IPSA Statement on Academic Freedom 2026

At its recent Executive Committee meetings held in Rome on 17-18 April 2026, IPSA adopted a revised Statement on Academic Freedom based on its previous statement issued in 2016.

This revised Statement reaffirms our core mission to support the academic freedom necessary for the social sciences to flourish. While the Statement remains firmly anchored in the 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel, this revision reflects the evolving challenges and institutional development of the past decade.

The revised Statement builds upon years of rigorous internal research, including the findings of the IPSA Academic Freedom Report 2021 and the Guidelines on Academic Freedom Protection Procedures developed in 2025.

Addressing Global Conflict and Expanding the Definition of Threats

A critical addition to the revised Statement is the explicit recognition of how war, armed conflict, and organized violence gravely undermine the social sciences through the killing of academics, the destruction of research infrastructure and the forced displacement of scholars. We have also expanded our definition of threats to include contemporary pressures such as restrictions on scholarly communication and discriminatory employment practices.

Call to Action

IPSA calls upon all authorities to uphold the conditions necessary for free inquiry and urges our members to seek guidance from their national or regional association, or the IPSA Secretariat, should they face threats to their academic freedom.

IPSA Statement on Academic Freedom 2026

IPSA affirms its commitment to the academic freedoms necessary for the social sciences to flourish. In line with its Mission Statement and the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel (1997), IPSA upholds the principle that academic freedom is essential to research, teaching, publication, public engagement, and the free exchange of ideas across borders and institutions.

Over the years, the Association has strengthened its work on academic freedom through research and guidance for its members. It issued the IPSA Academic Freedom Report 2021, presenting the results and analysis of a survey on violations of academic freedom conducted among its collective members in 2020. Building on this work, and in response to requests for practical guidance, the Guidelines on Academic Freedom Protection Procedures were developed in 2025. These are available on the IPSA website and are intended to help national associations shape policies and procedures suited to their own contexts.

For IPSA, academic freedom means the freedom of academics and researchers to work freely and effectively in undertaking their research and teaching, and to disseminate their ideas and results to colleagues and the public, nationally as well as internationally. It also includes the liberty of scholars and researchers to express opinions freely about the institution or system in which they work, to fulfil their functions without discrimination or fear of repression by the State or any other actor, and to participate in professional or representative academic bodies.

IPSA recognizes that academic freedoms can be threatened both directly and indirectly. Direct threats include arbitrary arrest, harassment, censorship, intimidation, and violence against scholars. Indirect threats include discriminatory employment practices, constraints on promotion and tenure, politically motivated restrictions on research funding, interference in curricula, and limitations on scholarly communication.

IPSA further recognizes that war, armed conflict, and other forms of organized violence can gravely undermine academic freedom. Such violations include the killing and maiming of academics, attacks on universities and other sites of learning, destruction of archives and research infrastructure, forced displacement, and restrictions on the mobility and exchange on which academic life depends. These acts are incompatible with academic freedom, with the protection of higher education, and with respect for humanitarian law.

IPSA therefore calls on all authorities and relevant actors to protect scholars, students, universities, and research institutions, to respect humanitarian law, and to uphold the conditions necessary for free inquiry, open debate, and peaceful scholarly exchange. IPSA also urges its members not to adopt or support policies and practices that conflict with these principles.

Political scientists facing threats to academic freedom may seek guidance and support through IPSA’s Secretariat and relevant IPSA bodies. In reaffirming these principles, IPSA underscores that academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and peace are mutually reinforcing conditions for scholarship and democratic life.

IPSA Executive Committee
April 2026