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All learning and all teaching take place within the framework of a worldview of the nature of reality, humanity, knowledge, and values. The roots of academic freedom in the Christian university are found in a principle that the best education is attained when intellectual growth occurs within an environment in which Biblically-based concepts are central to the aims of education.
AdventHealth University subscribes to principles of academic freedom generally held to be important in higher education. These principles make possible the disciplined and creative pursuit of truth, recognizing that freedom is never absolute and implies commensurate responsibilities.
At AHU, the principle of academic freedom is central to establishing such aims. This principle reflects a belief in freedom as an essential right in a democratic society, but with a particular focus in an academic community. It is the guarantee that instructors and students will be able to carry on the functions of learning, research, and teaching with minimum restrictions. It applies to subjects within the instructor’s professional expertise, within which there is a special need for freedom to pursue truth. It also applies to the atmosphere of open inquiry necessary in an academic community if learning is to be honest and thorough.
For the faith-based institution, academic freedom has an additional significance. This places a responsibility on Christian faculty to be self-disciplined, responsible, mature scholars, and to investigate, teach, and publish within the area of their academic competence without external restraint. They will have due regard for the character and aims of the institution and a concern for the spiritual and intellectual needs of their students.
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