New Research Programme to Strengthen Academic Freedom and University Resilience

Date

17 Sep 2026

Petra Schleiter

The University of Oxford’s Centre for Democratic Resilience, Bucerius Law School and Verfassungsblog have launched the Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme, a new international initiative dedicated to protecting academic freedom and university autonomy.

As democratic backsliding and political pressure on universities increase worldwide, the programme will combine interdisciplinary research, global monitoring, and policy engagement to better understand emerging threats to higher education and develop practical strategies to address them.

Bringing together expertise in political science, law, and public discourse, the partnership will examine vulnerabilities facing universities, identify early warning signs of authoritarian influence, and create evidence-based tools to help institutions strengthen their resilience.

Through research, public engagement, and collaboration with policymakers and higher education leaders, the programme aims to safeguard the independence of universities and their vital role in supporting democratic societies, informed public debate, and the pursuit of knowledge.

The programme will:

Conduct pioneering interdisciplinary research on threats to academic freedom and university autonomy, with an initial focus on Germany.
Monitor global developments affecting higher education and track emerging risks to institutional independence.
Identify how and why universities become vulnerable to authoritarian influence and democratic erosion.
Develop evidence-based frameworks and early warning indicators to help institutions recognise and respond to threats.
Produce practical recommendations and resilience-building tools for universities, policymakers, and civil society.
Foster informed public debate on the role of higher education in democratic societies through strategic engagement and knowledge exchange.

A unique international partnership

The programme brings together three organisations with distinct and complementary strengths:

DPIR’s Centre for Democratic Resilience at the University of Oxford, a leading centre for research on democratic resilience and democratic backsliding.
Bucerius Law School, one of Europe's leading centres for legal scholarship and constitutional analysis.
Verfassungsblog, a widely respected platform connecting academic expertise with public and policy debate.

Together, the partners will create a unique platform that combines academic excellence, legal expertise, and public engagement to address one of the most pressing challenges facing democratic societies today.

Why it matters

Independent higher education institutions are essential to healthy democracies. They produce knowledge, challenge assumptions, cultivate critical inquiry, and help societies respond to complex challenges.

At a time when academic freedom is under increasing pressure worldwide, the Higher Education and Democratic Resilience Programme will generate the research, monitoring, and practical solutions needed to protect universities and strengthen their capacity to fulfil their democratic mission. By identifying risks early and supporting institutional resilience, the programme seeks to ensure that higher education remains independent, innovative, and free for generations to come.

Director of Oxford’s Centre for Democratic Resilience, Professor Petra Schleiter commented:

"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."