WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue University is ranked No. 3 among public universities and No. 7 overall nationally in the 2027 College Free Speech Rankings, a strong rating announced Wednesday (Sept. 9) that affirms the university’s commitment to free and open debate on campus.
With an overall score that rose to 76.9 from 76.24 last year, Purdue trailed the Georgia Institute of Technology (No. 3) and Michigan Technological University (No. 4) among U.S. public institutions, according to the survey released by College Pulse and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, known as FIRE.
The score is the sum of 12 components, including six measures from student perceptions, three assessing campus speech policies and three evaluating how schools respond to speech controversies. The report said more than 63,000 students were surveyed from 262 colleges and universities nationwide, including 312 Boilermaker students.
Purdue also continues to be recognized for adopting and adhering to what is now known as the “Chicago Statement of Principles,” as well as its stance of institutional neutrality. In 2015, Purdue became the first public university — and the second overall — to back the statement of principles of the more than 100 U.S. colleges that have since followed the University of Chicago’s lead.
And Purdue was the first major university to incorporate a free-speech presentation into its fall semester orientation program, called Boiler Gold Rush, for all incoming students. That session was added in 2016 and continues every August.
“Purdue’s long-standing commitment to freedom of expression and the robust free speech culture it engenders is one of our greatest strengths and shared values,” said Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe. “Dialogue and debate are critical to scholarly inquiry, no less than to civic life, and a central responsibility of universities like ours in constitutional democracies is to protect and foster an environment that supports free, robust and uninhibited debate and exchange of ideas.”
The 2027 report, titled “What Is the State of Free Speech on American Campuses,” marks the seventh consecutive year that FIRE and College Pulse have surveyed college undergraduates about their perceptions and experiences regarding free speech on their campuses. FIRE is a nonprofit organization committed to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought.
