◆ ACADEMIC FREEDOM Image: Giorgia Doglioni/Unsplash
Ridd Case
High Court's two cheers for academic freedom Academic freedom is an indispensable precondition of universities’ most essential function: the discovery of knowledge and its transmission. Anyone engaged in research and teaching in higher education must have freedom to pursue knowledge and to pass it on to students in ways that are not subject to interference by university managements or other bodies or persons who may represent interests other than the furtherance of knowledge. Higher education staff also have the right to participate in the governance of their institutions, which also entails the exercise of academic and intellectual freedom. These tenets have long been recognised in international declarations and agreements, and academic freedom enjoys effective legal protection in many jurisdictions. In Australia, the most effective protection of academic freedom has resided in our Enterprise Agreements between the NTEU and individual university managements. In the last couple of years, this protection has come under threat from managements seeking to use
Associate Professor Andrew Bonnell University of Queensland
24
ADVOCATE VOL. 28 NO. 3 ◆ NOV 2021
codes of conduct and other provisions of Agreements to curtail the protection of academic freedom. Two recent court decisions, one involving Tim Anderson and the University of Sydney (see report, p.22), and James Cook University’s (JCU) appeal to the Federal Court of Australia in its case against Peter Ridd, apparently put the status of our academic freedom clauses in jeopardy. Even though Ridd ultimately lost his appeal to the High Court, the High Court has at least confirmed that there is such a thing as academic freedom, and that it is entitled to protection under Enterprise Agreements. There remain some concerns