A couple years before the outbreak of the Second World War, the philosopher Karl Popper moved across the world to take up a position at what was then Canterbury College. Popper, who lost no fewer than sixteen family members in the Holocaust, was under no illusions about what would have happened to him had he stayed in Vienna. 

While in Christchurch, Popper wrote The Open Society and its Enemies, one of the classic defences of liberal democracy against totalitarianisms of the left and the right. Canterbury had a poor research culture at the time, and Popper butted heads with the chair of his programme. But his academic freedom – his freedom to think and write what he wanted – was never seriously in doubt.  

But how free would Popper feel to write his defence of freedom today if, by some strange quirk of fate, the ship that brought him here had landed 87 years later? 

The mountain of evidence collected in my latest Initiative report, Unpopular Opinions: Academic Freedom in New Zealand, suggests that the famous philosopher might have struggled in contemporary Aotearoa academia.  

For a start, even if his main concern was the right-wing extremism that had taken over his home country, Popper’s forthright criticisms of Marxism might have landed him in hot water. As in other English-speaking countries, right-of-centre academics and students in this country feel less comfortable discussing controversial topics than their left-of-centre peers.  

Couldn’t Popper at least feel certain that he would be safe from interference from a tyrannical foreign power? Probably not. New Zealand universities are now heavily dependent on China. Several incidents in the past decade (not least the cancelling of an event commemorating Tiananmen Square at AUT) have suggested that university administrators here can be eager to maintain good relations with the Chinese state. 

Finally, Popper, who had a direct communication style, would almost certainly have ruffled the feathers of the senior university administrators who now wield so much power, and whose chief concern (many academics told us) is with their universities’ brands.  

Restoring Popper’s paradise will be difficult. In the report, we recommend measures such as reconsidering some of our links with Chinese universities (especially military ones), training university administrators in the principles of academic freedom, and returning more power to academics. 

Karl Popper, who died 30 years ago, will not be coming back. Other world-leading thinkers, though, may be looking for a place where they can be free to pursue their research and speak their minds – no matter how far from home.    

Dr James Kierstead’s research report, Unpopular Opinions: Academic Freedom in New Zealand, was published on 21 August.