Academic Freedom and the Diminished Subject

Abstract

Discussions about freedom of speech and academic freedom today are about the limits to those freedoms. However, these discussions take place mostly in the higher education trade press and do not receive any serious attention from academics and educationalists. In this paper several key arguments for limiting academic freedom are identified, examined and placed in an historical context. That contextualisation shows that with the disappearance of social and political struggles to extend freedom in society there has come a narrowing of academic life and a new and impoverished concept of 'academic freedom' for a diminished idea of the human subject, of humanity and of human potential.

Reflections on teaching and research: two inseparable components in higher education

“…Nevertheless, it was found that the marketing discipline still does not have its own subject benchmark statements (Gibson-Sweet & Rudolph, 2008). In higher education, academic freedom is usually limited to freedom in research (Hayes, 2009). Research is a key component in informing the latest epistemological developments in a field.…”

“…However, the essence of higher education is to develop students' capacity of critical questioning. Academic freedom is defined as 'the responsibility to speak our mind and challenge' (Hayes, 2009). Therefore, it is teachers' responsibilities to guide students to be aware of, to question and to evaluate their fundamental presuppositions.…”

“…As pointed out by Morgan (2010), education may become a commodity with students as consumers and tertiary institutions as the place for transmitting labour market skills. It triggers the fear that academic freedom will be shaded by commercial pressure resulting in bias in research process and outcomes (Hayes, 2009). Will education become more economy driven under these changes?…”

Academic freedom and the obligation to ensure morally responsible scholarship in nursing

“…Free speech (also referred to as ‘speech rights’) is considered to be foundational to all other freedoms and even to take priority over all others ‘because without it the very concept of freedom is lost’ (Harris 2005). If freedom of speech is restricted, so it is argued, then ‘freedom of thought is impossible’; and without freedom of thought, which translates into freedom of mind, there is no freedom at all (Hayes 2009a, 138).…”

Academic freedom: a lawyer’s perspective

“…It has been suggested that section 202 may have become 'for the most part hidden by management and forgotten by staff', allowing a climate of fear about speaking too controversially to arise in some universities (Hayes 2009citing Russell 1993. Subsequent legal developments have also potentially further weakened the position as it might benefit individual academics.…”