Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T17:56:14.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Commercial Attack on Universities: Academic Freedom—An Orphan under the European Human Rights Framework?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2024

Philip Czech
Affiliation:
Universität Salzburg
Lisa Heschl
Affiliation:
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria
Karin Lukas
Affiliation:
Central European University, Budapest
Manfred Nowak
Affiliation:
Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
Gerd Oberleitner
Affiliation:
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria
Get access

Summary

ABSTRACT

The state of health of academic freedom in Europe is only deceptively good essentially because ‘the law and human rights’, and most ways of assessing compliance with academic freedom, do not properly cater for, or at any rate struggle to capture, ‘commercial infringements’ – what are termed, in this contribution, academic freedom violations of the ‘second generation’ (violations 2.0). This contribution seeks to explain how commercialisation affects academic freedom, and why academic freedom violations 2.0 have largely remained below the radar in Europe (and elsewhere) so far. Neither the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) nor the Revised European Social Charter (Revised ESC) expressly protects academic freedom. However, existing provisions in both instruments could be relied on to accord adequate protection to academic freedom. Nevertheless, as will be shown, there are also many obstacles to this endeavour. The best solution may, therefore, be for the Council of Europe (CoE) to adopt a specific European Convention on Academic Freedom. The contribution concludes with ten essential principles relating to the content of such an instrument.

EUROPE AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM VIOLATIONS 2.0

In 2022, Scholars at Risk reported that, in the preceding year, 391 attacks on academic freedom, arising from 318 incidents, in 65 countries and territories around the world, had been recorded. The attacks the network measures cover killings/violence/disappearances, wrongful imprisonment, wrongful prosecution, travel restrictions, loss of position, and ‘other incidents’ (such as closing of campuses, systematic threats against staffor students, systematic discrimination, and so on). Among the countries concerned only five were in Europe, namely Georgia, Greece, Poland, Türkiye, and the UK. Similarly, the recently launched Academic Freedom Index (AFI) reports, in its 2023 update, that, from among 179 countries monitored, only three European countries – Armenia, Hungary, and Türkiye – feature in the lower 50 per cent group of performers. Among the top fift h in the table, 21 out of 36 (almost 60 per cent) are European states. The Afimeasures freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, and freedom of academic and cultural expression.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Intersentia
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×