Worrying declines in academic freedom in Western Europe and the US could get worse, researcher warns

A leading researcher on academic freedom has warned that the independence of educational institutions could decline further because of the political situation.

Angelo Vito Panaro, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, said that the recent decline in academic freedom in Western European countries was very much connected to anti-pluralist parties in government. "Since we see this rise of anti-pluralist parties in governments, there is a risk that academic freedom could continue to decline," he said.

Panaro, who worked with a team of researchers from FAU and the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 2026 Academic Freedom report, spoke to News Tank on 19/03/2026 about the declines in academic freedom.

"The most worrying declines are in Western European countries and North America. Well-established democracies are also experiencing a decline in academic freedom," Panaro said. The index showed a decline in academic freedom in 50 countries between 2015 and 2025.

Panaro said that the United States…