More than every other researcher believes that academic freedom is threatened in Sweden and many change the focus of their research because it can be perceived as controversial. This is shown by a new report from the University Chancellor’s Office.
– It is worrying and this is much worse than I feared, says Education Minister Mats Persson (L).
It was after Kalla fakta’s disclosure in the fall of 2022 that researchers at Swedish universities were silenced or frozen out, after they raised sensitive topics, that the government appointed an investigation.
The purpose of it was to map the spread of the so-called cancel culture within the university world. The results show that every second teacher, researcher and PhD student believes that academic freedom is threatened and that every eighth researcher has changed the focus of their research as a consequence.
Worrying development
Education Minister Mats Persson believes that the results show a worrying development.
– Above all, it is a threat to the individual researcher’s right to have their academic freedom, but we all lose because we do not obtain the knowledge we could have obtained.
In the report, several areas are highlighted as problematic. Among other things, researchers self-censor by deliberately avoiding raising certain issues or treating topics they perceive as controversial. There is simply a fear of standing out unfavorably.
Many of these problems are in the walls. People talk about a culture of silence and such. How to break it?
– It’s about leadership. It is about being clear that academic freedom is important and that there are no forbidden words or that there are no forbidden and dangerous subjects to research. And it is important to stand up for an individual researcher’s academic freedom, says Mats Persson.