The Government Against the University: Reports from Colombia, Hungary, Poland & Turkey

What happens when governments view universities as adversaries? How have universities successfully defended academic freedom? How much autonomy over internal decision-making should universities concede in the face of what seem like existential threats?

To explore these questions, the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University and the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University organized an online panel discussion featuring university leaders and faculty members from around the world who have confronted—and in some cases fended off—state attacks.

Speakers included István Rév of Central European University in Hungary and Austria, Andrzej Rychard of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Can Candan of Boğaziçi University in Turkey and Johanna Mick Clausen of the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. Moderated by Alexander Cooley of Columbia University.

• István Rév, Professor of History and Political Science at the Central European University Budapest and Director of Blinken OSA
  
  "What's happening in Hungary is not the government versus the university. It's the government against science, the government against reason, the government against intellectuals, against sanity... Defending academic freedom and the autonomy of institutions is an important lesson not just for academics, but for the general public. The Hungarian government is trying to get rid of the autonomy of all institutions, and when universities fight for their autonomy, it provides an important lesson for other organizations whose autonomy is also in danger."
  
  
• Andrzej Rychard, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and former Director of the Institute for Philosophy at the Polish Academy of Sciences

  "In Poland, there have been attempts to limit academic freedom by the Minister of Education. Solidarity is a core element of our relative success in this context. Through our protesting, we have learned that we are not powerless, and we know how to organize our power... We are currently challenging an anti-scientific movement, which has made convincing the public of the value of science and scientific study a difficult task. We have to show the public that without science, we would not have achieved the progress we have seen in the past years."
  
  

• Can Candan, independent filmmaker and faculty member at Boğaziçi University in Turkey
  
  "In Turkey, we have learned the importance and power of coming together as a university to stand against the government and what the appointed university president is trying to do. We have stood our ground for the past four years through different forms of resistance, whether it be through legal avenues, public relations campaigns, or academic resistance. This means we continue to do our academic work: teaching outside of university walls, holding conferences, and writing articles and reports for when the political situation changes."
  
  
• Johanna Mick Clausen, Director of Internationalization at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia
  
  "When half of university students in Colombia attend private universities, the government's attack on private education is an attack on education as a whole. It's now time for us to admit that we have not done enough to convince the public of the value and importance of higher education and research. We must try to rebuke the narrative that higher education is elitist... People think that universities will always survive, and that's not the case without proper investment."