I linje med kollegiet : En intervjustudie om akademisk frihet med prefekter vid svenska lärosäten

Academic freedom is under threat, but in Sweden it lacks any extensive legal support and therefore the responsibility for it rests on the higher education system. Inside its institutions heads of departments play a key role, as they answer for the collegium as well as board of directors, tasked to act for meritocracy by the former and democracy by the latter. Furthermore, the institutions are organizationally largely unlegislated. How heads of departments define academic freedom as well as their responsibility for it is thus decisive for how it’s realized. This thesis is led by the questions as eleven heads of departments from different institutions and disciplines are interviewed. The findings are, firstly, that the respondents mainly define academic freedom as the freedom of research, that is, the possibility to freely conduct one’s research from start to finish and publish its findings. Secondly, they namely define their own responsibility for it as enabling the freedom of research for their collegium.