Launched in 2024, the Arqus bottom-up initiative Implementing Academic Freedom for Responsible Internationalisation in Arqus was initiated to strengthen the Alliance’s capacity to uphold academic freedom and to support students and scholars at risk. Building on the work of the international network Scholars at Risk (SAR) and aligned with Arqus values of inclusion, diversity, and global engagement, the initiative places academic freedom at the centre of responsible internationalisation.
The project addresses the increasing challenges that universities face in contexts characterised by political repression, conflict, and democratic backsliding. It highlights the responsibility of higher education institutions to integrate academic freedom into everyday practices of teaching, research, mobility, and international cooperation, beyond emergency or crisis-driven responses.
One of the challenges identified lies in the accessibility and visibility of debates on academic freedom. Discussions are often confined to policy actors and documents, expert circles, or crisis-driven responses, limiting engagement by the wider academic community, including scholars, staff, students and non-specialist audiences. This creates a gap between scholarly knowledge, advocacy efforts, and broader academic constituencies, reducing opportunities for collective reflection and effective action. To address this gap, the initiative places particular emphasis on communication and knowledge sharing as integral components of institutional responsibility. These webpages contain multimodal resources developed in order to encourage the Arqus community to centre academic freedom across Arqus’ living labs, communities of practices and hubs.