Universities exist to produce, transmit and disseminate knowledge as a public good. We do this imperfectly and under constraint, but the animating ideal is non-negotiable: without the freedom to inquire, to test received wisdom and to publish sometimes unpopular conclusions, a university becomes a finishing school or a training depot, not a steward of truth. England and Wales have recently sought to restate that compact in law: .

Yet legislation, while clarifying duties and remedies, cannot on its own create a culture of fearless yet responsible inquiry. Nor can it settle the ambient tensions of our age. Universities must navigate these cross-currents with prudence, complying with the letter of the law while keeping faith with the global spirit of the university, an idea that predates most nation states and their current political systems. This is why shared statements of principle matter: they allow us to ascribe to universal values while applying them in local circumstances. 

This week, our institution, King’s College London, is hosting the Anniversary Conference of the Magna Charta Universitatum (MCU), a three-day gathering to reflect on academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the university’s responsibility to society today. Participants are here from all continents, representing all types of internal constituencies and external stakeholders: university leaders, higher education associations, student unions, researchers, public authorities, the business sector and intergovernmental organisations active in the field. 

The MCU was drafted in Bologna in 1988, at the tail end of the Cold War, by European rectors, with strong UK participation. It was revised and globalised in 2020 to address contemporary pressures, from geopolitics to digital platforms, without abandoning its core axioms. Remarkably, nearly a thousand universities in 94 countries, across different types of political regimes, have now signed, and the threshold of 1,000 will be crossed at a signing ceremony at King’s on 13 November, the last day of the conference. 

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The MCU is more than a parchment affirmation. Its custodian, the Magna Charta Observatory, vets new signatories through a review of their commitment to the values of the MCU and internal governance processes, facilitates peer learning and documents infringements and examples of good practice. In short, it seeks to ensure that the MCU’s values are lived, rather than just laminated. 

In recent years at King’s, we have tried to help conceptualise, codify and monitor university values under new conditions: fast-moving technologies, polarised publics, volatile geopolitics and proliferating regulatory frameworks. We convened a on reimagining academic freedom (2022-2023), contributed to sector consultations on the new UK legislation through Universities UK (also in 2022-23) and established the to anchor comparative scholarship with practical utility. Hosting the MCU Anniversary is a chance to renew the intellectual covenant of the university with peers from every region. 

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Why is renewal necessary now? Perhaps not since the late Cold War have university freedoms been as sharply contested in the very democracies where they once felt most secure. In the UK, the debate is often caricatured as a fight between free-speech absolutists and woke culture warriors. The truth is more intricate. Universities must uphold freedom within the law. This includes maintaining protections against unlawful harassment – but without sliding into risk-averse policies that incentivise self-censorship. This is easy to articulate but hard to deliver in the real world of competing narratives. 

So, what should guide us? 

First, independence from political direction and partisan capture. Universities must be protected by statute and by custom from becoming instruments of transient power. This includes resisting pressure from governments, donors (foreign or domestic) and internal factions and fashions. In England and Wales, the new legislative architecture helps, but institutional nerve and good governance will matter more.  

Second, teaching, learning and research driven by academic standards. What we teach and how we assess should flow from disciplinary reason and peer judgement, not from ideological litmus tests. That requires academically and professionally engaged students and staff, strong senates and academic boards, and quality assurance that privileges evidence over opinion. Those boards will need to be attentive to the fact that students deserve and expect a rounded view of their subjects – and, increasingly, curricula will be put to that test.  

Third, the freedom to pursue truth wherever it might lead: to test and publicly propose unpopular ideas based on research. That does not absolve us of responsibility to argue in good faith, to handle data with integrity and to care for our communities, but it does require the courage to host and engage robust disagreement.  

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Even with these shared pillars, local realities condition how far academic freedom can breathe, however.  

The first is social licence. Ultimately, the public sustains us, financially, reputationally and morally. If citizens perceive universities as insular or contemptuous, or if graduates do not find returns they cherish, the social mandate erodes and political actors will not spend capital to defend us. When the public sees universities producing high-quality knowledge that improves lives, and graduates who thrive and contribute, they accept academic peculiarities and defend academic freedoms even if they might not fully understand them.  

The second variable is political weather. Governments change and priorities shift; some seasons are more blustery than others. To ensure they are able to ride out the uncertain waters that this could create for academic freedom, wise institutions build ballast in advance, with diverse partnerships, transparent governance and habits of reasoned engagement. The MCU reinforces freedom’s keel but successful navigation through storms always depends on the seamanship of current leaders. 

That is why this week’s conference matters. We meet to compare practices, reaffirm shared values and return to our universities with clearer ideas on how to defend them. If we sustain public trust and demonstrate civic value, academic freedom will not merely survive current arguments: it will flourish – to the larger benefit of students, science and society. 

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is vice-chancellor and president of King’s College London, where is head of the School of Education, Communication and Society and co-leader of the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom.