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New Group to Monitor Academic Freedom
The Observatory of Fundamental University Values and Rights has been formed in Europe to monitor academic freedom and university autonomy there. The University of Bologna and the European University Association organized the group, which is made up of European educators.
The group, based in Bologna, is needed now for two main reasons, says Guy Haug, the observatory's secretary general. "First, there are still universities that do not have institutional autonomy, especially in countries emerging from authoritarian regimes. Second, transformations affecting higher education, including globalization, commercialization, virtual education, and cross-border education, raise new issues that need to be addressed."
The observatory grows out of an ongoing movement in Europe--known as the "Bologna process"--to reform universities. It aims to implement the values of the Magna Carta of Universities, a document laying out fundamental principles of higher education that was signed by representatives of hundreds of universities who met in Bologna in 1988. It states, among other things, that "research and teaching must be morally and intellectually independent of all political authority and economic power," and that "freedom in research and training is a fundamental principle of university life."
The observatory is one of several international organizations that focus on conditions in higher education. The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR), established in June 2001, seeks to protect the human rights and academic freedom of the education community through tactics including marshalling opinion against violations of these rights and freedoms, providing support to those suffering from such violations, and encouraging the development of international laws promoting education, academic freedom, and human rights. (For details, see "Organization to Monitor Academic Freedom" on pages 6-7 of the September-October 2001 issue.) Another organization, Education International, defends the professional and industrial rights of teachers and education employees and promotes peace, democracy, equal opportunity, and social justice in and through education. The AAUP, along with hundreds of other educational organizations from different countries, is a member of Education International, which was created in 1993 by the merger of two preexisting groups.
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