Universities in Afghanistan Fight for Survival as the Taliban Extends its Reach
After more than five years of Taliban rule, Afghan higher education institutions continue their struggle for survival. Following massive restrictions that strike at the heart of academic freedom, such as banning women from attending universities or receiving any kind of formal education beyond the sixth grade, universities in Afghanistan are currently suffering from severe forms of government overreach that violate their institutional autonomy. Facing threats ranging from the on-campus presence of the Morality Police to the imposition of teaching content and even university closures, higher education in Afghanistan is in a struggle for survival.
Statistics presented by UNESCO and UNICEF in their recently published “Afghanistan Education Situation Report 2026” make clear the grim situation of Afghan higher education, especially in terms of enrollment. The number of female students, following the complete ban on women’s university attendance in December 2022, collapsed from 119,000 in 2019 to nearly zero in 2023 before reaching exactly zero in 2024 and onwards. That being said, male enrollment is also facing a significant decline. The number of male students enrolled in higher education decreased from 306,000 in 2019 to 208,000 in 2026. Similarly, the total number of faculty members fell by around a third between 2019 and 2026, down from 18,900 to 12,700. The number of female faculty members was down to just above 100 in 2025 from more than two thousand in years before the Taliban takeover.
A big reason for this decline is the Taliban government’s active promotion of religious schools instead of universities. In addition to the opening of many new religious schools, this process has included suspending and/or shutting down existing universities. In November 2025, the activities of four universities were suspended for a year by the Ministry of Higher Education. In August 2026, another 7 universities were given one-year suspensions while 2 universities had their educational licenses revoked completely.
The Taliban ministry alleges that these higher education institutions fall short of educational standards and legal requirements such as maintaining sufficient student attendance rates. Even if these claims are true, it is important to realize that the restrictive policies of the Taliban towards higher education put universities under severe financial strain, likely leading to disruptions in their administrative capacities. While the UNESCO-UNICEF report noted that the inadequacy in the number of faculty and the quality of educational infrastructure is an important cause for falling enrollments, a lecturer speaking to University World News further noted that a university degree is also becoming less appealing due to the dwindling prospects of employment post-graduation.
Even for universities that are able to continue operations, threats to academic freedom remain present on campus as governmental overreach violates the institutional autonomy of universities. One of these threats is made up of the on-campus activities of the Taliban’s Morality Police, which enforces and monitors compliance with extremely restrictive and intrusive rules for the practice and appearance of students, faculty, and staff.
One such set of rules is outlined in the Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was adopted in 2024, and which faculty and staff are required to memorize. In October 2026, teachers and staff at Kandahar University were warned by the Morality Police and required to participate in an oral exam on said law based on questions prepared by the Morality Police. A faculty member said that such practices not only lead to delays in the design of curricula and preparation for the academic year but also humiliate faculty. In late August 2026, 11 professors from Herat University had resigned in protest of the treatment of the Morality Police towards them. The Morality Police have established two offices on campus and continuously monitor students, faculty, and staff to make sure their clothing and appearance fit the standards that the Taliban imposes on universities. Students note that the Morality Police frequently interrupt ongoing classes to check compliance.
The pressure on students extends beyond the classroom, however. Some students report that the Morality Police hold nightly propaganda sessions in dormitories, forcing students to sit through lengthy sessions that sometimes extend late into the night. In these sessions, students are reminded about rules regarding their personal conduct, clothing, and appearance, such as requiring students to wear caps and grow out their beards, as well as being pressured to give up “thinking about Western subjects.” Failure to abide by clothing and appearance requirements can result in punishments for students, including the loss of crucial material resources. At Alberuni University, a Taliban official appointed as the Deputy for Student Affairs was reported to be using personal prerogative to deny the living allowance applications of students who do not wear caps and have beards of sufficient length.
The Taliban government also directly intervenes in educational content. According to the UNESCO-UNICEF joint report, 679 books and other educational materials were ordered to be removed from university curricula in 2025, while 18 fields of study were discontinued. Furthermore, it is reported that some decrees of the Taliban Supreme Leader, Hibatullah Akundzada, are being taught in Islamic studies and Islamic culture courses by religious scholars who support the Taliban.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the ongoing restrictions of academic freedom and violations of university autonomy in Afghanistan perpetrated by the Taliban government, as part of their broader efforts to dismantle formal education in the country and severely limit the number of people that have access to it. We call for an immediate end to restrictive policies against higher education, including the ban on women’s education, the imposition of strict clothing and appearance requirements on male students, censorship of educational content, and more. We invite the global community to join our call.
