IPSA Releases Guidelines on Academic Freedom Protection Procedures

IPSA is pleased to release its Guidelines on Academic Freedom Protection Procedures to assist its national and regional political science associations (collective members) in developing effective protocols to address threats to academic freedom. 

In 2021, IPSA published the results of a survey conducted in 2020 by the Academic Freedom and Ethics Committee amongst IPSA’s collective members (regional and national political science associations). One of the results of the survey was their request that IPSA take the lead on matters of academic freedom by creating guidelines on how to deal with these issues. 

To that purpose, the IPSA Committee on Academic Freedom developed Guidelines on Academic Freedom Protection Procedures that aim at providing national associations with suggestions for the establishment of national protocols regarding reactions to potential academic freedom limitations or attacks. The Guidelines also offer some suggestions for the establishment of a nationally formalized procedure for monitoring eventual violations of the academic freedoms of political scientists. 

The provisions in the Guidelines are to be considered as suggestions that could/should be adapted to the specific national contexts.