The Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme: combining interdisciplinary research, global monitoring, public and policy engagement to safeguard independent higher education and intellectual freedom. With Oxford’s Centre for Democratic Resilience, Bucerius Law School and Verfassungsblog.
Programme Overview
Academic freedom is a cornerstone of democratic societies. Higher education institutions generate independent knowledge, drive innovation, nurture critical thinking, and provide the evidence and expertise that inform policy making and public debate.
As democratic backsliding accelerates globally, universities are increasingly facing political pressure and interference. Protecting academic freedom and institutional autonomy now requires a systematic effort to monitor emerging threats, robust analysis of vulnerabilities, and practical strategies to strengthen resilience across the sector.
What is it?
The Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme combines world-leading research, global monitoring, and strategic engagement to help democratic societies defend one of their most important institutions: independent higher education.
The programme is a major international research and engagement initiative of the Centre for Democratic Resilience at the University of Oxford, Bucerius Law School, and Verfassungsblog. We have joined forces in a unique international partnership that combines leading expertise in democratic resilience, legal scholarship, and public engagement.
Together, we will conduct pioneering research to stress test academic freedom and university autonomy in Germany, monitor global developments affecting higher education, and work with universities and policymakers to develop practical strategies for strengthening institutional resilience.
What will it do?
This unique international partnership combines leading expertise in democratic resilience, legal scholarship, and public engagement. Bringing together interdisciplinary excellence in political science and law it will deliver pioneering research on threats to academic freedom and university autonomy in Germany, while monitoring global developments affecting higher education around the world.
The programme will examine how and why universities become vulnerable to authoritarian influences and identifies warning signs before serious threats occur. Based on political science and legal analysis, the programme will develop evidence-based tools to assist decision-making by the sector and policymakers. It aims to strengthen universities and other higher education institutions so that they can identify and respond to these risks.
Why is it important, and why now?
The Academic Freedom Index (2026) shows that over the last decade, academic freedom has declined in 50 countries and improved only in nine. Around the world, higher education institutions are increasingly exposed to political and authoritarian pressures. Understanding these vulnerabilities, and protecting the sector from democratic erosion, is essential for safeguarding democratic institutions.
At a time when academic freedom faces growing pressure worldwide, the programme will build knowledge and capabilities to protect the independence of higher education institutions and their capacity to fulfil their essential democratic mission.
Programme components
The Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme is a novel interdisciplinary research programme dedicated to understanding, monitoring, and addressing threats to higher education autonomy, ensuring universities remain independent, resilient, and capable of fulfilling their essential democratic mission to deliver independent research and education.
By combining Germany-focussed research with a global perspective, the programme will help protect universities as places of independent inquiry, ensuring they can continue to generate knowledge, nurture critical thinking, and contribute to the strength and vitality of democratic societies.
The programme examines how and why universities become vulnerable to authoritarian influences and identifies warning signs before serious threats occur. Based on political science and legal analysis, the programme will develop evidence-based tools to assist decision-making by the sector and policymakers. The programme aims to strengthen universities and other higher education institutions so that they can identify and respond to these risks.
The programme's mission is to study vulnerability to authoritarian encroachment and to equip leaders and institutions with practical tools to defend academic freedom and the institutional integrity of higher education.
The Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme is a leading international initiative dedicated to protecting academic freedom and university autonomy by combining cutting-edge research in political science and law with global threat monitoring and strategic engagement to strengthen democratic resilience in higher education.
- The programme combines rigorous research with continuous monitoring, timely analysis and strategic dialogue in a mutually reinforcing model. By creating an ongoing exchange between research, policy, public discourse, and institutional practice, it focuses attention on emerging threats while building a durable international network for higher education resilience.
Partner Quotations
Director of the Centre for Democratic Resilience, Professor Petra Schleiter said:
"Universities play a critical role in sustaining democratic societies, yet across the world we are seeing increasing pressure on academic independence. This programme provides the evidence, tools and partnerships needed to anticipate threats and strengthen institutional resilience."
President of Bucerius Law School, Professor Michael Grünberger commented:
Academic freedom is defended not only through litigation and legislation, but also by resilient universities and leadership that sees threats coming. We will systematically map where German higher education law is vulnerable to undue political interference – and work directly with university leaders and policymakers to turn that knowledge into practical defences. In this programme, research and knowledge exchange are not consecutive stages: we have designed them together from day one.“
Director of public discourse platform, Verfassungsblog, Maximilian Steinbeis added:
"Attacks on academic freedom hit legal and political scholarship directly. Yet these are also the fields best equipped to anticipate such attacks and to resist them. With this project, we set out to mobilise that expertise, so that the disciplines under attack become part of the defence."