Academics from across the globe have called on the Brazilian government to cancel savage cuts to university funding that target specific institutions and subjects ¨C a move they say could have a devastating effect on the country¡¯s democracy.

An published by scholars in Canada, Germany and the Netherlands gained more than 1,500 signatures within 24 hours, according to its authors. In it, academics condemn a proposal by President Jair Bolsonaro to withdraw public funding for philosophy and sociology in favour of subjects that ¡°generate immediate return to the taxpayer¡±.

At the same time, Brazil¡¯s Ministry of Education announced that it would cut funding to federal universities found to promote campus unrest ¨C for instance by allowing ¡°political events¡±, ¡°partisan rallies¡± or protests ¨C at the same time as slipping in their academic performance.

Education minister Abraham Weintraub, who was brought in to replace Ricardo V¨¦lez after he was sacked in April, said that three universities ¨C the University of Bras¨ªlia, Fluminense Federal University and the Federal University of Bahia ¨C would all have their annual budgets reduced by 30?per cent, effective immediately.

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He later backtracked on targeting the individual institutions after evidence was presented of their successful assessment results, opting instead to cut 30?per cent of ¡°discretionary¡± (non-salary or pensions-related) funding to all 63 federal institutions.

Academics have labelled the move an attack on university autonomy and have accused the minister of introducing ¡°gag laws¡±, however.

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Adriana Marotti de Mello, professor of business at the University of S?o Paulo, said that targeting universities to curb public spending was ¡°totally unacceptable¡± and signified that ¡°democracy, not just academia, is under a terrible attack¡±.

¡°We really need the support of the international community on this,¡± she told Times ÖйúAƬ.

Sergio Tenenbaum, a Brazilian native who is now an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, co-authored the open letter in defence of his subject after the budget announcements.

He concurred that the right-wing government¡¯s proposals ¡°could seriously endanger not just philosophy and sociology, but academic life in general, with broader social and political consequences¡±.

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¡°I am very concerned about Brazil¡¯s fledgling democracy,¡± he told THE. ¡°Such attacks on universities, and particularly on the humanities and social sciences, are attacks on a society¡¯s capacity for self-understanding and critical thinking, and thus their capacity for improving and maintaining its democratic institutions¡±.

rachael.pells@timeshighereducation.com