Academic Freedom and University Autonomy: A Higher Education Policy Perspective

Ren, Kai; Jun, Li

doi:10.1057/hep.2013.31

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Why talk about them together? Because they are intimately related, although different concepts (see Ren and Li 2013;Matei 2017 for comparative discussions of the two concepts). Academic freedom and university autonomy refer in essence to a single constitutive, defining characteristic of the university as an institution: certain freedom, or freedoms, for both the individuals within it and for the institution are needed in order to fulfil its core mission.…”

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars of academic freedom and autonomy insist on the fact that the "special" freedoms of the university are needed, justified, and should only be practised in order to fulfil a social function, not for the benefit of the universities themselves or for the private benefit of individuals inside the university. In this way, they are as much rights as they are duties and responsibilities (Ren and Li 2013;Beiter et al 2016).…”

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The distinction between academic freedom and university autonomy is contested and differently understood in various contexts (Matei 2017;Ren and Li 2013). Most often, academic freedom is understood as the freedom of individual academics and students to teach, study and pursue education and research without undue interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations or public pressure.…”

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ren and Li (2013) review a corpus of literature focusing on the differences between the European, American and Chinese definitions/understandings and practice of academic freedom and university autonomy, as influenced by particular epistemologies. Specifically, they refer to the rationalist tradition in Europe, pragmatism in the U.S. and Confucianism in China.…”

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Diverging Paths? Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in the European Higher Education Area

Matei¹,

Iwinska²

2018

European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies

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It is possible to analyse in a systematic manner the evolution of university autonomy and academic freedom in Europe after 1999-2000, a distinct and remarkable period in the history of European higher education. A consistent, albeit surprising, pattern can be identified: it consists of a combination of diverging paths of development. We define the path of development as a distinguishable, cohesive, interconnected and relatively stable sequence of events or changes taking place over a longer period in a given area, which are characterised by a distinctive combination of speed, direction and substance (content). To illustrate briefly, we propose two examples, which we will analyse in this chapter.We argue that there is a difference of direction, speed and content, or different paths of development, in the evolution of institutional autonomy compared to academic freedom: this period shows much faster and mainly progressive changes in autonomy, as opposed to slower and rather regressive changes in academic freedom in Europe, both at the conceptual level and in practice. If we look at autonomy alone, we notice a particular path of development: an accelerating tendency to define, measure and practice it in relation to efficiency, rather than intellectual, moral and legal references, including human rights. We call this the instrumental path of development of autonomy in the EHEA.In this chapter, we attempt to identify the most important paths of development in academic freedom and university autonomy in the EHEA, analyse their interaction and explore their significance for the broader discussion about the present and future of higher education in Europe.

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Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: University Autonomy and Academic Freedommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Diverging Paths? Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in the European Higher Education Area

Matei¹,

Iwinska²

2018

European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies

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“…The first one is the classic notion of academic freedom, a form of intellectual independence, allowing the researcher to pursue research of his own volition (e.g., Ren and Li, 2013;Polanyi, 2000). This autonomy at an individual level should be not confused with the concept of "Institutional Autonomy" (Ren and Li, 2013) which is often enshrined in law. The second notion of freedom relates to the absence of external pressures on the work of the academic researcher.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Validation of the Multi-dimensional University Research Workplace Inventory (MDURWI)

Santos

2017

High Educ Policy

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This study describes the development and validation of an instrument aimed towards measuring organizational features of an academic research workplace. The question pool was developed based on data from a pilot study (N = 43). The survey was deployed to academic researchers in the field of higher education research worldwide (N = 850). An exploratory factor analysis conducted on 36 questions, followed by confirmatory factor analysis, which lead to a final pool of 27 questions in 5 subscales, one of which divided into 3 lower-order factors. The final model exhibited very good fit (X 2 /df = 2.561; CFI = 0.972; PCFI = 0.784; RMSEA = 0.043; P[rmsea ≤ 0.05] < 0.001; AIC = 891.018; BCC = 987.839) and psychometric properties, in the form of factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as reliability and sensitivity. Implications of this instrument for research and policymaking are discussed, as well as future research directions.

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Academic Staff’s Dual Role in China: Academic Freedom in a Prestigious University

2020

Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects

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Academic Freedom and University Autonomy: A Higher Education Policy Perspective

Cited by 18 publications

References 16 publications

Diverging Paths? Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in the European Higher Education Area

Diverging Paths? Institutional Autonomy and Academic Freedom in the European Higher Education Area

Development and Validation of the Multi-dimensional University Research Workplace Inventory (MDURWI)

Academic Staff’s Dual Role in China: Academic Freedom in a Prestigious University

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