What Does Academic Freedom Mean for Academics?

Abstract

The aspiration towards academic freedom is not new for the academic community. From the Middle Ages on, universities struggled against the influence of local communities to pursue teaching and learning for the sake of knowledge (Zonta, 2002). At that time they were backed up by the two strongest powers, the Pope and the Emperor. These central authorities understood universities as institutions capable of securing the ideological support and the intellectual framework to maintain the unity of the Christian world and the Holy Roman Empire.