About

What's New This Year?

This year's rankings feature a revised scoring system. Schools can now earn points for endorsing the Chicago Statement and/or institutional neutrality; overall scores are no longer standardized; and, schools now receive a letter grade for their speech climate. The full methodology is available on the Open Science Foundation's website.

FIRE used the revised scoring methodology to produce new historical scores. These new overall scores offer an apples-to-apples comparison to previous years, allowing schools to track their progress.

Background

In 2020, in collaboration with College Pulse and RealClearEducation, FIRE launched a first-of-its-kind tool to help high school students and their parents identify which colleges promote and protect the free exchange of ideas: the College Free Speech Rankings. The initial rankings report and online tool sparked an outpouring of praise from students, parents, and alumni alike.

What began with 55 campuses in 2020 has now grown into a sweeping annual study of 257 schools, capturing the voices of almost 300,000 students — and almost 70,000 this year alone. Whether you're a prospective student sizing up your options, a professor curious about classroom openness, or an administrator charting a path forward, the rankings illuminate what free expression truly looks like on campus — and how it differs from school to school.

Acknowledgments

Our gratitude goes to Nathan Honeycutt and Sam Abrams for support with questionnaire design, developing the scoring methodology, data analysis, data validation, and editing. We would additionally like to thank Keelyn M. Gallagher, Logan Dougherty, Angela C. Erickson, Emily Nayyer, and Ryne Weiss for support with data validation; and Khalia Abner and Jackson Fleagle for designing the report. And last but not least, FIRE is a nonprofit organization and these rankings would not be possible without the generous support of our donors.