Sakarya University grounds its academic activities in the constitutional guarantees established by the Constitution of the Republic of Türkiye, which provides the legal foundation for scientific autonomy and academic freedom. Article 27 guarantees everyone the right to learn and teach, express and disseminate science freely and to carry out research in these fields, while Article 130 establishes universities as public legal entities with scientific autonomy and states that universities and their academic staff may freely conduct all kinds of scientific research and publication. This constitutional framework enables Sakarya University to carry out its educational, research, and societal engagement missions in alignment with the principles of academic independence and scientific freedom.
The University’s academic structure is further shaped by the Higher Education Law No. 2547, which identifies universities as institutions endowed with scientific autonomy. The law regulates essential academic functions—including teaching, research, and publication—and empowers academic governance bodies, particularly the University Senate and faculty boards, to set academic policies. Provisions governing the appointment, promotion, and disciplinary processes of academic staff ensure a balanced system that upholds academic freedom while maintaining institutional accountability.
Legislation Information System of the Presidency and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Türkiye, official sources of the Constitution and Law No. 2547.
Academic freedom is additionally safeguarded through national ethical and scientific research regulations. The “Ethical Principles for Higher Education Institutions” articulates binding standards related to academic integrity, responsibility, and freedom, while the “YÖK Directive on Scientific Research and Publication Ethics” defines ethical norms and violations such as plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification. Sakarya University implements these national regulations through its institutional ethics committees and research ethics boards, ensuring that scholarly activities are conducted freely yet responsibly and ethically.
At the policy and quality assurance level, Sakarya University operates in alignment with the strategic frameworks of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and the Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK). These national quality frameworks emphasize scientific autonomy, transparency, and stakeholder participation as essential components of higher education governance. The University’s Strategic Plan 2023–2027 lists Academic Freedom among the University’s six core values, alongside the universality of science, governance, continuous improvement, institutional transparency and cooperation with stakeholders, while institutional self-assessment reports and quality enhancement processes reflect the University’s commitment to maintaining a robust, quality-driven academic environment.
Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and Higher Education Quality Council (YÖKAK).
The implementation of academic freedom is operationalized through Sakarya University’s internal governance mechanisms. The University Senate functions as the highest academic authority, shaping academic policies, curricula, and research strategies. Faculty boards contribute to program development and academic decision-making, ensuring that teaching and research activities are conducted independently. Supporting structures—such as ethics committees, research and publication ethics boards, and the University Quality Commission—monitor compliance with ethical and academic standards, reinforcing institutional transparency, integrity, and continuous improvement.
Sakarya University affirms academic freedom as a core institutional principle, ensuring that academic staff retain the freedom to select research topics, publish scholarly work, and teach according to disciplinary requirements. Academic Appointment and Promotion Regulations evaluate faculty members based on scholarly merit, research productivity, and academic contribution, with no directives restricting research topics or requiring alignment with predetermined themes. This guarantees freedom of inquiry and supports open, independent academic exploration. Because these guarantees derive from the Constitution and Law No. 2547, they apply equally to all academic staff, from research assistants and early-career researchers to tenured professors, irrespective of rank or contract type. Academic staff are equally free to speak publicly about their fields of expertise, including through the media and public events.
Sakarya University.
Graduate and Undergraduate Education Regulations further uphold the freedom to design and deliver academic content based on scientific standards and discipline-specific knowledge. Faculty retain the right to openly present, discuss, and debate academic subjects in the classroom and in public scholarly communication. The University’s publicly available Institutional Policies emphasize intellectual autonomy, ethical academic conduct, and scientific integrity, reinforcing transparency and accountability in all academic operations. Among the core values published on its institutional values page, the University explicitly commits to supporting academic freedom, alongside adherence to ethical principles and transparent and accountable governance.
In 2025, academic freedom was also exercised in practice through public engagement. Through the University’s Science Talks series and the Council of Higher Education’s “Science Café” events, academic staff shared their research with the public on a wide range of topics, including earthquake risk, the control of invasive agricultural pests, the protection of human rights in international law, the Iran–Israel war, and the social and political dimensions of the 15 July coup attempt.
Annual Administrative Activity Reports document academic output, governance processes, and institutional performance, offering verifiable public evidence of how academic freedom is upheld in practice. These reports, combined with policies, strategic documents, appointment regulations, and ethical frameworks, demonstrate that Sakarya University upheld academic freedom in practice throughout the 2025 calendar year.
Together, constitutional guarantees, national higher education regulations, ethical research standards, strategic planning frameworks, internal governance bodies, and publicly accessible institutional reporting form a comprehensive system that ensures academic freedom is both protected and actively implemented at Sakarya University in 2025.
