The pressures and pleasures of academic freedom: How agency bridges the gap
In recent years, the conversation around academic freedom has often centered on political pressure, censorship, or institutional overreach (Darian-Smith, 2025). These are important concerns, yet they tell only part of the story. Academic freedom is not just a matter of external defense; it is also an academic’s internal experience and responsibility. It shapes how academics live their professional lives, relate to their work, and sustain their mental health. Academic freedom is protected by law (Altbach, 2001; Karran, 2009), but this does not mean that academics find themselves in a land of milk and honey. As Karran and Mallinson (2019) emphasize, academic freedom rests on a reciprocal understanding: academics are free to explore and teach controversial and politically sensitive topics, as long as they uphold academic norms and institutional obligations. Academic freedom, thus, is both a privilege and a mission, one that brings pressures as well as pleasures. To make well-informed choices within this freedom, academics need agency, i.e., the capacity to make deliberate decisions in challenging situations. In this blog, I will argue how agency is the crucial link that bridges the gap between pressures and pleasures that come with academic freedom. While academic freedom offers the delight of intellectual exploration with students and self-directed research, it also comes with the weight of expectation, precarity, and sometimes, isolation. By cultivating agency, academics can fulfill their duty to enhance knowledge and educate students to critical free thinkers (cf. Van der Rijst, 2024) while sustaining positive emotions in their work.
Academic freedom is not the same as free speech; it is a professionally bound right
Academic freedom is a cherished principle within modern universities; a cornerstone of a well-functioning society (Darian-Smith, 2025; Whittington, 2022). At its core, academic freedom encompasses the independence to inquire, teach, and speak without undue interference. This freedom enables us to engage in critical debate and challenge the status quo, a vital function of academia. However, despite its foundational role, academic freedom is frequently misunderstood and contested. A common source of confusion lies in its conflation with the concept of free speech (Darian-Smith, 2025). While the two are closely related, they are not identical. Academic freedom is rooted in disciplinary expertise and accountability to academic peers, rather than simply the right to express personal opinions (EUA, 2025). This distinction is fundamental because academic freedom entails both rights and responsibilities. Without this distinction, academic freedom risks being mistaken for unchecked personal expression or activism, thereby weakening public trust. The tension between autonomy and accountability becomes especially pronounced when scholarship confronts societal values, ideologies, or political power. In such contexts, academics may encounter both external pressures and internal forms of censorship. Yet, the discomfort provoked by challenging prevailing norms is not a flaw of academic freedom; it is a feature. It is precisely this disruptive potential that enables academic work to serve the public good, drive progress, and hold institutions to account (EUA, 2025). It empowers academics to pursue and disseminate truth through research, teaching, and public discourse, and demands that such efforts be guided by ethical standards (Giroux, 2024; Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, 2025). As Robert M. Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago, stated in 1935:
“Anybody who has real familiarity with higher education will not hesitate to assert that professors are not engaged in subversive teaching. They will also remind the public that professors are citizens. They are not disfranchised when they take academic posts. They therefore enjoy all the rights of free speech, free thought, and free opinion that other citizens have. No university would permit them to indoctrinate their students with their own views. No university would permit them to turn the classroom into a center of propaganda. But off the campus, outside the classroom, they may hold or express any political or economic views that it is legal for an American to express or hold. Any university would be glad to have Mr. Einstein among its professors. Would anybody suggest that he should be discharged because he is a ‘radical’?”
The pressures and pleasures of academic freedom
To understand academic freedom only as a right is to miss its deeper significance (Darian-Smith, 2025). In truth, academic freedom should be understood as a mission, a collective responsibility that carries both pressures and pleasures (cf. Altbach, 2001). It is not merely a shield against interference, but a charge to seek, generate, and share knowledge in service of the public good.
The pressures: Academic freedom as a mission
The genuine meaning of academic freedom brings with it real and enduring pressures (cf. Fuchs, 1963). When seen as a mission, academic freedom demands more than self-direction; it calls for integrity, intellectual courage, and a deep commitment to the pursuit of truth. This can be daunting.
To work under the protection of academic freedom is to be constantly invited, if not required, to interrogate conventional knowledge, confront complex problems, and produce work that may not be easily understood or universally welcomed. Academics engaged in socially relevant or politically sensitive research often find themselves under scrutiny from within the academy and outside it as well (cf. Darian-Smith, 2025; Giroux, 2024). The sense of mission can become a source of tension when external stakeholders – governments, industries, and interest groups – attempt to influence or suppress inquiry that threatens their positions. Moreover, academic freedom, rightly understood, is not a license for personal opinion but a responsibility to engage in evidence-based discourse. The duty that academic freedom insists is not light. It brings with it a unique kind of pressure: to remain intellectually honest in the face of complexity, to resist ideological influence, and to serve the public good even when doing so is inconvenient, unpopular, or even risky. Academic freedom, therefore, puts pressure on academics by the idea that academic work should be connected to societal impact and intellectual responsibility (Altbach, 2001).
The pleasures: Academic freedom calls for academics’ agency
Yet alongside the pressures academic freedom brings, it also brings pleasures. At its core, the privilege of enjoying academic freedom enables academics to show agency. Showing agency means being in charge of deliberate, meaningful choices, a process that is empowering and pleasurable, as it affirms one’s role as an active contributor to work (Vähäsantanen et al., 2020). Academic freedom opens the door to genuine intellectual exploration, allowing us to follow curiosity wherever it leads, to teach courses that challenge assumptions, and to contribute to urgent societal conversations with substance and integrity (Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, 2025).
There is immense privilege in shaping a research agenda driven by authentic questions, in designing courses that provoke real and in-depth dialogue, and in engaging students in learning that can be personally and politically transformative. Academics, in this sense, do not simply observe or comment on the world; they use their agency to help shape it by bringing evidence, nuance, and critique to society.
In my opinion, this may be one of the highest callings and most privileged roles: contributing to a better world by pursuing one’s own intellectual curiosity, while supporting and inspiring others to do the same in their own ways. Fully in line with what Darian-Smith (2025) argues, it is therefore especially alarming that entire academic disciplines are being defunded or eliminated, often on grounds of vague or economically motivated justifications. Such actions frequently result in the marginalization or silencing of research areas and critical perspectives that are essential for interrogating established power structures. The growing pattern of restricting academic inquiry (through budget cuts, policy interference, or blacklists of research topics) forms part of a broader authoritarian trend that threatens the institutional autonomy of universities. As a result, academia is increasingly being stripped of its capacity to challenge orthodoxy and fulfill its democratic responsibility.
To conclude, in defending academic freedom, we are defending much more than the rights of academics; we are safeguarding one of the essential conditions for social progress. And in cherishing the pleasures of academic freedom, we must also recognize the responsibility they entail: to use our agency not only to pursue what fascinates us, but to stand up for the values that make that pursuit possible. I leave it up to the reader to decide whether that is a pressure or a pleasure.
References
Altbach, P. G. (2001). Academic freedom: International realities and challenges. Higher Education, 41(1–2), 205–219. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026781906936
Darian-Smith, E. (2025). Knowledge production at a crossroads: Rising antidemocracy and diminishing academic freedom. Studies in Higher Education, 50(3), 600–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2347562
European University Association. (2025, February). How universities can protect and promote academic freedom: EUA principles and guidelines. https://www.eua.eu
Fuchs, R. F. (1963). Academic freedom: Its basic philosophy, function, and history. Indiana University Press.
Giroux, H. A. (2024). Educators as public intellectuals and the challenge of fascism. Policy Futures in Education, 22(8), 1533-1539. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226844
Hutchins, R. M. (1935, April 18). What is a university? In Banout, T. & Ginsburg, T. (Eds.), The Chicago canon on free inquiry and expression. The University of Chicago Press. https://www.press.uchicago.edu (ISBN 978-0-226-83781-9)
Karran, T. (2009). Academic freedom in Europe: time for a Magna Charta? Higher Education Policy, 22, 163-189. https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2009.2
Karran, T., & Mallinson, L. (2019). Academic freedom and world-class universities: A virtuous circle? Higher Education Policy, 32, 397-417. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-018-0087-7
Netherlands Commission for UNESCO. (2025, May 26). Een vrije en veilige wetenschap: Vijf adviezen aan de minister voor Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap. [A free and safe science: Five recommendations to the Minister of Education, Culture and Science] (Jon Verriet, Ed.). https://www.unesco.nl/nl/publicatie/een-vrije-en-veilige-wetenschap-vijf-adviezen-aan-de-minister-voor-onderwijs-cultuur-en-wetenschap/in-het-kort
Van der Rijst, R. (2024, 13 september). On the relevance and necessity of research into higher education. Scholarly Publications. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/4054961
Vähäsantanen, K., Paloniemi, S., Räikkönen, E., & Hökkä, P. (2020). Professional agency in a university context: Academic freedom and fetters. Teaching and Teacher Education, 89, 103000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.103000
Whittington, K. E. (2022). Academic freedom and the mission of the university. Houston Law Review, 59(4), 821–842. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3998593
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