Over 60% of universities in the United States earned an “F” rating for their ability to facilitate a free speech environment, according to a free speech watchdog.

Columbia University remains the second-worst university to attend for free speech this year, with its counterpart Barnard College replacing Harvard University as this year’s worst in the College Free Speech Rankings published by the non-profit organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard climbed out of the bottom 10.

Recommended Stories

• High school test scores across subjects reach historic lows
• Arizona attorney general to sue superintendent over school voucher unchecked spending
• How tyrannical governments' money made American campuses authoritarian

FIRE’s annual rankings are based on a spring survey of students from U.S. colleges nationwide. Over the spring 2025 semester, the organization surveyed over 68,000 students to rank 257 institutions based on how friendly the campus is to free speech. Of these institutions, 166 earned an “F” rating. Only 11 schools received a rating of “C” or higher.

“This year, students largely opposed allowing any controversial campus speaker, no matter that speaker’s politics,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said. “Rather than hearing out and then responding to an ideological opponent, both liberal and conservative college students are retreating from the encounter entirely. This will only harm students’ ability to think critically and create rifts between them.”

Claremont McKenna College, Purdue University, and the University of Chicago were ranked the top three best colleges for free speech, whereas Barnard, Columbia, and Indiana University ranked as the three worst.

Sean Stevens, FIRE’s chief research adviser, said the top-ranked colleges for free speech earned their spot by having the free-speech-protecting policies FIRE looks for, such as the “Chicago Statement” on free speech and a statement of “Institutional Neutrality” on social and political issues. He also said they generally have a good track record for handling censorship-related controversies. Stevens said that the more than 60% of U.S. colleges that landed “F” ratings do not do this.

“Most of the schools aren’t even doing the bare minimum of what would be expected of them,” Stevens said.

He said a major factor for Barnard and Columbia’s bottom two rankings was the lingering effects of the campus administrations’ reaction to protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“The students on both campuses view the administration’s response to the protest activity post-October 7th as very heavy-handed, particularly their response to the encampment protest in 2024,” Stevens said. “Views of the administration weren’t good before those protests started, and they just plummeted afterwards. Self-censorship went up. Discomfort expressing controversial views went up. This year, they are both at the bottom of the administrative support component.”

Stevens said Harvard’s ranking was bolstered after the university’s administration defended several campus groups that came under fire from the Trump administration.

Harvard’s encounter with the Trump administration came as the federal government cracked down on the university for what it deemed a “failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination.”

HEEDLESS HARVARD: WHAT’S HAPPENING, WHAT TRUMP IS DOING ABOUT IT, AND WHY WE SHOULD CARE

Stevens said that according to the student surveys, Harvard showed modest improvement in free speech protection. Although it still received an “F” rating, it jumped out of the bottom 10 to the 245th spot from the last spot in the prior year’s rankings.

“I think the new president, President Garber, has been stronger on free speech than his predecessors,” Stevens said. “They still got dings for a number of controversies, but they got a couple of bonuses for standing up for student groups.”

According to the 2026 study findings, 53% of college students said the Israel-Hamas conflict is “a difficult topic to discuss openly on campus,” according to FIRE’s press release. According to Stevens, the 2024 presidential election also ranked as a difficult topic for students to discuss.

HIGH SCHOOL TEST SCORES ACROSS SUBJECTS REACH HISTORIC LOWS

“Students this year identified the presidential election as significantly more difficult to discuss than last year,” Stevens said.

In contrast, Stevens noted that there was no significant uptick in the number of students who found immigration difficult to discuss.