Notion of Academic Freedom – Recent Study in Georgian Higher Educational Space

Academic freedom is a fundamental principle of higher education, essential for the advancement of knowledge and the preparation of students for the challenges of the 21st century. It is important to protect academic freedom and to ensure that academic and administrative personnel, as well as students, are able to exercise their freedom without fear of reprisal. Academic freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia, the Law of Georgia on Higher Education, accreditation and authorization standards. However, university community and organizations have different understandings of academic freedom. This can make it difficult to assess whether or not academic freedom is being protected or limited in a particular case. Accordingly, the research aims to clarify the meaning of academic freedom based on the Law of Georgia on Higher Education and identifies some of the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure that academic freedom is protected or limited in practice. The paper argues that academic freedom should be understood as the right of academic and administrative personnel, as well as students, to teach, research, and publish without fear of censorship or reprisal. The author suggests that more needs to be done to educate academic community and administrators about the meaning of academic freedom and how it can be protected. The paper concludes that academic freedom is a guarantor of innovation in educational institutions, which ensures that ideas dictated by freedom of thought are implemented by universities, academic, scientific personnel, and students and creates new knowledge.