Solidarity with Azmi Sharom

6 Oct 2015: Academics in solidarity with Azmi Sharom at Palace of Justice (Federal Court), Putrajaya

Education International (EI) Sub-Regional Workshop on Teachers Migration and Social Protection

Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, September 2015

Wakil GERAK: Sdr. Robert Jeyakumar (Belakang, kanan)

Asian Correspondent: The plight of academic freedom in Malaysia

The government is pursuing new reforms and just recently released the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 with much fanfare. However, something conspicuously absent from these proposed reforms is a commitment to academic freedom.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/135569/the-plight-of-academic-freedom-in-malaysia/

Academic revolution demands for open access to knowledge

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/09/frustrated-blogpost-boycott-scientific-journals?CMP=share_btn_fb

The Guardian ........."Academic publishers operate with profit margins of 35% or more, while getting their raw materials and the work of thousands of taxpayer- and charity-funded scientists free.

Academics write the papers, academics referee the papers, academics select the papers that are going to be published – it's almost as though the publisher does nothing that we need except perhaps their organisational role and lending the name of the journal that confers a certain reputation."

VOX: Liberal college students want to be "coddled".

http://www.vox.com/2015/9/14/9326965/obama-political-correctness

Obama:  "The idea that you’d have somebody in government making a decision about what you should think ahead of time or what you should be taught, and if it’s not the right thought, or idea, or perspective or philosophy, that person would be — they wouldn’t get funding, runs contrary to everything we believe about education," 

How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/12/11/how-academia-resembles-a-drug-gang/

Academic systems rely on the existence of a supply of “outsiders” ready to forgo wages and employment security in exchange for the prospect of uncertain security, prestige, freedom and reasonably high salaries that tenured positions entail. Drawing on data from the US, Germany and the UK, Alexandre Afonso looks at how the academic job market is structured in many respects like a drug gang, with an expanding mass of outsiders and a shrinking core of insiders.

Scholars-at-Risk releases report on attacks on universities

SAR releases Free to Think, a path-breaking report on the crisis of attacks on higher education

June 23, 2015 -- At the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Scholars at Risk released Free to Think, the first report of its kind demonstrating the alarming frequency and scope of attacks on scholars, students and other members of higher education communities worldwide.

The report, which culminates four years of monitoring and reporting from SAR staff and researchers around the world, analyzes 333 attacks on higher education arising from 247 verified incidents in 65 countries between January 2011 and May 2015.

"Attacks on higher education are at crisis levels"

(New York) - Scholars at Risk announces the release of Free to Think, a report of the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. The culmination of four years of monitoring and analysis by SAR staff and researchers around the world, the report analyzes 333 attacks on higher education communities in 65 countries from January 2011 to May 2015, demonstrating the pressing need to raise awareness and document attacks on higher education:

• There is a crisis of attacks on higher education communities around the world.
• Attacks on universities, scholars and students are early warning signs of political, social and cultural insecurity.
• Universities and scholars are critical parts of national infrastructure that is essential to rebuilding conflict torn states.

The report calls on all stakeholders, including the international community, states, the higher education sector, civil society and the public at large to undertake concrete actions to increase protection for higher education communities, including documenting and investigating attacks, and holding perpetrators accountable.

SAR invites you to download and share the report with your networks over social media. Use the hashtag  #Free2Think and join the conversation!