What keeps academic freedom alive? New research offers answers

Academic freedom is under growing pressure around the world. According to the 2026 Academic Freedom Index, it has declined in 50 countries over the past decade, while only nine have seen improvements.

Sweden remains among the countries with strong academic freedom, according to a government inquiry published in September 2026. However, the inquiry also highlights challenges, including threats and harassment, insecure employment and funding conditions, and forms of governance, both external and internal, that can limit researchers' independence. 

A new conceptual study published in The Accounting Review examines how journal rankings and performance measures have changed the way universities judge research quality. It assesses universities against their own stated commitments, asking whether the way research is evaluated actually serves the purpose of producing reliable knowledge and supports the role of academia in a democratic society.

The study is co-authored by Thomas Ahrens, Professor at United Arab Emirates University, and Jan Pfister, Associate Professor at the University of Turku and affiliated researcher with the House of Sustainable Society.

A freedom realized together

Drawing on established definitions, the study describes three connected conditions of academic freedom. Researchers must not only be free from interference by governments, funders or other outside interests. Their work must also be judged on scholarly grounds by other researchers with relevant expertise, and research communities must be able to govern their own academic affairs. None is enough on its own.

Academic freedom, the researchers argue, depends on how researchers recognize and engage with each other's work, both within and across different approaches and fields. Within fields, this happens through activities such as peer review, seminars, and supervision. Across fields, it happens in hiring, promotion and funding decisions. In both, researchers assess each other's contributions.

When universities focus too heavily on publication numbers and journal rankings, this collegial work counts for little, and differences between research approaches are overlooked. Academic freedom can then remain formally protected while being hollowed out from within.

"Academic freedom is not only something we defend," says Thomas Ahrens. "It is also something we practice every time we take a colleague's work seriously."

The challenge for sustainability research

Publication numbers and journal rankings can make evaluations more transparent, but they only capture how much research is published and where. This is only an indirect signal of what the research contributes.

When publishing in highly ranked journals becomes the main measure of success, researchers may feel pressured to choose established topics and methods rather than explore new ideas or take on riskier projects whose outcome is uncertain.

This can be particularly challenging for sustainability research, which often brings together different fields and addresses complex, long-term problems that require in-depth inquiry.

"Sustainability needs research that takes on difficult, long-term questions," says Jan Pfister. "When we rely only on rankings and metrics instead of engaging with the substance of research, we risk discouraging exactly that kind of work."

Research traditions differ in their questions, their methods, the forms in which they publish and the time their work requires, but rankings subject them to the same measures of quality. The researchers therefore argue that different approaches to research should be judged on their own merits. Peer review, academic discussion, and collaboration are essential to maintaining both quality and freedom.

A lesson beyond universities

The study does not suggest abandoning research evaluations or performance measures. Instead, it argues that metrics should help experts make informed judgments about the content of research, not replace their expertise.

There is also a broader question for businesses, policymakers, and other organizations here: Are performance measures helping them achieve their goals, or are the measures becoming goals in themselves?

The authors highlight the importance of supporting different research approaches and collaboration across disciplines. Academic freedom is not something universities can protect through policies alone. It is also created by academics themselves, through the decisions they make and how they recognize and evaluate research. Protecting that freedom helps create the conditions for research that can address society's most pressing challenges.

Research details

"Academic Freedom as Social Freedom: A Normative Reconstruction and Critique of the Accounting Discipline" published in The Accounting Review.

Authors:

• Thomas Ahrens, Professor of Accounting at United Arab Emirates University
• Jan Pfister, Associate Professor of Management Accounting at the University of Turku and affiliated researcher with the Accounting Frameworks Platform at the House of Sustainable Society

Funding: Research Council of Finland, project Prosocial Performance Management

Related publication: "Purposeful publishing: concern as methodological responsibility in accounting research" published in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (open access).