Methods and Tools of Measuring Academic Freedom: Its World Practice and Application in Ukraine

The article analyses world practices in assessing academic freedom as a set of the following elements: freedom of teaching, freedom of research, freedom of learning, free and unrestricted dissemination of knowledge and research results, institutional autonomy, employment security and financial security. It has been established that in some countries the concept of academic freedom is enshrined in the constitutions of the countries. Educational legislation in most of countries provides a predominantly declarative description of the concept of "academic freedom". Academic freedom has been shown to be under threat around the world. Methods and tools for assessing academic freedom include surveys of participants in the educational process, comparative analysis of the regulatory environment, receipt of reports of violations in the "Scholars at Risk" project, calculation of the European University Association's autonomy "Scorecard", determination of the Academic Freedom Index by the V-Dem project etc. The dynamics of the Academic Freedom Index are analysed based on data set indicators in 2023. Conclusions are drawn about the decline in the level of academic freedom in certain countries of the world and in Ukraine, and the need to measure its extent and the volume of violations in the field of higher education is substantiated. The results of the systematisation and analysis of the main approaches to assessing academic freedom are presented, their advantages, disadvantages, reliability, integrity, comparability, and frequency of data collection are specified. The requirements for the methodology for effective measurement of academic freedom are defined: complexity, systematicity, integration, flexibility, validity, adequacy, independence, and formability as the basis for development projects. The need to develop a domestic methodology for assessing academic freedom as a key criterion of academic reputation and quality of higher education institutions is emphasised.