Limitations on university teachers’ academic freedom while designing syllabuses for academic disciplines

Abstract

This paper deals with the issue of limitations on academic freedom of teachers of higher
educational institutions during their scientific and pedagogical activities, specifically while
designing a syllabus. The provisions of the following legislative acts were analyzed for the
presence of conditions that may limit the academic liberty of the educator when designing an
academic discipline syllabus, namely the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”, the Law of
Ukraine “On Education”, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On License Terms
Approval on Conducting Educational Activities”, Regulations of Educational Process
Organization and Regulations on applicable curriculum program of some higher educational
establishments. Special focus is on analyzing the higher education regulations that influence the
implementation of the mentioned concept, namely the educational program for a particular
discipline, curriculum and explanatory note to the curriculum as compulsory elements of licensing.
Furthermore, some aspects of transformation of provisions of the National Qualifications
Framework into the curriculum are addressed from the perspective of higher school teachers’
academic liberty limitations.