Academic freedom in Turkey has sharply declined in the past 15 years, putting the country in 164th place among 179 countries as of December 2023, according to a recent update to an index drafted by German and Swedish scholars.
The Academic Freedom Index (AFI), which assesses de facto levels of academic freedom around the world, shows Turkey ranking in the bottom 10 percent with a score of 0.09 out of 1, putting it just ahead of countries with strict restrictions such as North Korea, Myanmar and Iran. The country ranks behind Qatar, Egypt and Cuba.
The index shows that 56 countries had significantly higher levels of de facto academic freedom in 2023 than in 1973, while academic freedom substantially worsened in 10 countries, including Turkey, Bangladesh, India and the US, in the same timeframe.
According to the latest index map, Turkey had a score of 0.57 in 2002 and remained at the same level until 2009 (0.56), with the quantified value of academic freedom falling more than 83 percent in the past 15 years.
The index is based on five key indicators: freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy of universities, campus integrity and freedom of academic and cultural expression, each with a scoring range from 0 to 4.
Through these five indicators, the AFI captures elements of academic freedom that are “comparable across different university systems around the world” and “specific to the academic sector.”
Turkey’s academic freedom has significantly deteriorated across all key areas, with the freedom to research and teach (0.91), academic exchange and dissemination (1.23), institutional autonomy (0.92), campus integrity (0.58) and academic and cultural expression (0.49) all experiencing declines of between 0.2 and 1 point in their scores from 2013 to 2023.
This downward trajectory in Turkey’s academic freedom is primarily linked to events following a 2016 coup attempt. In the wake of the abortive putsch, the Turkish government carried out a sweeping crackdown on the academic sector. This crackdown resulted in the dismissal of over 30,000 teachers and 7,000 academics, with many facing serious consequences such as legal action, loss of employment or imprisonment for criticizing government policies.
A significant factor in this decline was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 2016 decision to abolish intra-university elections for the selection of university rectors, a move that replaced a traditionally democratic process with direct presidential appointments. This policy has faced widespread criticism for undermining the independence of institutions of higher learning and centralizing control in the hands of the government.
AFI 2024 shows that 3.6 billion people live in regions where academic freedom is completely restricted, while the situation is improving only in 10 countries.