Introduction to the Case Studies

This chapter introduces the five qualitative case studies written by country experts on Bangladesh, India, Mozambique, Poland, and Turkey, which serve to deepen an understanding of current trajectories regarding academic freedom and university autonomy through in-depth description and analysis. The studies are based on standardized academic freedom case study guidelines that are designed to facilitate systematic comparisons. This chapter explains the research approach, as well as the case selection rationale, which makes use of the Academic Freedom Index data to identify countries with severe declines in university autonomy. Finally, this introductory chapter briefly introduces the five country studies and their authors.