Teacher at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany), specialist in international human rights policy, Katrin Kinzelbach is at the initiative of the “index of academic freedom”, which follows five parameters annually in 179 countries: freedom of research and teaching, freedom of exchange and university dissemination, freedom of academic and cultural expression, institutional autonomy of universities and campus integrity. In 2024, this indicator continued, on average, its decline.
“Obscurantist officials”, “massive financial cuts”, “threats to institutional autonomy” … Your new report details the “unprecedented pressure” put by the Trump administration on science. Did you sincerely expect such political decisions?
Many researchers hoped that the provocative rhetoric of the electoral campaign would not result in real anti -science policy when Donald Trump returns to the White House. Her first mandate, from 2017 to 2021, was not a splendid period for science, but she was not devastating either. Some hoped that the responsibility for the function modeled its program, or would lead it to focus on other concerns, forgetting the university world.
Personally, I was less optimistic, because I had already experienced a similar evolution in Hungary: a few years ago, I teamed at the University of Central Europe when it was attacked by the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Nevertheless, I find that the speed, the type and the number of attacks against American universities since January are breathtaking.
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