Repression of Academic Freedom in Colleges: An Alternative Perspective on the ICSECR

Abstract

Academic freedom in colleges is suppressed not just by the state, but also by the local campus leadership. This situation places academics and students under pressure to criticize college policies that impact them. This essay aims to detail the phenomenon of academic repression in universities perpetrated by the internal campus, its roots, and a solution to the problem. There are two questions to be answered: how academic repression occurs in Indonesian colleges and what the ICSECR's position is on academic freedom repression in colleges. The study's findings indicate that academic freedom is repressed in three ways in Indonesian colleges: first, pressure on lecturers who criticize university leadership policies; second, the fragmentation of student press agencies that criticize university leadership policies; and third, the ban and dissolution of public discussions by students who critically criticize campus leadership and government policies. The endeavor to discipline academics by managing and restricting research, publication, and institutions is the initial source of academic freedom repression in colleges. Second, the culture of neo-feudalism displayed by numerous college leaders. Third, a basic legislative framework to safeguard academic freedom. The amendment was carried out by including the explanations provided in General Commentary 13 of Article 13 of the ICSECR, where academic freedom is more guaranteed, and by including student lecturers as subjects who also have academic independence as lecturers.