Constitutional Protection Of Academic Freedom

Academic freedom is both an important theoretical issue awaiting in-depth study by higher education and a practical issue faced by modern universities as they develop. As a significant content of modern universities and an important condition for the development of universities, the study and protection, especially legal protection, of academic freedom begins to draw the attention of an increasing number of scholars. The first part of this thesis, proceeding with the contents of academic freedom, mainly explores the definition of academic freedom, the significance of academic freedom, the limitation of academic freedom, etc. to help readers understand the basic conceptions relating to academic freedom. With an aim to provide an overview of the development of academic freedom in both China and abroad, the second part introduces the historical development of academic freedom, the development and status quo of academic freedom in China, etc. The third part discusses the right attribute of academic freedom, mainly analyzes the similarities and differences between the right of academic freedom as a kind of constitutional right and academic freedom in general meaning, introduces the subject scope and right content of academic freedom, and further explores the relation between academic freedom and university autonomy as well as the relation between academic freedom and constitutional government. The forth part presents the historical development and status quo of constitutional protection of academic freedom in various countries and relevant stipulations in Chinese constitution on the protection of academic freedom. Infringement acts of and remedies for academic freedom, including the identification of infringement acts of academic freedom, the remedy approaches of academic freedom, etc. are discussed in the fifth part. The fundamental purpose of this part is to reveal infringement acts frequently happening and remedy approaches often adopted in practice to readers, and on this basis, this part of the thesis proposes to establish a security system for academic freedom with constitutional protection as its core.Considering the current situation of China’s universities and colleges, and using the study done by pedagogy on academic freedom for reference, this research strives to reveal the problems that China’s universities and colleges currently have in terms of the understanding and guarantee of academic freedom both in theory and in practice. With the combination of institutional guarantee and social insurance, the thesis attempts to establish a security system for academic freedom with constitutional protection as its core. The thesis also endeavors to provide useful advice for scholars to correctly understand the concept of academic freedom and reasonably exercise the right of academic freedom.