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.

Is this a broken relationship or just a brief back-lash? How can we understand the recent developments and create a knowledge-based starting point for acting? Here follows three possible explanations – and a hopeful prediction:

1. the good force of HEI is countered by a growing gap between means and possibilities in broad strata, populations and nations. This counteract the trust in knowledge and democracy and drives calls of distrust and authoritarian solutions.
   
2. The great promise of the academy – or democracy – does not always deliver. Fear of losing out in the ongoing development is growing and spreading. The academy is associated with the traditional elite and is, therefore, dismissed by disappointed fractions in communities which hope for simpler solutions – sometimes combined with hatred for the know-it-alls of good deed.
   
3. More circular observations made already by Aristotle suggest a carousel of alterations: a long-term chronology could cover the Enlightenment period, but here it suffices to cover the last 35 years of expansion: the 1990s period of utopian hope (the end of history) for democracy around the globe. From the early 2000s and 9/11, global tensions, terror and opposition to western domination, ending with the demise of the Arab Spring. An expanding totalitarian era from 2010, also questioning the international rule-based order.
   
4. However, for 2030 I predict that we will see a turn to more democratic hopes, as the authoritarian path will not deliver. We need to be more convincing in demonstrating the values of academic freedom and Open Science.

Unfortunately, there is a high risk that autocrats turn to war to divert attention from their failure. It frightens me that so many people – including myself – see military build-up as a necessary priority for years to come. From that perspective, Open Science seems like a dream from 1989 – but it is still our best enabling mechanism for the development of solutions to challenges, demonstrated by the Covid 19 vaccine, among other inventions, and will be a key asset to turn the tide.

Universities have a responsibility to reform the assessment of merit and align it with the work needed to conduct successful Open Science that covers the full range, from data, publication and education to innovation and community collaboration. Thus, making it rational for colleagues to invest in this line of work.

This is a starting-point where the academy can make unique contributiona to the much needed Democracy United to meet Autocracy Inc (Anne Appelbaum 2024). 

This was my opening remarks at the international meeting Global Forum on Higher Education 2025: Renewal of Democratic and Civic Mission at Charles University in Prague, Czechia, on 3–4 June 2025. It served as a platform for vibrant and much needed discourse on democracy and higher education’s civic mission. The meeting was a collaborative effort between the Council of Europe and the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy, and is hosted by the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education.

/Peter Aronsson, vice-chancellor at Linnaeus University, Sweden

1. https://www.gu.se/en/quality-government and https://www.v-dem.net ↩︎