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New Delhi: The Academic Freedom Index (AFI) 2026 update paints a grim picture of the state of academic freedom worldwide. Data collected over the past decade indicates that over 50 countries experienced a decline in academic freedom, with a mere nine registering improvements, signalling a broader global shift detrimentally impacting both independent research and institutional health. 

The AFI Update 2026, prepared by researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the V-Dem Institute, studies the deterioration of institutional autonomy and its widespread implications on the freedoms of individual scholars. Conceptualising academic freedom as a multi-dimensional construct, the AFI combines a range of individual-level indicators and institutional safeguards, including parameters such as freedom to teach and research, freedom of academic and cultural expression, institutional autonomy, and campus integrity. 

The report emphasises the statistically significant positive correlation between institutional autonomy and individual academics’ freedom. It spotlights the necessity for well-functioning academic institutions, unhindered by interference from non-academic actors, to ensure that academics are free to research and teach without state-level pressures and coercive executive measures. 

The Relationship Between Institutional Autonomy (x-axis) and Freedom to Research and Teach (y-axis), 2000–2025, Photo: Academic Freedom Index Update 2026.

Countries with higher levels of autonomy tend to provide better protection for academics to resist extraneous pressures, bestowing organisational respite to scholars who challenge the political and ideological status quo. “Conversely, when institutional autonomy is weak governments can exert indirect control through leadership appointments, conditional funding, or restrictions on operational decision-making in admissions, hiring of academic staff, and research content, thereby undermining academic freedom even without over repression,” the study notes. 

The research reports that academic freedom began to decline globally around 2012, with notable setbacks experienced by countries in Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Latin America. The study analyses the de facto levels of academic freedom across the globe in 2025, concluding that overall academic freedom is more vulnerable in regions like Asia (where India is located) and MENA than in Latin America, Europe, and North America — a trend which becomes even more pronounced when population size is taken into account. This suggests that a large portion of the world population is now increasingly impacted by restrictive academic freedoms. 

Increasing and Decreasing Scores for Institutional Autonomy, 2015–2025. Institutional autonomy increased in countries and territories above the diagonal line and decreased in countries and territories below it. The size of the dots indicates the population size of the countries/territories in 2024 (data from World Bank’s World Development Indicators), Photo: Academic Freedom Index Update 2026.

Within the regional context, India stands out as an important case of gradual yet sustained backsliding of academic autonomy. The report cites India as one of the several countries experiencing a persistent erosion of institutional autonomy over an extended period of time. The figure below displays a continuous downward trajectory in academic freedom in India between 2013 and 2025, as opposed to the sharp and rapid decline observed in the United States. This progressive and consistent pattern of decline reflects continued attacks on academic institutions, instead of sudden and isolated intrusions. 

Timing of Academic Freedom Decline Episodes in the United States of America (2020–2025), Hungary (2010–2025), India (2013–2025), Türkiye (2010–2017), Photo: Academic Freedom Index Update 2026.

More importantly, the report groups India alongside other “autocratising” countries such as Hungary and Türkiye, where academic freedom has been weakened through a milieu of political, administrative, legal, and social measures. The study accentuates that slow declines in institutional autonomy are often cumulative, with sustained pressures reshaping the academic landscape of a country over time in less visible but highly consequential ways. The challenges India faces in the realm of academic and institutional autonomy are not episodic but structural, seeking to control knowledge creation, dissemination, and interpretation. Thus, the gradual nature of India’s academic freedom decline is significant to understand. India’s placement on the lower rung of the Academic Freedom Index (bottom 10-20%) future reinforces these findings. 

Countries by Score, Academic Freedom Index, 2015 Compared to 2025. Notes: Red country names indicate cases of statistically significant declining cases of academic freedom over the past ten years. Blue country names indicate cases ofstatistically significant increasing cases of academic freedom, Photo: Academic Freedom Index Update 2026. 

This year’s AFI draws on the research of 2,357 experts from around the world, with over one-million data points collected. Assessing the de facto protection of freedom at both individual and institutional levels, the report underlines the dire state of academic freedom globally. It calls attention to the deep-rooted impact of weakening freedoms and autonomous thinking on the public sphere, wherein universities play a crucial role in instilling the habit of critical thinking. The report clarifies that institutional autonomy does not mean complete independence from the state, but advocates for a more stringent protection of decision-making within the legal framework. The academic community and civil society organisations play an integral role in this regard by serving as reservoirs of resistance against the overwhelming tide of executive and legislative overreach. 

© The Wire