Academic freedom and its expression in the universities all over the world

Abstract

The present article, based on the research by Karran (2007), aims to disclose the expression of academic freedom in the countries of European Union between academic community and society. There is also emphasized negative experience in the sphere of the Lithuanian higher education dating from 2011, by contrasting the legal documents regulating the activity of the university with arbitrariness that discloses a weak link in discussion between academic community and society as a whole. The experience of other countries (Latin America, Mexico, Zimbabwe, China, Belarus and others) is presented, based on the theoretical analysis of literature. On the basis of the analysis of academic literature and scholarly research there are questions for discussion It is asked whether academic community and society can resist the commercialisation of higher education, whether they can safeguard and nurture the value of higher education. One can only hope that with the world becoming more and more pragmatic, society will still consider university as an institution fostering culture and not only as a service providing institution, or as a participant or means in economic relations. The aim of the present article is to discuss and disclose the conception of academic freedom, its expression in various universities around the world. The problem analysed is what is the relation of academic freedom with society and inside the academic community addressing the challenges of the 21st century. The aim of the article is to disclose the relationship of academic d m as the basic value of higher education and society as well as academic community in different universities around the world. The work is based on the following conceptual approaches: conception of liberal higher education conception of democratic higher education. The research methods used: theoretical analysis of academic literature, international and Lithuanian documents, interpretation, evaluation and generalisation with the aim of disclosing the characteristic features of academic freedom, its expression in different universities around the world. It should be stressed that there is no established appropriate and comprehensive definition of academic freedom, that is why in the present article, based on the scholarly observations, academic freedom is considered to be the foundation of activity of the university, part of its mission, paving the way for its professors, scholars, students to advance science and constructively criticise society. It should be emphasized that there is a need for institutional autonomy in order to ensure freedom of academic community.