A new book on Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy has just been published and is now available through the Council of Europe bookstore.

Building on the Global Forum held in Strasbourg in June 2019, authors from Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Mediterranean region explore the importance of academic freedom and institutional autonomy to democracy. It is barely conceivable that academic freedom and institutional autonomy could exist in a society not based on democratic principles, and democracy is enriched when higher education institutions operate on this basis. Higher education institutions need to be imbued with democratic culture and that, in turn, helps to promote democratic values in the wider society. None of these issues are simple and the lines between legitimacy and illegitimacy are sometimes hard to discern, and these fundamental democratic values are subject to pressure in many countries.

Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy is the 24th volume in the Council of Europe Higher Education Series, which published its first volume in December 2004.