Rektorsbloggen

In our academic community, we have a common understanding of strong correlation, or even identity, between higher education institutions (HEI), human rights, and democratic values. There is evidence to support this strong relationship (global research from Gothenburg University, both on quality of governance and variation among democracies¹): education and HEI strengthen democratic political culture in all cohorts – and more so the higher the education is.

These findings can be corroborated also over centuries of successive progress and enlightenment. But during recent decades the simultaneous growth of authoritarian regimes and growing investments in the academy seems to counter the truth of the assumption. Perhaps the example of China is the most challenging, even if USA is the most recent, urgent and alarming – with plenty of examples in between.