Students gathered at Pondicherry University, calling for administrative sanctions against professor accused of sexual harassment, October 9, 2025. Photo credit: Maktoob Media . Academic freedom is rapidly deteriorating in India. On the Academic Freedom Index, the country’s score has fallen from 0.66 in 2012 to 0.16 in 2024, the last year reported in the index. In the last few months, as well, from courses and events to student and faculty expression, higher education in India has been facing...

Protestors gathered near the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. Photo Credit: Wall Street Journal/Getty Images . University students have played a central role in the nationwide protests in Iran in the past month, which have been severely repressed by the Iranian government, leading to the deaths of 3,117 people according to the government, while the UN special rapporteur on Iran estimated that the actual death toll could be around 20,000. Unlike previous protests, this protest wave...

A poster protesting TNS President Joel towers next to students, faculty and staff picketing on December 10, 2025. Photo Credit: Hyperallergic . A shock-therapy restructuring currently being carried out by senior administrators at The New School threatens the institution which, from its beginning, has been dedicated to academic freedom and critical inquiry. This current crisis shows how threats to academic freedom are intimately connected with the growing power of a managerial class within...