The Idea of Academic Freedom in Late Fourteenth-Century Oxford: The Case of John Wyclif

Abstract

‘Professors complained bitterly when [Hood, the then Vice-Chancellor-designate of the University of Oxford] declared that anyone who criticised the intellectual fitness of his colleagues for government funding would be “summarily fired”. Unrepentant, Hood responded that his “unequivocal support” for academic freedom didn’t apply to those “who choose arbitrarily and gratuitously to disparage their colleagues”. That message couldn’t be tolerated at Oxford, where disparagement is served alongside the sherry’.¹

Citation

Evans, G.R. (2007), "The Idea of Academic Freedom in Late Fourteenth-Century Oxford: The Case of John Wyclif", Kayrooz, C., Åkerlind, G.S. and Tight, M. (Ed.) Autonomy in Social Science Research (International Perspectives on Higher Education Research, Vol. 4), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3628(06)04005-6