DPP Associate Professor Kirsten Roberts Lyer publishes co-authored book on the decline of university autonomy

DPP Associate Professor, Kirsten Roberts Lyer, has just published a co-authored book on the decline of university autonomy. University Autonomy Decline: Causes, Responses, and Implications for Academic Freedom by Kirsten Roberts Lyer, Ilyas Saliba, Janika Spannagel (Routledge) is an innovative book that draws on empirical data and case studies to provide insights into the causes, trajectories, and effects of a severe decline in university autonomy and the relationship to other dimensions of academic freedom. Five expert-authored case studies on academic freedom from diverse nations - Bangladesh, Mozambique, India, Poland, and Turkey - provide both support for the hypothesis in the book and detailed standalone analysis of the situation of academic freedom in those countries.

Drawing attention to ongoing discussions on standards for monitoring and assessment of academic freedom at regional and international organizations, this book identifies a need for clearer standards on academic freedom and a human rights-based definition of university autonomy. Further, the book calls for accompanying international oversight and the inclusion of criteria related to academic freedom in international university rankings.