Skip to main content.
OSUN
  • Education sub-menuEducation

    With a strong emphasis on student-centered learning, critical literacy, and liberal arts and sciences education, OSUN creates diverse global classrooms of students who learn from each other and collectively develop a culture of dialogue and debate.

    • Teaching
      • Birkbeck Summer School
      • Center for Liberal Arts and Sciences Pedagogy (CLASP)
      • Developing Teaching Professionals
      • Global History Lab
      • Global Teaching Fellowship Program
      • GLOBALED
      • Hannah Arendt Humanities Network
      • Network Collaborative Courses
      • OSUN Courses
    • Threatened Scholars
      Initiative

    • Mobility

    • Certificate Programs
    • Curricula
      • CORUSUS
      • Economic Democracy Initiative
      • Economic Policy Addressing Inequality and Poverty
      • Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network
      • Human Rights Program
      • Liberal Arts and Sciences Collaborative
      • Policy Labs
      • Professional Development Program for University Administrators
      • Public Health and Human Rights
      • Strengthening the Core
      • Transnational Politics
      • Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice
  • Research sub-menuResearch

    OSUN promotes collaboration across its partner institutions, including the codesign of research projects, to explore issues of global and local relevance through socially engaged research, interdisciplinary collaboration, or comparative research.

    • Research Projects
      • The Democracy Institute
      • Economic Democracy Initiative
      • Engaged Scholarship
      • GEOHUB
      • Global Institute of Advanced Study
      • Global Observatory on Academic Freedom
      • Interruptrr
      • Open Society Research Platform
      • Research Creation Initiative
      • Senior Projects
    • Fellowships
      • Chatham House Academy Fellowships
      • Global Scholars Academy
      • Modular Doctoral Program
  • Access sub-menuAccess

    OSUN expands access to higher education by creating new pathways for underserved communities. Academic integration and connected learning bring educational opportunities to students beyond OSUN’s brick-and-mortar campuses.

    • Teacher Education
      • Enhanced Network Teacher Education Capacity
      • Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives
    • Education Pathways
      • Collaborative for Liberal Education for Adolescents
      • Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
      • English Learner Success in Content Classrooms
      • Hubs for Connected Learning Initiatives
      • Microcollege for Just Community Leadership
      • OLIve
      • Roma Equity in Higher Education
      • The Socrates Project
  • Civic sub-menuCivic Engagement

    With a belief in the public purpose of higher education, civic engagement across OSUN promotes best practices and bold new initiatives to help students, faculty, and institutions realize their full potential as community actors and educators.

    • Student Engagement
      • Global Commons
      • Global Debate Network
      • Global Engagement Fellows
      • Get Engaged Conference
      • Online Arts Workshop
      • Student-Led Initiatives
      • Student Life Initiatives Project (SLIP)
    • Engaged Learning
      • Certificate in Civic Engagement
      • Community Engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences
      • Engaged Scholarship
      • Engaged Senior Projects
      • OSUN Science Shop
      • Solve Climate by 2030
  • News sub-menuNews + Opportunities

    OSUN offers myriad opportunities and events to undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and scholars, and faculty. News and features provide updates on project impacts and the people involved.

    • Newsroom
      • Current News         
      • News Archive
    • Events
      • Current Events
      • Events Archive
    • Opportunities
      • Current Opportunities
      • Student Opportunities
      • Faculty Opportunities
      • Opportunities Archive
  • Resources sub-menuResources

    OSUN faculty and institutions have worked collectively to assemble this dynamic collection of student-centered teaching methodologies and instructional strategies. Whether working online, in person, or in a blended context, establishing a clear and consistent communication plan with students is central to all of these practices.

    • OSUN Resources
      • Academic Technology Guides
      • Blended Learning Toolkit
  • About sub-menuAbout

    OSUN aims to educate students for tomorrow’s global challenges, fostering critical thinking and open intellectual inquiry to strengthen the foundations of open society amid the current authoritarian resurgence.

    • About OSUN
      • Our Vision
      • Who We Are
      • What We Do
      • Member Institutions
      • Themes
      • Annual Report
  • Search
News & Events Menu
  • Newsroom
    • Current News
    • News Archive
  • Events
    • Current Events
    • Events Archive
  • Opportunities
    • Current Opportunities
    • Opportunities Archive

OSUN News

View all news

OSUN Academic Freedom Study Finds European Higher Education Values Need Strengthening

Map showing states (blue) where direct references to specific fundamental values were identified in the GOAF study on quality assurance. Image courtesy of Council of Europe.
Members of OSUN’s Global Observatory on Academic Freedom recently published a study commissioned by the Council of Europe (COE) examining the use of quality assurance (QA) tools to safeguard fundamental values of higher education in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The study published by COE sought to find out what role higher education values, such as institutional autonomy, academic freedom and integrity, participation of students and staff in higher education governance, and public responsibility for higher education, play in the regulatory frameworks for quality assurance in the EHEA agreements shared by European nations.

Researchers Daniela Craciun, Liviu Matei, and Milica Popović found that fundamental values have not yet gained a stronghold among many states throughout the EHEA, neither by definition nor operationalization within quality assurance procedures. Values associated with truth, democracy, and independent thinking need additional support and advocacy efforts from stakeholders in order to be incorporated into the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), the backbone of the European Quality Assurance system, and subsequently, the internal QA procedures and regulations of state agencies. 

The study confirmed that respect for fundamental values requires different instruments in different political regimes, and higher education contexts. Where there are stronger tendencies towards respect for the rule of law, as well as knowledge, research, and education, QA tools can significantly aid to advance the implementation of fundamental values within higher education. In states where there is no consideration for knowledge as a public good or for the rule of law, a different understanding of the values might need to be put to use, for example one that sees academic freedom as a human right, according to the researchers. 

Sjur Bergan, former Head of the Department of Education at the Council of Europe, said the study yielded more impactful results than initially expected when the COE commissioned it. The Working Group on Fundamental Values, part of the Council’s Bologna Follow-Up Group, will use the study to prepare for the next Ministerial Meeting of the European Higher Education Area in 2024 in Tirana, Albania. This way the study will directly feed into the development of the European Higher Education Area.

The research team conducted a regulatory framework analysis of 49 EHEA member states, and of 50 QA agencies operating in these states. Based on the data acquired and analyzed within the countries, they also conducted a meta-analysis looking at the whole of the European Higher Education Area. 

The study offered potential policy solutions for making fundamental values in QA a reality. It suggested that development of quality culture needs a stronger reference to democratic culture and fundamental values through EHEA policy documents, as well as clear definitions, monitoring and assessment mechanisms, and enhancement of democratic culture within the EHEA itself. 

The authors concluded that quality higher education must establish, preserve and enhance institutional autonomy, academic freedom and integrity, participation of students and staff in higher education governance, and public responsibility for and of higher education. Without it, students in the EHEA cannot be expected to develop into active citizens, nor progress in research and science in Europe.

Post Date: 05-16-2022
Open Society University Network
For more information contact: 
[email protected]