Internal Threats to Academic Freedom

Problems of Professional Control

Bibliographic Data

ID12416936
AuthorsJoseph C Hermanowicz (0000-0001-5155-4941, University of Georgia, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume33
IssueS1
PagesS44-S55
Publication date2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1062-7987 • E-ISSN: 1474-0575
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1062798725000171
OpenAlexW4410506555
LanguageEN
References cited20

Attention has customarily centred on the academic profession’s ability to carry out its work in light of external threats to academic freedom. This article draws attention to internal threats − what the academic profession does to impair itself. Self-regulation is a central attribute of professions. In the absence of professional control, quality of practice is thrown into question. Like academic freedom, self-regulation is a principle and not always a practice. Focused on the academic profession’s teaching role, this article examines two types of problems in professional control that impair academic freedom: slippage and overreach . Both are instances of organizational deviance and abrogation of professional ethics. It is argued that the patterns threaten the structural integrity and public confidence of faculty, fields and higher-education institutions and thereby compromise the profession’s capacity to persuasively defend itself

Academic freedom · Business · Control (management · Economics · Higher education · Management · Political science · Academic Freedom and Politics · Law

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