In 2020, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), College Pulse, and RealClearEducation published the first-ever comprehensive student assessment of free speech on American college campuses: the College Free Speech Rankings. For the first time, prospective college students and their parents could systematically compare current students’ understandings of the level of tolerance for free speech on campus. We now present the 2021 Campus Free Speech Rankings.
Much has happened since the collection of last year’s data in April and May of 2020. The pandemic kept many students off campus. Professors, administrators, and students on many campuses moved their primary mode of communication and instruction online. Outside of the classroom, campus life transformed. For some, the move to online learning allowed them to more comfortably and fully express themselves, since asynchronous online communication gave them more time to consider their points before posting them. For others, speaking online in virtual forums is a far cry from expressing their ideas in real-life organizational meetings and classrooms with peers, professors, and teaching assistants.
The 2021 College Free Speech Rankings is a comprehensive comparison of the student experience of free speech on their campuses. These rankings are based on the voices of over 37,000 currently enrolled students at 159 colleges and are designed to help parents and prospective students choose the right college.
Here is what our research covers:
- Administrative support of free speech
- Students’ self-censorship on campus
- Which issues students find difficult to discuss openly
To gain access to more insights, download our free report.
This report was featured in: Yahoo! News and RealClearEducation.
