Archive for category: Academic Freedom

 

ALLEA, EUA and Science Europe call to protect academic freedom and safeguard institutional autonomy by providing and honouring sound regulatory frameworks

ALLEA, the European University Association (EUA) and Science Europe issued a joint statement today on the urgent need to back commitments to academic freedom and university autonomy with solid actions. The three partners, representing a vast section of Europe’s research and higher education system, maintain that academic freedom and institutional autonomy are of fundamental importance and value to society.

“Our knowledge-based societies are dependent on scientific progress, but the fragility of the core principles of academic life, freedom and autonomy, are often disregarded. Only with them can science best serve society”, said Antonio Loprieno, President of ALLEA. “Recent developments in Europe with growing political pressure in certain countries have made us painfully aware of the need to protect these values at all costs. It is time for scientists, but also society at large, to stand up against unjustified infringements and to call for stronger safeguards.”

The statement calls on governments and public authorities to protect academic freedom and safeguard institutional autonomy by providing sound regulatory frameworks and refraining from interference in the internal affairs of higher education and research institutions. It also urges them to guarantee scholars and students the rights that constitute academic freedom, such as freedom of expression, opinion and thought.

Furthermore, the three organisations call on universities, funding agencies, academies and other research organisations to foster a culture in which free expression and the open exchange of opinion are valued and the academic freedom of researchers, teachers and students is safeguarded.

“Recent developments in Europe with growing political pressure in certain countries have made us painfully aware of the need to protect these values at all costs. It is time for scientists, but also society at large, to stand up against unjustified infringements and to call for stronger safeguards.”

Antonio Loprieno, ALLEA President

Universities and academies have recently been the target of increased political pressures. The European Parliament triggered a disciplinary procedure to determine if democratic values, including academic freedom, have been undermined in Hungary. In 2018, the government banned the teaching of gender studies and forced the Central Europe University to relocate most of its activities outside the country.

Following a lengthy dispute over budget matters with the Hungarian government, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, recently had to begrudgingly agree to a reform of its research institutes, which places the institutes under a new governing body made up of both academicians and scientists, but chaired by an appointee of the prime minister. In Turkey, the academic sector has come under increased pressure after the 2016 coup attempt, with thousands of public employees being dismissed from their jobs, including academics from ALLEA membership and higher education administrators.

ALLEA has intervened with a range of actions, including mediation, statements and open letters, in support of academic institutions under threat over recent years. The present statement, and the partnership with EUA and Science Europe, is a call to action and reflects the organisations’ shared concern that academic freedom and institutional autonomy are no longer self-evident in Europe and around the world, with grave consequences for scholars, science and society.

Download Statement

ALLEA has published a statement today on the inappropriate political infringement on academic curricula in Hungary. “ALLEA is alarmed by the Hungarian government’s recent, recurring and unfounded intervention in the curricula of private and public universities,  severely compromising academic freedom and autonomy that are key features of modern science and higher education, and regrettably following a pattern witnessed before”, the statement reads.

Read the full statement

 

 

 

 

ALLEA sends letter of support for Central European University in light of proposed legislative changes in Hungary.

“We consider the proposed legislation a fundamental threat to basic and internationally valid principles for conducting science and research”, states ALLEA President Professor Günter Stock in a letter addressed to the Hungarian Minister for Human Capacities, Mr Zoltán Balog. With the letter, ALLEA joins a multitude of scientific institutions from Hungary and all over the world in voicing grave concerns regarding the proposed change in legislation of Act CCIV of 2011 on National Higher Education of the Hungarian Government which would deprive the Central European University (CEU) of itsability to operate according to fundamental scientific principles such as academic freedom, scientific excellence and self-governance. CEU is a Budapest-based prestigious US-Hungarian private university with international reputation which just recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary.

“We consider the proposed legislation a fundamental threat to basic and internationally valid principles for conducting science and research”

ALLEA President, Günter Stock

 

The Hungarian National Assembly deliberates on the legislative proposal on Tuesday 4 April 2017. In case of its passing it would eventually lead to a forced discontinuation of CEU’s activities in its present form in Hungary. An official CEU statement calls the proposed legislation “discriminatory and unacceptable”. The amendments would prevent CEU to operate as a “free and independent international graduate university”. The CEU President urged the Hungarian government “to enter into negotiationswith us to find a satisfactory way forward that allows CEU to continue in Budapest and to maintain the academic freedoms essential to its operation”.

CEU has started a petition directed to the Hungarian National Assembly and Government which in the past few days was signed by almost 40.000 individuals.  The petition calls on the Hungarian National Assembly to “drop the proposed legislation and to enter into negotiations with the leadership of CEU that will ultimately allow this prestigious university to remain a proud contributor to scientific discourse in Hungary”.

Click here to read ALLEA’s letter.

Click here to join the petition.

To read further and updated information and to learn how to support CEU via social media support please click here.

On 3 October 2016 Bilim Akademisi (The Science Academy, Turkey) Executive Board issued a statement on academics dismissed from public service following the attempted coup d’état in Turkey last July.

To access the statement please visit the academy’s website here