University students should feel free to ask questions, challenge existing viewpoints and critically interrogate the world around them. This report finds at every single public university in Australia, at least 1 in 5 domestic undergraduates and 1 in 4 domestic postgraduate students do not feel free to express their views.

The figures come from the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching Student Experience Survey, the government’s annual survey of current higher education students. This report is the first public disclosure of institution-level results for student freedom of expression.

The report argues that while these data do not reveal whether students felt constrained from the left, constrained from the right, or both, they do reveal Australian campuses have a problem with freedom of expression. The report recommends:

• full data for all universities should routinely be made public
• universities should be made accountable for their results
• a proportion of funding should be tied to improvements.