Perceived Academic Freedom of Researchers and Linkages with Motivation and Well-being – A Mixed-Method Study

Academic freedom is widely recognized as a cornerstone of higher education, yet little is known about how individual researchers perceive their academic freedom and how such perceptions re-late to their motivation and well-being. This mixed-method study conceptualizes perceived aca-demic freedom as a psychological resource and examines it across individual, institutional, and national contexts. A total of 483 researchers (age: M = 45.6 years, 62% female) from Germany, Norway, and South Africa spanning career stages and disciplinary fields completed a cross-sectional online survey including a newly developed scale of perceived academic freedom, po-tential psychological correlates (need satisfaction, achievement goals, well-being), and open-ended questions on experienced restrictions. Regression analyses show that higher perceived ac-ademic freedom is associated with (but distinct from) greater autonomy satisfaction, stronger mastery goal pursuit, higher job satisfaction, and lower work strain. Qualitative analyses of open responses identified five types of perceived restrictions, most commonly lack of funding and organizational barriers. Restrictions on research conduct and communication were often experienced as intertwined. Many participants directly linked such restrictions with demotivating effects, but a few also described motivational reappraisal or adaptive coping. Taken together, findings highlight perceived academic freedom as a meaningful psychological construct—with direct implications for academics’ epistemic agency, motivation, and well-being.