India’s Academic Freedom Hits Lowest Level Since 1900 as Pakistan and Iraq Rank Higher: Research Reveals

Key Points:

INDIA’S ACADEMIC FREEDOM has been recorded at its lowest level since 1900, according to a report by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Academic Freedom Index Project. The updated 2026 report has been published on V-Dem’s official website, listing all the countries where academic freedom has witnessed a significant decline over the last decade.

As per the report, 50 countries have seen a decline in academic freedom, whereas only nine have witnessed some form of improvement. 

The Academic Freedom Index project is a collaborative effort between researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) in Germany, the V-Dem Institute, the Scholars at Risk Network in Sweden, and the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi).

Describing academic freedom as a concept with multiple dimensions that encompasses both “individual and institutional dimensions,” the project evaluates academic freedom based on five factors. 

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The Academic Freedom Index is based on three individual dimensions, including the freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic and cultural expression, and freedom of academic exchange, whereas the institutional dimensions include institutional autonomy and campus integrity. The Academic Freedom index project was launched in 2019. 

India’s Decline in the Academic Freedom Index

The research, based on the work of more than 2,000 scholars worldwide, suggests that India is among the countries where there has been a gradual decline in institutional autonomy.

Other countries include Hungary and Turkey. The data further indicates that Indian institutions have also shown a sharp decline across several factors since 2013–14. As per the analysis conducted by the project, academic freedom is more prevalent in regions such as Latin America, Europe, large parts of Southern and Western Africa, North America, and Oceania.

The data, which analyses the period from 1900 to 2025, shows that India’s academic freedom was at its lowest between 1900 and 1950 in the freedom to research and teach dimension, while it recorded its lowest scores across the other dimensions in 2025.

According to a further analysis by ThePrint, India recorded a score of 0.25 out of 1, marking a steep decline of 0.269 points since 2015. India’s scores across the various dimensions used to evaluate academic freedom were lower than they were in 2015, indicating a major decline. India’s overall score fell to 0.14 in 2025. 

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Procedure Used to Evaluate the Academic Freedom Index

Using the expertise of 2,357 scholars from across the world, the research is made publicly available and produces an aggregate index of academic freedom based on the commonly used Bayesian IRT measurement model.

The 2026 report suggests that many countries have outperformed India in the Academic Freedom Index, including Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria. The countries with the highest scores are Czechia, Estonia, Belgium, Jamaica, and Slovenia, among others. At the bottom of the list were Myanmar, Nicaragua, South Sudan, and North Korea, among others.

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(Edited By Harsh Pandey)

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