Participants in the roundtable will discuss experiences engaging in the public from their academic position and their specific country contexts. The panel’s discussions underscore the creative strategies employed by scholars to circumvent both informal and formal forms of censorship across diverse national contexts. The panelists have experience with censorship and attacks on their academic freedom due to their use of freedom of academic and/or cultural expression. A global rise of autocracy is evident in European higher education, marked by mounting political and economic pressures on institutions. The panel will discuss how solidarity can be forged in the Southeast Asian region across national borders, and between European and Southeast Asian higher education institutions under the spread of autocracy. The roundtable format is particularly well-suited to this purpose, as it facilitates the exchange of experiences and the discussion of pressing issues that require the collaborative efforts of academics.
Threats to academic freedom emanate from myriad sources, encompassing economic interests and political interference, manifesting in diverse forms, including direct threats, intimidation, censorship, and bureaucratic stasis. While the limitations of and attacks on academic freedom vary in different Southeast Asian countries, the region typically ranks low in international measurements of academic freedom, such as the Academic Freedom Index (measuring since 2020). Regardless of the extent to which academic freedom is curtailed, a concomitant negative effect is invariably observed within the research and education community. Moreover, academic freedom is inextricably linked to higher levels of civil and political freedoms and rights in a society.
The extent to which academic and cultural expression regarding political matters is unrestricted is a primary metric by which the status of academic freedom in a nation is gauged, as indicated by the Academic Freedom Index. The following roundtable discussion will address the possibilities for exercising academic freedom both inside and outside university campuses. Discrepancies between legal stipulations and de facto freedoms are characteristic of autocratic countries, and Southeast Asian nations are generally found at the bottom of international academic freedom rankings. Academic freedom is indispensable to the quality and integrity of a nation’s higher education system. It is inextricably linked to broader fundamental rights and freedoms in society.