ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY:

Transcript:ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY::
ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY: RELEVANCE FOR INTERNATIONAL NETWORKING AND COLLABORATION AMONG INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION ÜSTÜN ERGÜDER PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT SABANCI UNIVERSITY Istanbul, Turkey and PRESIDENT, MAGNA CHARTA OBSERVATORY Bologna, Italy 2nd Eurasion Silk Road Convention (ESRUC) ATATÜRK UNIVERSITY ERZURUM JUNE 3-6, 2011 What I Plan To Do? A Brief Historical Outlook Significance Contemporary Challenges Concluding Remarks with Emphasis on International Networking THE UNIVERSITY: ONE OF THE OLDEST INSTITUTIONS IN THE WORLD Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University. Harvard University Press, Boston, 1963. p.115. “About eighty-five institutions in the Western world established by 1520 still exist in recognizable forms, with similar functions and with unbroken histories, including the Catholic church, the Parliaments of the Isle of Man, of Iceland, and of Great Britain, several Swiss Cantons, and seventy universities. Kings that rule, feudal lords with vassals, and guilds with monopolies are all gone. These seventy universities, however, are still in the same locations with some of the same buildings, with professors and students doing much the same things, and with governance carried on in much the same ways.” WHAT MAKES A UNIVERSITY SO DURABLE AND DISTINCT AS AN INSTITUTION: ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND INSTITUTONAL AUTONOMY “Humboldtian” concept society needs institutions that search for truth and understanding where scholars and students work together in the pursuit of knowledge. (W. V. Humboldt, On the Spirit and the Organizational Framework of Intellectual Institutions in Berlin. Minerva, 1970 Michael Oakeshott in his Idea of a University: “What distinguishes a university is a special manner of engaging in the pursuit of learning. It is a corporate body of scholars, each devoted to a particular branch of learning: What is characteristic is the pursuit of learning as a co-operative exercise.” NATION STATE and UNIVERSITIES The external authority (church) acted as an agent or channel for accountability. Civil (or rather traditional) society as the external authority? From the 19th century on, the external authority became the nation-state. Scott estimates that of the 1,854 universities founded between 1200 and 1985, three quarters were established since 1900, and 1,101 were founded between 1950 and 1985. Thus, the modern university, especially the modern higher education system is a creation of the nation state. P. Scott (ed.) The Globalization of Higher Education. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, 1988. According to Journal of Scientometrics there are currently 17036 universities, See www.webometrics.info/methodology.html. Other estimates around 9000. Some contemporary questions: Did the market