While the idea of tertiary education was to extend a student’s knowledge and give the student academic freedom the latter has seldom been achieved. As many Universities were established by religious authorities or by monarchs and/or supposedly independent Governments the simple fact has been that students have too often been forced to comply with what was considered the norm by those who controlled the institutions. Einstein even held off publishing his theory of relativity for fear of retribution from other academics.

Even with the establishment of the Magna Charta Universitarium in 1988 where 430 universities signed the document to grant academic freedom this has not been universally applied.