Newsletter June - Democracy and Higher Education

Summer is on it´s way...

The spring semester is behind us, midsummer is over, and this year's Almedals week is underway. The program now awaits a summer break and some rest before we start again in the autumn. And a little rest is probably what we all need after a spring semester that has included revolutionary news and major fluctuations in world politics, the economy, and in discussions about universities, higher education and academic freedom. With dramatic developments in the United States, we have seen in real time a struggle for the position of universities and knowledge as central, independent and self-determining institutions within a democratic state. It is clear that this position is being challenged both rhetorically and in reality. The battleground may currently be a series of designated elite institutions in a country where more fundamental democratic principles are in question, but it is not difficult to see that these battles will have repercussions in academia in many places around the world. Read the Newsletter