Academic Freedom Survey 2021

In August 2021, AcademiaSG published findings of a survey of Singapore-based academics concerning the state of academic freedom in the republic.

This groundbreaking survey of Singapore-based academics sheds light on such questions as: Do academics in Singapore subscribe to international norms concerning academic freedom? How prevalent is the sense of being constrained? What are the mechanisms through which academic work is restricted?

The Report

Two ways to read:

Download the PDF to your computer (17MB); or

Read it online at Issuu.

The Data

Download the dataset.

This public version of the dataset is being made available so that interested parties can conduct their own analyses. This dataset contains most of the data we collected, but some demographic variables and observations are removed to better protect respondents from re-identification. The open-ended remarks are also removed for the same the reason. Based on analyses conducted by the study team, it is unlikely that the public form of the dataset will produce substantially different results from the full dataset, so interested parties should still feel confident to draw insights from it.

Webinar

The report was launched with a webinar on Wednesday 18 August, 8–9pm Singapore time (GMT +8).

The panel discussion featured four senior scholars who commented independently on the survey findings:

  • Linda Lim, Professor Emerita, University of Michigan and AcademiaSG co-founder
  • Walter Theseira, Associate Professor, Singapore University of Social Sciences, and former Nominated Member of Parliament
  • Kristopher Olds, Professor, University of Wisconsin—Madison, and an authority in the globalization of higher education and research
  • Moderated by Pang Eng Fong, Professor Emeritus, Singapore Management University, a former business dean and vice-provost at SMU

The report’s authors were also present to respond to questions and comments.

Media Coverage