University autonomy and academic freedom: Contrasting Latin American and U.S. perspectives

Authors : Andres BERNASCONİ

Pages : 56-67

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Publication Date : 2021-06-30

Article Type : Review Paper

Abstract :I compare the historical origins and current conceptions of university autonomy and academic freedom in Latin America and the U.S. I argue that the core distinction between the U.S. and Latin America is the locus of autonomy. In the U.S., university autonomy is a bottom-up consequence of the academic freedom of the professors. Autonomy is the academic freedom of the university as a community of scholars. In Latin America, conversely, academic freedom is understood top-down as a consequence of the institutional autonomy of the university. Academic freedom is vested in the university, and the freedom of the faculty derives from that of the university. I explore the historical origins of this variance and the shortcomings of the Latin American version of autonomy: its blurring of the unique knowledge-based service of universities to society and the lack of scholarship on academic freedom in the region it begets.
Keywords : United States of America, AAUP, Cordoba, university reform