Threats to academic freedom and autonomy of higher education institutions in Europe
Reply to Recommendation
| Doc. 15312
| 08 June 2021
- Author(s):
- Committee of Ministers
- Origin
- Adopted at the 1405th meeting
of the Ministers’ Deputies (3 June 2021). 2021 - Third part-session
- Reply to Recommendation
- : Recommendation 2189
(2020)
1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully
considered Parliamentary Assembly
Recommendation 2189 (2020) and forwarded
it to the Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice
(CDPPE) for information and possible comments.
2. The Committee of Ministers thanks the Parliamentary Assembly
for its commitment to democratic education and to democratic higher
education in particular. It is convinced that academic freedom and
the autonomy of higher education institutions in Europe are essential
components of democratic societies. They are indeed vital to developing
a culture of democracy, namely the set of attitudes and behaviours
without which institutions, laws and elections cannot be democratic
in practice.
3. The Council of Europe has contributed substantially and for
many years to the development of academic freedom and institutional
autonomy. The Committee of Ministers joins the Assembly in welcoming
the Declaration of the Global Forum on academic freedom, institutional
autonomy and the future of democracy held in June 2019 in Strasbourg.
4. The Committee of Ministers is mindful of the role of higher
education in helping to shape the post-Covid-19 world. In this connection,
it would like to draw the Assembly’s attention to the
Political
Declaration on the Education response to Covid-19, adopted
by the CDPPE and endorsed by the informal conference of Ministers of
Education organised under the Greek Chairmanship of the Committee
of Ministers on 29 October 2020, and to the accompanying
Road
map for Action, whose overarching purpose is to ensure
the right to education also in times of crisis. For higher education
and research, this requires that academic freedom and institutional autonomy
be observed also under these circumstances.
5. With regard to the Organisation’s wider work in this field,
the Committee of Ministers refers to the Council of Europe’s Education
Programme which will continue its longstanding work on furthering
academic freedom, institutional autonomy and student and staff participation
in higher education governance. This will be done through the Council
of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture,
for which a
guidance
document on higher education was published in 2020; the
project on the democratic mission of higher education; and the Council
of Europe’s contribution to the further development of the European
Higher Education Area (EHEA).
6. In this respect, with regard to the definition
Note of academic freedom adopted
in Rome by EHEA ministers and its consideration by the Council of
Europe, it should be noted that the Council of Europe has been one
of the main contributors to the work of the EHEA since its inception,
as the Bologna Process, in 1999. The Council of Europe will also
contribute to the work to be conducted within the EHEA to map the
de facto and
de
jure state of academic freedom within the EHEA.
7. The Committee of Ministers has taken due note of the Assembly’s
concerns over “negative actions in some member States violating
or undermining academic freedom and institutional autonomy”. In
this regard, the Committee of Ministers calls on all States Parties
to the European Cultural Convention to fully comply with their fundamental
obligations in order to prevent the shrinking of the democratic
space in Europe.
8. The Committee of Ministers thanks the Assembly for its proposals
aiming to enhance the fundamental values of higher education. Of
the actions outlined, the Committee of Ministers has noted the possibility,
in the years to come, of drawing up an action plan to give policy
advice on academic freedom and institutional autonomy, and assessing
the feasibility of a binding instrument in this respect.