2025 College Free Speech Rankings expose threats to First Amendment rights on campus

• University of Virginia takes the top spot, while Harvard, Columbia, and NYU share an “Abysmal” free speech status.
• 55% of students find it difficult to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus, the highest ever recorded on any issue.

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 5, 2024 – This year’s College Free Speech Rankings — released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and College Pulse — offer comprehensive insights into the state of free speech on America’s college campuses. 

The largest report of its kind, the rankings draw from more than 58,000 student responses representing more than 250 colleges and universities nationwide. The report arrives at a time when protest over the Israel-Hamas war has put campus speech concerns at the forefront of the national conversation for nearly a year.

“These rankings highlight a pivotal moment in higher education, where the tension between maintaining a free speech environment and navigating deeply polarizing issues is more pronounced than ever,” said FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff. 

“The Middle East crisis plunged campuses into absolute chaos last academic year and administrators largely failed in their response, clamping down on free speech protections instead of fostering spaces for open dialogue,” Lukianoff added. “The nightmare scenarios of last spring cannot be repeated this fall. Colleges need to reassert their mantle of being marketplaces of ideas, not bubbles of groupthink and censorship.”

The best colleges for free speech: 

1. University of Virginia
2. Michigan Technological University
3. Florida State University
4. Eastern Kentucky University
5. Georgia Institute of Technology
6. Claremont McKenna College
7. North Carolina State University
8. Oregon State University
9. University of North Carolina, Charlotte
10. Mississippi State University

The worst colleges for free speech:

242. Pomona College 

243. Indiana University

244. University of Texas, Austin

245. University of Southern California

246. Syracuse University

247. Barnard College

248. University of Pennsylvania

249. New York University

250. Columbia University

251. Harvard University

For the first time, the University of Virginia has claimed the top spot in the rankings, followed closely by Michigan Technological University, which came in first last year, and Florida State University in third. Eastern Kentucky University and Georgia Tech round out the top five. 

EXPLORE THE RANKINGS

Speech controversies at these schools are rare, and when they do happen expression is more likely to be defended by the administration than punished. All of these schools also have “green light” ratings from FIRE for their speech policies. Their students seem to notice, as all of them have considerably higher levels of administrative support for free speech than schools ranking in the bottom five.

Harvard University retained its position as the lowest-ranked institution for free speech for the second consecutive year. Harvard, Columbia University, New York University all received an “Abysmal” rating for their speech climates. The University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College round out the bottom five. These schools not only have low levels of administrative support for free speech. They also have low levels of student comfort in expressing their views on controversial political topics and  a strong bias in favor of allowing liberal speakers on campus over conservative ones. 

“The lack of administrative support for free speech trickles down into student behavior,” said FIRE Vice President of Research Angela C. Erickson. “How many more students will be blocked from attending speeches, and how many more speakers will be shouted down or even attacked? These aren’t just statistics: We’ve seen the names and faces of people who are hurt when a campus is hostile to free speech.”

FIRE also released a supplementary report examining the impact of this year’s encampment protests. According to the encampment report, 15% of students said they feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe on their campus right now, and 37% of students said the police response to encampments on campuses across the country makes them feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe on their own campus.

Other key findings from the rankings report include:

• 52% of students reported that blocking other students from attending a campus speech is at least “rarely” acceptable, up from 45% last year and 37% two years ago. Even more concerning is that 32% reported that using violence to stop a campus speech is at least “rarely” acceptable, up from 27% last year and 20% two years ago.
• 69% of students said it is at least “rarely” acceptable for other students to shout down a speaker, up from 63% last year.
• 55% of students find it difficult to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus. This is a record high for any issue since the rankings began. 
• 42% of students believe that it is only “somewhat” clear that their administration protects free speech, while 24% believe it is “not at all” or “not very” clear. 
• Additionally, 47% of students believe their administration would only be “somewhat” likely to defend a speaker's rights during a speech controversy, while 28% believe their administration would be “not at all” or “not very” likely to do so.
• This year, 17% of students said they feel like they cannot express their opinion on a subject because of how students, a professor, or the administration would respond. This is a bit of positive news, since last year this percentage was 20%, and in 2022 it was 22%. 
• Very conservative students reported self-censoring most often, with 34% saying they do so “very” or “fairly” often. 24% percent of somewhat conservative students reported self-censoring “very” or “fairly” often, as did 22% of slightly conservative students. In contrast, only 15% of very liberal students reported self-censoring “very” or “fairly” often. 12% of somewhat liberal students, 13% of slightly liberal students, and 17% of moderate students said the same.

“While it’s encouraging to see some progress in reducing student self-censorship, the persistence of deplatformings and challenges posed by the Middle East conflict underscore the need for continued vigilance in protecting free expression on campus,” said FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens. 

“Some of the nation’s most lauded higher ed institutions are failing miserably in upholding First Amendment protections,” Stevens continued. “Often these schools set the tone for the wider higher ed ecosystem, so it is imperative that they address these issues lest this failure drag the rights of a whole new generation of college students down with it.

Explore the full rankings here.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought—the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE recognizes that colleges and universities play a vital role in preserving free thought within a free society. To this end, we place a special emphasis on defending the individual rights of students and faculty members on our nation’s campuses, including freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process, legal equality, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience.

CONTACT 

Katie Kortepeter, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org 

Bridget Lewis: 702-773-2111; bridget@javelindc.com