Feature

Under Pressure

Academic freedom and internationalization are at the heart of higher ed. But in the face of growing global threats, the relationship between the two is becoming more complex.

Internationalization has become entangled in broader questions about academic freedom, particularly when institutions enter partnerships in countries where it is under attack. Illustration: Shutterstock

Mark Toner

August 3, 2022

It started with suggestions to focus on other topics, followed by a request from a government official to publish research in his name. But after being arrested by state intelligence services and having his home searched multiple times, Valentin Migabo, a political scientist from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), faced a difficult decision.

“My research on victims of the massacres in eastern DRC made me a target and required me to make a choice between abandoning my study and submitting to censorship, or disappearing,” Migabo says. In 2019, he was invited by Scholars at Risk (SAR) to come to Canada and continue his work at the University of Quebec at Montreal and McGill University.

Migabo’s experience is an example of the global threats to academic freedom that have endured for decades. In 2021, SAR received more than 1,000 new applications for scholars seeking assistance; the organization has aided more than 1,600 scholars and worked with more than 560 host campuses across the world since its inception in 2000.

“There are good things that can come from dealing with countries that may or may not share our democratic principles or protect the free exchange of knowledge as we would in the United States,” says Kiki Caruson, PhD, who leads international engagement at the University of South Florida. “Public institutions are here to serve the greater good—not just in our backyards, but around the world. But we cannot deny there is risk that we must take into account.”