Terrorist attacks on universities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Targeted killings of scholars in Bangladesh and Syria. Arrests of students holding peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar and Thailand. Imprisonment of thousands of students and hundreds of academics in Egypt. Firing of thousands of higher education professionals in Turkey following the attempted coup July 15. These are just a few examples of repression of academic freedom around the world in 2015 and 2016.

The basic question addressed by presenters was not: how can we improve education? But rather, how can the PSE sector adapt itself to labour market needs as defined by new technology, industry and business?

CAUT is raising concerns about a court order that would require a Université du Québec à Montréal professor to violate the confidentiality of research participants.

In recognition of outstanding achievements in the promotion of collective bargaining in the post-secondary sector, Suzanne Prior and Terry Sway collected CAUT’s 2016 Donald C. Savage Award at the association’s Council meeting in November.

CAUT Council voted in November to accept the membership applications of two new associations: the British Columbia Institute of Technology Faculty and Staff Association (BCIT-FSA) and the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association (GMUFA).

CAUT is threatening censure of Niagara College if the institution continues to operate gender-segregated campuses and programs in Saudi Arabia.

New at CAUT – Legal Officer and Director, Research and Political Action

Back in February, after speaking at a conference on academic freedom organised by the Harry Crowe Foundation in Toronto, I was confronted by words of despair from a young Canadian lecturer. She told me that I was lucky to have gone through the experiences of the 1960s and 1970s because many contemporary academics are no longer motivated by the values that underpin the ideal of a free and open academic culture.

A parental leave is a leave, not a deferral of work. The employer cannot penalize you by forcing you to make up for “lost time” afterwards.

In Academic Freedom at American Universities, Philip Lee provides an exhaustively researched and accessible history of the development of the principle of academic freedom, particularly through the work of the American Association of University Professors, and its application in US law.

2016 was a traumatic year for Homa Hoodfar. Arrested and detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for 112 days, the retired anthropology professor from Concordia University thought the nightmare would never end. Thanks to diplomatic help from Canada, Oman, Italy and Switzerland and also to an incredible movement of solidarity among academics, Hoodfar was finally released at the end of September.