The state of academic (un)freedom and scholar rescue programmes: a contemporary and critical overview

Abstract

The attack on academic freedom has worsened in different parts of the world regardless of political context. Universities, academics and students have come under increasing attack and are subjected to censorship and violence, while academic programmes that have been categorised as ‘politically sensitive’ are cancelled or banished from the curriculum. Scholar rescue programmes remain the most important and enduring response to safeguarding and restoring the scholarly freedoms of academics whose intellectual rights have been threatened. However, few scholarly assessments of the state of the art in the scholar rescue environment are available. The present article is a critical review and meta-analysis of the current state of scholar rescue programmes, which have been established in response to the onslaught on academic freedom and freedom of academics. I describe current scholar rescue practice and raise critical issues that organisations in scholar rescue and mobility work must confront to meaningfully serve threatened academics around the world.