Furthermore, true intellectual independence could easily be compromised by the realities of a career structure, pension and other considerations.

ECONOMIST: Letters

The leaders of the growing labour movement were exactly the kind of self-educated men who prided themselves on a fierce intellectual independence from ready-made doctrine.

ECONOMIST: Cultural history

Universities have complained that the current A-level system does not stretch pupils sufficiently or give them the intellectual independence and curiosity needed for degree-level study.

BBC: A-level students facing shake-up

It was the bedrock of his genuine independence, intellectual and political.

NEWYORKER: Politics and Prose

Indeed, the tension created by these conflicting roles is what helps even the most workaday academic retain some independence of thought and intellectual vigour.

ECONOMIST: The tensions of modern education