%20final.pdf

To find out more about how you can support scholars overseas please visit: https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/

You can follow Tena on Twitter at: @tenaprelec 

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If you're interested in our work with diversity and internationalisation in research, please visit www.diversiunity.com.