A/HRC/15/28 develop and facilitate e-learning, online learning programmes, e-forums, web conferencing and distance learning programmes; (iii) Encourage scholarships as a means to promote human rights education and training. (c) Research 29. The role of higher education in developing new knowledge and advancing critical reflection in the area of human rights is fundamental. Higher education should inform, by means of research, human rights education policies and practice, through inter alia the following strategies: (a) Encouraging and investing in research contributing to the development of innovative and effective methodologies and tools for human rights education based also on the analysis and assessment of existing practices, lesson-learning and evaluation exercises, and widely disseminate research results; (b) Encouraging and investing in research on ways of translating human rights principles and specific human rights instruments into concrete forms (e.g. government policy and programmes, business practices, community initiatives, socio-cultural norms) as a general research agenda; (c) Assessing, collecting and disseminating examples of good practices in human rights education at the higher education and other levels; (d) Establishing links, partnerships and networks to facilitate collaboration and information exchanges between researchers of different higher education institutions, nongovernmental and other civil society organizations, national human rights institutions and international organizations, and the collaborative development of human rights education research projects; (e) Establishing and developing human rights resource centres and libraries which play a capacity-building role, providing facilities for human rights studies and research and ascertain how these can be better supported; (f) Encouraging scholarships and fellowships as a means to promote humanrights related research; (g) (d) Participating in international surveys and comparative studies. The learning environment 30. In the context of higher education, it is important to stress that members of the academic community, individually or collectively, are free to pursue, develop and transmit knowledge and ideas, through research, teaching, study, discussion, documentation, production, creation or writing. Academic freedom includes the liberty of individuals to freely express opinions about the institution or system in which they work, to fulfil their functions without discrimination or fear of repression by the State or any other actor, to participate in professional or representative academic bodies, and to enjoy all the internationally recognized human rights applicable to other individuals in the same jurisdiction. 21 21 14 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13 (1999), para. 39.