Using comparable legal information, and empirical data from over 2000 members of the UK's University and College Union and 2000 staff in universities of the European states, gathered by means of similar surveys, this paper is a comparative assessment of the de jure protection for, and the de facto levels of, academic freedom enjoyed by academic staff in the UK, when compared to their EU counterparts. The paper examines the legal and constitutional protection for academic freedom and the current levels of, and changes to, the two substantive elements (freedom to teach and freedom to research) and three supportive components (autonomy, governance and tenure) of academic freedom. The study reveals that UK academic staff believe that there is a low level of protection for academic freedom and that it has declined, both in general, and with respect to the two substantive elements and three supportive components of academic freedom. Similar trends are evident in the EU states, but statistical tests reveal that for every measure utilised, the decline in academic freedom is significantly greater in the UK than in the EU states.

中文翻译：

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当代英国的学术自由：引起关注？

使用可比的法律信息，以及来自英国大学和学院联盟的 2000 多名成员和欧洲国家大学的 2000 名工作人员的经验数据，通过类似调查收集，本文是对法律保护的比较评估，以及事实上_与欧盟同行相比，英国学术人员享有的学术自由水平。本文探讨了对学术自由的法律和宪法保护，以及学术自由的两个实质性要素（教学自由和研究自由）和三个支持性组成部分（自治、治理和任期）的当前水平和变化。该研究表明，英国学术人员认为，对学术自由的保护水平较低，并且在总体上以及在学术自由的两个实质性要素和三个支持性组成部分方面都下降了。类似的趋势在欧盟国家也很明显，但统计测试表明，对于使用的每一项措施，英国学术自由度的下降幅度都明显大于欧盟国家。