The Business And Economic Case For Academic Freedom

Forbes

4 days ago

Since the end of World War II, America's colleges and universities have been one of our core strategic advantages in the global economy. From the internet to artificial intelligence, from mRNA vaccines to cutting-edge cancer treatments to semiconductor fabrication, research pioneered at our universities has produced breakthrough innovations, iconic American businesses, and the most entrepreneurial nation in the world.
But this advantage is under threat.
The federal government's coercive meddling in higher education—freezing funding, revoking student visas, dictating what can be taught, and pressuring university presidents to resign—is dismantling the very system that has ensured America's economic dynamism for 80 years.
Highly visible attacks against elite universities send an unambiguous message about all of America's universities: ambitious engineers, mathematicians, and scientists in Shanghai, Berlin, and Mumbai need not apply.
These actions also deliver a chilling message to CEOs: Your enterprise could be targeted next—if you don't conform to shifting political pressures. And they have signaled to foreign investors and multinational companies that the U.S. no longer demonstrates an ironclad commitment to institutional integrity and the rule of the law.
As a long-term investor focused on backing companies built to compete—and succeed—over decades, I find this deeply concerning. Because if we relinquish our universities' competitive edge, the next generation of transformative companies—and entire industries—may take root elsewhere.
To be clear, our universities do need reform. More must be done to combat the rise in antisemitism, encourage diverse viewpoints, and ensure more Americans receive high-quality and affordable education. But reform doesn't require undermining what makes these institutions indispensable.
Just look at the numbers: More than a quarter of America's billion-dollar startups were co-founded by international students who came here to learn and stayed to create, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. Immigrants or their children had founded 230 Fortune 500 companies as of 2024, per the American Immigration Council. A Council report found that these companies generated $8.6 trillion in revenue in 2023. It seems clear that when we educate the world's most talented 1% and give them the tools and freedom to innovate, American jobs are created for American workers.
While other nations have historically been limited to their domestic talent pools (which in the case of China or India is much larger than ours), we have recruited globally. But we no longer have a monopoly on this approach. China is moving fast to recruit talent from around the world, including offering housing, healthcare, spousal employment, and financial incentives. European universities are launching major initiatives—like the EU's €500 million 'Choose Europe for Science' plan—to attract U.S. and global researchers with generous grants, visa support, and promises of academic freedom.
The stakes couldn't be higher in artificial intelligence, the defining technology of this era. An NFAP analysis found that 42% of AI companies in the U.S. had a founder or co-founder who originally came as an international student, and 70% of graduate students in AI-related programs are international. If we erode academic freedom or make universities inhospitable to certain nationalities or ideas, we risk losing future founders, discoveries, and jobs to competitor countries.
Attacks on university research put at risk one of government's highest-return investments.
In 2023, federal agencies invested over $108 billion in academic R&D, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Estimates show that a dollar invested in R&D yields at least $2.00 in economic output. But when funding becomes contingent on political compliance—when billions in research dollars are held hostage to arbitrary demands about curriculum and hiring, or subject to capricious threats of withdrawal—the entire system becomes unstable. Just as markets need predictability, researchers need to feel confident that they will be able to see their ideas through without facing visa challenges directed at themselves or their loved ones.
What's more, universities serve as regional economic anchors. Cities like Raleigh-Durham, Austin, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, and Boston coalesced around research universities that thrived thanks to academic freedom and investment. The virtuous cycle is well documented: R&D funding leads to university discoveries, which leads to startup formation, job creation, wealth creation, and an expanded tax base. Exact a toll on the research enterprise through interference or underfunding, and the cycle is jeopardized—costing jobs and growth.
Which leads us to a choice.
We can protect the foundations of freedom that have made American higher education the envy of the world, or we can allow short-term political pressures to chip away at a competitive edge built over generations.
Investors and CEOs must speak out—because the ability to explore, question, and discover isn't just essential to academia. It's the engine of innovation, the foundation of markets, and the key to our long-term growth.
Welcoming top global talent and safeguarding institutional independence aren't lofty principles. They are economic imperatives.
Now is the time to defend academic freedom in America.