Estonia leads the world in academic freedom. How did it happen?

According to the 2025 Global Academic Freedom Index, Estonia ranks second in the world, just after the Czech Republic.

“Estonia is one of the countries with the highest levels of academic freedom in the world,” explained Dr. Angelo Vito Panaro, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität of Erlangen-Nürnberg. This recognition stands out when academic freedom is under growing pressure around the world. Dr. Panaro is involved in the “Academic Freedom Index” research project, which assesses the levels of academic freedom worldwide. “Estonia ranks among the highest in the world, and has performed well since 1993,” he concluded.

Academic freedom is a heated topic in the US, but similar concerns have surfaced in Poland, Hungary, and Turkey, where scholars have faced political pressure, funding cuts, arrests, and ideological interference. The 2025 Update of the Academic Freedom Index draws attention to these specific threats.

In the report, researchers underlined the connection between anti-pluralist parties in power and episodes of academic freedom being threatened.

Why does Estonia stand out?

According to Dr. Panaro, Estonia has a very strong legal protection. Paragraph 38 of Estonia’s constitution states: “Science and art and their teachings are free. Universities and research institutions are autonomous within the limits prescribed by the law.”

But legal guarantees are only part of the story. Estonia’s broader political culture has also contributed to safeguarding academic freedom.

Estonia’s government also stands out with the commitments it has made. For example, through the Bologna process and the transformative changes in education. “Estonia has shown a strong commitment to investing in education,” Dr. Panaro said. The country has also embraced digital openness and fostered a culture of innovation. “Estonia is a leading country in this regard,” he noted.

The index builds on five indicators that capture distinct dimensions of academic freedom and draws on the assessment of 2363 country experts. Data includes more than one million data points at the coder level and is publicly available. “When computing the index, the IRT-measurement model controls for potential biases, such as how reliable each expert is compared to others, and how their understanding of the rating scale may differ from the rest”, Dr. Panaro emphasised.

“When you’re that small, you can’t afford to do bad science.”

“Small countries tend to do better academically,” said Jüri Allik, Professor of Experimental Psychology in the University of Tartu. He has analysed the Estonian scientists’ success story for years. In his research paper “Factors Predicting the Scientific Wealth of Nations”, he and his co-authors examined various factors that influence how scientifically successful a country is. They concluded that economic wealth does not automatically lead to scientific wealth, as is often presumed.

“Small and well-governed countries with a long-standing democratic past seem to be more efficient in translating economic wealth into high-quality science,” the authors wrote. Estonia consistently ranks well in the High Quality Science Index.

“The simple explanation is that when you’re that small, you can’t afford to do bad science. You can’t afford to be sloppy,” Allik explained. Decades of Soviet occupation also affected how freedom is viewed. He added: “When you live as long as Estonians have without freedom, it becomes dear to you.” Even though there have been attempts by the government to intervene, Estonian academics have always stood firm against it.

“More than anything else, inclusive societies do better,” Allik said. Whether people feel included in society matters.

Why should we care about academic freedom?

Over the last ten years, academic freedom has been eroding even in democratic countries, the 2025 Update of the Academic Freedom Index warns. Comparing levels in 2024 with those in 2014, academic freedom declined significantly in 34 countries, including Finland, for example. But not in Estonia.

“Academic freedom is also connected to democracy,” Dr. Panaro explained. “It’s one of the  cornerstones of any democratic regime.” To resist threats, institutions must be strengthened, through the constitution.

To protect academic freedom, we must also raise awareness. Why? Because good ideas come from a healthy society.

This article is written by Marian Männi. This article was funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Estonian Research Council.

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