Academic Freedom in Europe: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis
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Academic Freedom in Europe: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis Terence Karran Centre for Educational Research and Development, University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN6 7TS UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Using comparative data from 23 states within the European Union (EU), this paper is a preliminary assessment of the protection for, and (by extension) the health of, academic freedom in the universities of the nations of the EU. The paper examines constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom, along with legal regulations concerning institutional governance, the appointment of the Rector and the existence of academic tenure, in order to create a composite picture of the health of academic freedom in the universities within the EU nations. Additionally, the paper considers how this preliminary analysis could be extended through possible further research to aid refinement of the results, and thereby protect and strengthen academic freedom in Europe. Higher Education Policy (2007) 20, 289–313. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300159 Keywords: academic freedom; European Union; comparative analysis
Introduction This paper’s purpose is a comparative assessment of the protection for, and health of, academic freedom in the universities of the European Union (EU). It is preliminary in that it addresses the constitutional and legislative frameworks in relation to academic freedom, thereby establishing the basis for subsequent empirical work to examine how the concept is interpreted and perceived by academic staff undertaking their day to day work within Europe’s universities. The study’s rationale is as follows. Firstly, academic freedom is considered important to the implementation of the Bologna Process. As the Salamanca Declaration of 2001 indicated, progress on the Bologna Process requires that ‘European universities be empowered to act in line with the guiding principle of autonomy with accountability y (and) y confirm their adhesion to the principles of the Magna Charta Universitatum of 1988 and, in particular, academic freedom’ (EUA, 2001, 1). Clearly, when academic freedom varies between nation states, the likelihood of mobility is reduced — staff and students are unlikely to desire to work in or study at another university in which the academic freedom afforded to them is significantly lower than in their home institution. The Magna Charta Universitatum (EUA, 1988, 2)
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states: ‘Freedom in research and training is the fundamental principle of university life, and governments and universities, each as far as in them lies, must ensure respect for this fundamental requirement’ and, in a like vein, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU declaims in Article 13 that ‘[t]he arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected’ (EU, 2000, 11). However, neither of these documents provides any guidance as to what constitutes academic freedom, how it may be protected or nurtured, and whether, therefore, the presence (or absence)
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