According to a recent report from the international network “Scholars at Risk” (SAR), there have been 391 attacks on university members in sixty-five countries over the past year. Armed conflicts and political crises, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, resulted in an increased risk to research, teaching, and higher education communities as a whole between September 1, 2021 and August 31, 2022. The findings from the Free to Think 2022 report are a cause for major concern at Freie Universität Berlin. As an educational institution that assumes responsibility on a global scale, the university considers one of its most important goals in conducting its international activities to be the protection of academic freedom. Freie Universität Berlin became the first German university to join SAR in 2012. Currently, there are thirty scholars who are refugees or at-risk carrying out research and teaching at Freie Universität. They receive financial support through different programs such as the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, Einstein Foundation, Academy in Exile, or the university’s own funds.

Vice President for International Affairs at Freie Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Verena Blechinger-Talcott, commented on the recent report: “As an ‘International Network University,’ we at Freie Universität see it as our duty to take a stand when academic freedom comes under attack and to show solidarity with persecuted researchers through tangible action. Attacks on university members and research institutions affect us all because they impact the ways in which we are able to think critically, raise questions, and freely exchange opinions and ideas.”

Dr. Florian Kohstall, head of the “Global Responsibility” program at Freie Universität Berlin and Academics in Solidarity, added: “The report shows us just how important it is to establish a safe environment for at-risk researchers and, in doing so, to support them in pursuing their research.”

Find out more about FUBs engagement in this field here.