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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on Le Monde or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: The latest Index of Academic Freedom report highlights a continued global decline in academic freedom, with 34 of 179 surveyed countries seeing a substantial drop
• The United States, Argentina, Georgia, Finland, and Israel are among the most affected nations
• Only eight countries registered improvements, mostly sparsely populated ones
🔭 The context: The report, published on 13 March by German-Swedish researchers, measures academic freedom across five key parameters, including institutional autonomy and freedom of research
• Assessments were conducted by 2,300 national experts throughout 2024
• The report also notes increasing political pressure on science, particularly in the US since the return of the Trump administration in 2025
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Academic freedom is crucial for independent scientific research, including studies on climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable development
• Restrictions on academic expression can hinder progress on global environmental challenges
• The decline in freedom may impact international collaboration and access to reliable data
⏭️ What's next: The trend suggests growing political interference in academic institutions, potentially limiting research innovation and critical discourse
• Future reports will track whether democratic institutions can counteract these pressures
• Policymakers and universities may need to adopt stronger protections for academic independence
💬 One quote: "Unfortunately, positive developments are identified in sparsely populated countries and few people benefit from them." – Katrin Kinzelbach, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
📈 One stat: One in three people today live in a country with strong academic freedom, down from one in two in 2006
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