Academic Freedom Index 2026 Places India Among Countries With Severely Restricted Academic Freedom

Key facts

• The 'Free to Think 2026' report by Scholars at Risk documented 382 attacks on higher education communities in 59 countries and territories from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
• According to the 2026 Academic Freedom Index (AFI), academic freedom declined significantly in 50 of the 179 countries analysed over the past decade, with only nine registering improvements.
• India is listed in the 'severely restricted' category of the 2026 AFI, alongside Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine.
• The report's lowest category, 'completely restricted', includes Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Turkiye, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Gaza.
• India's AFI score fell from 0.38 in 2022 to 0.14 in 2025.
• In the United States, institutional autonomy fell from 3.3 in 2019 to 1.7 in 2025.
• The report alleged that the BJP-led Central government deployed the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a 'primary vehicle for state influence' over higher education, including loosening vice-chancellor qualification requirements and removing the 10 per cent cap on contract faculty.
• The report cited the 2025 termination of South Asian University professor Snehashish Bhattacharya, who had signed a November 2022 letter raising concerns over the university's handling of student protests.
• It also cited the termination of Lora Santhakumar, an assistant professor at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu, whose services were ended on December 9, 2025, after social media posts opposing war shared on May 7, 2025.
• On March 11, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a 'life ban' barring three academics who collaborated with NCERT on a Class 8 social science textbook from receiving public funding for curriculum development.