The fundamental values of higher education have become the subject of political debate, policy measures, and increased academic attention, largely due more to a backlash against democracy than to any concerns about quality. This article describes such developments in Europe and suggests elements that could be included in a strengthened research agenda that has academic, as well as political and policy relevance.

Over the past 10-15 years, the fundamental values of higher education have gone from being taken largely for granted to becoming the subject of political debates, policy measures, and increased academic attention. These values are now under attack in several countries in Europe and beyond. As a result, a number of European organizations have chosen to reiterate the importance of these fundamental values to the functioning of higher education. When Belarus—a country with significant limitations on democratic values, including academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the freedom to organize—applied to join the EHEA in 2015, the EHEA responded by creating a roadmap with explicit reference to fundamental higher education values to accompany the country’s admission. The EHEA itself also adopted a defined set of values and a common understanding, while, within the European Strategy for Universities, the European Commission is developing guiding principles for fundamental academic values.

The renewed prominence of these fundamental values is almost entirely attributable to concerns about the backlash against democracy in Europe and other parts of the world. The argument that fundamental values are also essential to ensuring the quality of higher education and research has featured less prominently in public debate. The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) do not address values, and suggestions that the revision of these standards include considerations of them were received with skepticism by the main quality assurance actors in Europe. The mandate given by the Tirana ministerial conference to review the ESG also does not refer to fundamental values even though the Communiqué is explicit that “[h]igher education can only fully develop its missions when its fundamental values are respected.”

The close link between fundamental values and policy implies several challenges to research, which is largely undertaken on the assumption that democracy—and therefore also the fundamental values of higher education—are desirable. Challenges to these values, and perhaps in particular to academic freedom and institutional autonomy, come almost exclusively from outside of academia, even if the acts and arguments of some members of the academic community provide ammunition to the populist right, notably with allegations of “wokeness” and anti-Semitism.

Toward a Research Agenda

In the face of political movements that question the value and pertinence of academic knowledge, the need for intensified research around fundamental values is more important than ever. While there has been extensive research on the state of academic freedom and institutional autonomy, researchers have focused less on the other fundamental values.

Exploring academic integrity, student and staff participation in higher education governance, and public responsibility for and of higher education should therefore be an important part of the research agenda. Not least, research is needed on how these values interact. Do they support each other—or is there real or potential contradiction between them? Can an institution or a higher education system honor the fundamental values by implementing some while neglecting others?

In Europe, the dominant aspect of institutional autonomy and to some extent the other values has been the legal relationship between public authorities and the academic community. Research is needed to develop a more nuanced understanding of the fundamental values as well as of the proper roles of and relationship between public authorities and higher education institutions.

The lack of research on the role of fundamental values in enhancing quality deprives the academic community of arguments that could possibly convince those less receptive to arguments of democracy. Such research could address questions like: Do the fundamental values enhance the quality of higher education and research? If yes, how, and what policy measures are required?

Assessing the extent to which the fundamental values are a living reality is no small task and constitutes an obvious research challenge that the EHEA has started working on, but that will nevertheless require increased research in the years to come, including in parts of the world other than Europe.

Ultimately, the key question for both research and policy development may be this: What conditions and measures are particularly significant in ensuring that higher education and research contribute to the kind of societies in which we would wish to live, characterized by democracy, inclusion, and quality? The answers to this question can be found only through research and sustained reflection.

Sjur Bergan is an independent education expert and former head of the Council of Europe’s education department, Strasbourg, France. E-mail: [email protected].