Academic Freedom in the Digital University (2024)

The report, based on a survey of over 2,000 UK academics, shows most believe that:

• digitally-enabled changes to universities' performance management practices over the last decade have led to reduced academic freedom (82.4% agree/strongly agree)
• the ways in which universities use digitally-enabled measurements of the student experience have led to reduced academic freedom (83.8% agree/ strongly agree)
• protection for academic freedom is in decline (58.2% agree/strongly agree)
• employment protection is in decline (72.1% agree/strongly agree).

The report makes the following recommendations so that academic freedom can be protected at UK universities:

• stakeholders need to recognise that digital technology shapes academic freedom by enabling new forms of employee monitoring and performance management
• universities should collaborate with their workplace unions to establish policies and principles that best ensure the ethical use of digital systems
• universities should be transparent with unions and academic staff over the monitoring and performance management functionality of digital systems
• universities should commit to conducting detailed 'Technology Impact Assessments' before purchasing and implementing new technologies.