Academic Freedom Index 2026 Calls India an Autocratizing Country

A group of researchers from different countries made a big report about how free teachers and researchers are to think, teach, and study at universities around the world.

They looked at information from 1900 to 2025 and checked almost 179 countries.

The report says that more countries are getting worse at protecting this freedom than getting better.

It names India, Hungary, and Turkey as countries where universities have lost a lot of independence over the last ten years.

The researchers found that universities that make their own decisions protect their teachers much better than universities controlled by politics.

India's problem grew slowly since about 2013, while the United States got worse quickly starting around 2020.

The report also says that with liberal attitudes now common on campuses, teachers with conservative ideas are afraid to speak up.

The researchers say universities should be protected from outside interference, but they should still be watched fairly.