A PLACE FROM WHERE TO SPEAK: THE UNIVERSITY AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

ABSTRACT:  the university is promoted as 'a place from where to speak'. Academic freedom is examined as a crucial value in an increasingly uncertain age which resonates with Barnett's concern to encourage students to overcome their 'fear of freedom'. My concern is that the putative university space of freedom and autonomy may well become constricted by those who would limit not just our freedom to speak but also our freedoms to be and to do. Without academic freedom students and teachers, who might be able to fly, will not be permitted to fly. I review issues of academic freedom and free speech raised especially by Berlin, Voltaire, von Humboldt, Mill, Milton and Rorty. I discuss problems raised when free speech is heard by others as harmful and offensive to their beliefs and values. I offer a set of suggestions to ensure that the university may envision itself as a space of freedom, pluralism and tolerance. Finally, I reflect that the university, of all democratic institutions, should be the one which best serves its society as 'a place from where to speak' .     

UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

The question of university autonomy is posed and examined from a number of points of view, beginning with a short historical survey of the concept and its application. It is linked to academic freedom, to problems of centralization versus decentralization, to the internal organization of universities, to the role of universities in rapidly changing societies, to democratization, and to societal expectations with regard to universities. If university autonomy is essential for the proper functioning of universities, then quality control and management are essential prerequisites for autonomy.     

INDIVIDUAL ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND APROFESSIONAL ACTS

In this essay, Liviu Andreescu examines the question of whether a certain category of aprofessional acts by academics (in particular, political speech) deserves protection against academic sanctions under the principle of academic freedom. Andreescu discusses two alternative views of academic freedom (the extensive and the restrictive) providing different answers to the question. He then examines some of the arguments advanced by the proponents of the more recent, restrictive theory of academic freedom against the broader, traditional theory, which in recent times has been on the defensive. Andreescu ultimately suggests that the choice between the two definitions of academic freedom is a question of sound policy in specific institutional contexts, rather than a matter of conceptual consistency.     

ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND THE DIMINISHED SUBJECT

ABSTRACT:  Discussions about freedom of speech and academic freedom today are about the limits to those freedoms. However, these discussions take place mostly in the higher education trade press and do not receive any serious attention from academics and educationalists. In this paper several key arguments for limiting academic freedom are identified, examined and placed in an historical context. That contextualisation shows that with the disappearance of social and political struggles to extend freedom in society there has come a narrowing of academic life and a new and impoverished concept of 'academic freedom' for a diminished idea of the human subject, of humanity and of human potential .     

ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN EUROPE: REVIEWING UNESCO'S RECOMMENDATION

ABSTRACT:  This paper examines the compliance of universities in the European Union with the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher–Education Teaching Personnel, which deals primarily with protection for academic freedom. The paper briefly surveys the European genesis of the modern research university and academic freedom, before evaluating compliance with the UNESCO recommendation on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, university governance and tenure. Following from this, the paper examines the reasons for the generally low level of compliance with the UNESCO Recommendation within the EU states, and considers how such compliance could be improved .     

ACADEMIC FREEDOM: ITS NATURE, EXTENT AND VALUE

ABSTRACT:  Academic freedom does not refer to freedom to engage in any speech act, but to freedom to hold any belief and espouse it in an appropriately academic manner. This freedom belongs to certain institutions, rather than to individuals, because of their academic nature. Academic freedom should be absolute, regardless of any offence it may on occasion cause .     

AUTONOMY AND DEPENDENCE IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In the more developed countries, the twin concepts of academic freedom and university autonomy have been the bedrock of university administration and development. These concepts have become the characteristic features of modern universities because of the special functions they are called upon to perform over time. Critical to the specialist function of universities are the three P's, namely: (i) the profession of truth and knowledge through teaching; (ii) the promotion of truth and knowledge through research and (iii) the protection of truth and knowledge. Of immediate relevance to these functions is university autonomy which is an essential element for freedom in the search for truth and knowledge. Thus, the normative framework of academic freedom and university autonomy presupposes that academics are effective once these privileges are guaranteed. Supposedly, the opposite is the case should these factors of university administration be absent; hence, we can equally speak of dependence.

Against this conflicting background, this article examines the situation in Nigeria in the context of autonomy, freedom, and dependence in the administration of higher education in selected countries.     

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ITALY ‐‐ PRESENT SITUATION AND PROBLEMS

The present tension in Italy's universities is attributable mainly to the following factors:

• the higher education system was changed during the 1960s to cater for the masses rather than just the élite, without there being any corresponding expansion of academic facilities, teaching staff and social services;

• changes in educational policies led to strains in the student‐professor relationship, and ‐ a sharp rise in youth unemployment has lowered student expectations and bred resentment among higher education graduates.

Below we present information analysing this situation, with special regard to the position of students, and including proposals for changes which would improve the condition of higher education in Italy.