In the last column (Sep 10), I discussed the perilous state of our teachers (in higher education institutions). In this column and the next, I sum up the increasingly worrisome state of faculty and students in higher education institutions the world over.

In an unprecedented assault on academic freedom in the US, a few days ago, Maura Finkelstein, associate professor of anthropology at Muhlenberg College, Pennsylvania, became the first ever tenured professor in the US to be fired from her job for reposting a pro-Palestine comment on her Instagram account. Remarkably, she has always been open about her support for Palestine but that did not prevent her from earning tenure in 2021. In fact, she had earlier taught courses on Palestine at the college! Besides, she is Jewish.

Of course, numerous professors without tenure have faced loss of work for speaking out against Israel’s genocidal war and apartheid regime in recent months and hundreds of students have faced and continue to face disciplinary action against them for their solidarity with Palestine. Similarly, many tenured professors have also faced investigations and suspension for their public criticism of Israel, but Maura Finkelstein is the first one to be fired.

This firing of a tenured professor signals the extent to which institutions of higher education are willing to betray their own exalted standards to appease conservative, pro-Israel groups and donors in the US. Shockingly, simultaneously, the college did nothing to prevent a fundraising campaign for the Israeli military in the campus.

The world over, scholars and academicians are increasingly at risk for simply doing their jobs. The 2023 report Free to Think, under the academic freedom monitoring project of the Scholars at Risk network, informs us that while scholars and university students have always faced frequent and pervasive attacks on their academic freedom and autonomy of their institutions in closed, authoritarian societies where dissent is routinely threatened and oppressed, these attacks are becoming alarmingly common in the relatively open and democratic societies as well.

The report documents 409 attacks on scholars, students and their institutions in 66 countries and areas between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023. However, the report emphasises that these figures represent only a fraction of the total number of attacks that occur annually because of limited resources available and other challenges of collecting and verifying all the reported incidents.

During this period, repeatedly, violent and coercive attacks disrupted academic activities and undermined academic freedom and institutional autonomy. These attacks endanger lives and livelihoods of scholars and students. They risk scholars’ careers, the future of students and result in deprivation of academic freedom and often lead to deaths and injuries as well. Further, they shrink the space for free exchange of ideas and in the process degrade the quality of teaching, research and discussion on the campus.

The monitoring project has organised reported attacks in six groups: (1) killings, violence and disappearances, (2) wrongful imprisonment, (3) wrongful prosecution, (4) loss of position and expulsion from study, (5) improper travel restrictions and (6) other severe or systematic issues. Other indicators of growing illiberalism are executive, legislative and policy-related changes aimed at restricting access to higher education, free expression on campus or autonomy or higher education institutions.

Violent attacks on scholars, students, staff and their institutions pose the most serious threat to higher education institutions. They not only result in loss of lives and injuries to many, they threaten the safety of campuses and incite fear among students, faculty, administrators as well as society at large. They have a chilling effect on academic freedom. During the reporting period, 161 incidents of violence were documented (since 2011, when the monitoring project began, 956 violent attacks on higher education institutions have been reported).

In Afghanistan, a suicide bomber first shot the guards outside an education centre in Kabul, then entered the building and detonated explosives, killing 53 students and injuring 110, mostly young girls and women from the ethnic minority Hazara community. In northern Gaza, Israeli airstrikes struck the local branch of Open University and killed at least six students and injured hundreds. After the airstrikes, eight other universities in Gaza were temporarily closed. In Somalia, the Islamist group Al Shabab carried our two deadly car bombings within minutes of each other near the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education, killing at least 121 people and injuring hundreds. In South Africa, unidentified gunmen tried to kill the vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, apparently because he was fighting against corruption in the university.

At the University of Arizona, a former student shot and killed a professor. The student had earlier been expelled because he threatened and harassed members of the university community. In France, a professor received death threats by believers in QAnon conspiracy theories because he suggested that everyday places like offices, schools and shops should be close to where people live: they saw it as a step towards ‘prison camps’ and restrictions on movement. In Canada, a philosophy professor and two students were stabbed during a lecture after the attacking student found out that the class was discussing gender issues. Fortunately, nobody died. In Japan, a sociology professor was violently assaulted because he researched and publicly commented on religious cults.

In other cases, in Iraq, research student Elizabeth Tsurkov was abducted, reportedly by Shiite militia, while conducting field work in Baghdad. Her research focused on the experiences of local people and the abuse by powerful groups. She is still in captivity.

...to be continued.

Vrijendra taught in a Mumbai college for more than 30 years and has been associated with democratic rights groups in the city