Conflicting paths: university autonomy and academic freedom in the European Higher Education Area

Intervention of Liviu Matei, Central European University, in the seminar Sociology of conflict of Hervé Le Bras and Michel Wieviorka.

The period after 1999–2000 is one of unprecedented developments in the European higher education. They are often diverging, occasionally conflicting. In the area of governance, there is a marked difference in the evolution of institutional autonomy compared to academic freedom: fast and mainly progressive changes in autonomy, slow and rather regressive changes in academic freedom, both at the conceptual level and in practice; a powerful and consequential European model of university autonomy has emerged; academic freedom has been neglected; advances in institutional autonomy often came at the expense of academic freedom; a dominant instrumental approach to higher education governance leaves little or no room for consideration of moral and rights aspects. A case needs to be made for the development of a European reference for academic freedom, to support monitoring of infringements and  action to address them.