Academic Freedom & Civil Liberties

In Australia - as elsewhere in the world - universities have become a target for surveillance, censorship and ideological enforcement. In the last few years, there have been a range of inquires, new legislation and regulations, and management policy changes aimed at restricting campus protest, increasing oversight, and curtailing the academic freedom and other civil liberties of staff and students in Australian higher education.

UQ has a long and proud history of protest. Staff and students here have always understood the broader civic role of higher education institutions to protect and defend freedom of speech. They understand efforts to undermine academic freedom and free speech on campuses also undermine wider democratic freedoms and harm a society’s ability to understand, scrutinise, and critically question those who exercise power.

Interested in finding out more?

Come along to the next public forum: Ideas under fire: Academic freedom and the criminalisation of protest on campus

12pm, Friday 27 March 2026, in Rm. 14: 116 (Sir Llew Edwards building), or join us online.

Want more?

Read our February 2026 Submission to the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee, Queensland Parliament, regarding the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns Out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026.

Read our April 2025 Submission to the People’s Inquiry into Campus Free Speech on Palestine.