Higher education leadership for democracy, sustainability and social justice E-Book

Sjur Bergan

• Herausgeber: Council of Europe
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 527

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Democracy, sustainability and social justice: the leading role that higher education must play in maintaining these three principles

This publication, Higher education leadership for democracy, sustainability and social justice, arises from the global forum that the Council of Europe, the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy, the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities organised at Dublin City University in June 2022. It also arises from the challenges of Covid-19, which both highlighted and contributed to the fragility of democracy, with the increasing erosion of democratic participation, the deepening of extreme inequities, the strengthening of identity and nationalistic politics and the promotion of populist anti-intellectualism, involving attacks on science and knowledge itself.

In this book, authors from Europe, the United States and Latin America argue that democracy, sustainability and social justice are inextricably linked, and that we can impact none of them unless higher education plays an important role in identifying the issues and helping society devise a viable and robust response. The book argues that higher education must do more than develop and disseminate knowledge and understanding. Higher education must influence the way individuals and societies behave. Higher education must lead. The importance of this leadership is illustrated by the inclusion of the Dublin Global Forum in the programme of the Irish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and will be borne out by the positions and actions of the higher education community.

Leseprobe

 

HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP FOR DEMOCRACY, SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

Sjur Bergan, Ira Harkavy

and Ronaldo Munck (eds)

 

Council of Europe

Higher Education

Series No. 26

Contents

Click here to see the whole table of contents, or go on the « Table of contents » option of your eReader.

Preface

The Council of Europe Higher Education Series and the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education are both well established, and it is only natural that the two are brought together in this book. Over the years, both the Global Cooperation – albeit under different names – and the Higher Education Series have explored a broad range of issues that concern the role of higher education in furthering the Council of Europe’s raisons d’être: democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

This book is the 26th in the series and the seventh which is a result of a Global Forum for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education. The Global Forum held at Dublin City University on 16-17 June 2022 established a particularly strong link with the Council of Europe because it was part of the programme of the Irish Presidency of our Committee of Ministers. I should like to take this opportunity to thank the Irish authorities, in particular the two ministers who spoke at the forum, and the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the Council of Europe for making education and this Global Forum such an important part of their presidency. I should also like to thank Dublin City University for hosting the Global Forum, and in particular its President, Daire Keough, and Professor Ronaldo Munck – a co-editor of this book – without whom neither the forum nor the book would have come about.

Our long-standing co-operation partners in the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy, and in particular its Chair, Dr Ira Harkavy – another co-editor of this book – and its Executive Secretary Rita A. Hodges, were equally essential in making the forum and the book a reality. My gratitude also goes to the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities, both of which joined the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education more recently and laid the foundation for turning it into a global undertaking. I, for my part, wish to underline the Council of Europe’s continuing strong commitment to this co-operation. I underline this not because our commitment has been in doubt but because the Global Forum coincided with a period of transition in our Education Department. Sjur Bergan – the third co-editor of the book – retired from his position as Head of the Education Department in February 2022 and was succeeded by Villano Qiriazi. Persons change but our commitment remains.

The topic of this book and of the Global Forum on which it builds is wide-reaching: democracy, sustainability and social justice. All are important to build and maintain the society that we wish for our children and grandchildren. But, as the Global Forum emphasises, democracy, sustainability and social justice will not come about by themselves. Our overall concern about the state of democracy is increasing, as shown through the Secretary General’s annual reports,1 against a background of rising populism, questioning of the need to base political and societal decisions on facts, and the very concept of democracy being challenged by distortions such as “illiberal democracy”. We need leadership, and as the Global Forum underlined, higher education needs to be an important part of this leadership.

By supporting and developing the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education as well as its local democratic mission, the Council of Europe will continue to be a strong voice for democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We will continue to support the role of higher education in this respect through our Steering Committee for Education and through our Education Department.

As the relatively newly appointed Director General for Democracy and Human Dignity, it gives me special pleasure to highlight the role of education in general and of higher education in particular in imbuing European citizens with the culture of democracy, without which our institutions, laws and elections will not easily be democratic in practice. We were reminded of this basic fact, four months before the Dublin Global Forum, by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The Council of Europe took prompt action to exclude Russia from the Organisation and to mark its full support for Ukraine. I hope that it will one day be possible for Ukraine to benefit from a just peace and strong European assistance in the reconstruction that will both precede and follow this peace. I also hope that it will one day be possible to welcome a democratic Russia back to European co-operation, even if that day seems remote as I write these lines.

Marja Ruotanen

Director General for Democracy and Human Dignity

Council of Europe

1 See www.coe.int/en/web/secretary-general/reports, accessed 5 June 2023.

A word from the editors

SjurBergan, IraHarkavy and RonaldoMunck

Context

As editors, it is our pleasure to introduce this publication, Higher education leadership for democracy, sustainability and social justice. It has a double background. Most immediately, it arises from the Global Forum that the Council of Europe, the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy, the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities organised at Dublin City University on 16 and 17 June 2022. Beyond that, it arises from the challenges that both society at large and higher education in particular face as both try to recover from Covid-19.

Dublin City University was much more than a technical organiser of the Global Forum. It has been an important contributor to our exploration of the democratic mission of higher education over several years, represented by one of us, Ronaldo Munck.

This was the seventh Global Forum organised by the Council of Europe and the International Consortium, with the first dating back to 2006. At the same time, it was the first organised jointly by all four organisations after the Organization of American States (OAS) joined the co-operation in 2018 and the International Association of Universities (IAU) in 2019. What started as a transatlantic co-operation has now gone global and, to mark this significant shift, we renamed it the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education. Even more than with previous editions, this book, and the Global Forum from which it arose, seek to look beyond Europe and North America.

The problems exacerbated by Covid-19

The second part of the background for this book is also global: the Covid-19 pandemic that struck almost all parts of the world in 2020. Covid-19 changed our societies and the way they operate. It changed education, as we explored for higher education in the preceding book in the Council of Europe Higher Education Series (Bergan et al. 2021), and as the Council of Europe outlined for education overall (Council of Europe 2020). The Covid-19 pandemic also impacted the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education. The Global Forum which had been planned for 2021 had to be postponed until 2022, and we used webinars and podcasts to a much greater extent than previously, pioneered by Dublin City University and the IAU.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected most particularly the more vulnerable members of society. It exposed issues that were also present pre-Covid but that were, regrettably, given new salience through the pandemic. It not only exposed but also deepened extreme inequities both within and between countries. The pandemic highlighted and contributed to the fragility of democratic systems, with the increasing erosion of participatory democracy, the strengthening of identity and nationalistic politics, and the promotion of populist anti-intellectualism, involving attacks on science and knowledge itself. Covid-19 highlighted, more broadly, the backsliding of democracy (Council of Europe 2021).

At the same time, demands for basic human rights, social and racial justice and economic equity are increasing in many parts of the world. Opposition to police violence against Black people in the United States, for example, has dramatically expanded multiracial activism through the Black Lives Matter movement. This is part of a broader international reckoning regarding ethnic bigotry, the status and rights of refugees and the obligation of Western countries to acknowledge and learn from their histories of racial, colonial and ethnic exploitation. Racism is, incidentally, an area in which Europe and the United States use quite different terms to describe much of the same reality. Racism exists on both sides of the Atlantic, but it has been much more present in American history and public debate. In Europe, “race” is a heavily loaded term because of the continent’s experience of Nazism and its false categorisation of races to justify extermination of groups. Perhaps because of this experience, Europeans tend to consider “race” as an invented rather than a biological category, and the issue is more often cast in terms of ethnic groups, migration and linguistic and religious minorities. These dividing lines can sometimes coincide.

The Covid-19 pandemic may momentarily have slowed the speed of climate change, but it did not change the fact that we have reached and daily exceed a climate tipping point, further destabilising human societies, precipitating massive waves of migration and threatening to move millions more into poverty.

Democracy, sustainability and social justice: three connected issues

The book brings together our ongoing concerns for democracy, sustainability and social justice that were with us in what we have increasingly come to call “the pre-Covid world”, but that have been exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this book, we take the view that the three issues are inextricably linked, and that we can impact none of them unless higher education plays an important role in identifying the issues and helping society devise a viable and robust response. In part, that role is what higher education has always done: developing new knowledge and understanding through research and disseminating them to students through learning and teaching and to society at large through outreach activities. This remains important, and the backlash of democracy makes it even more important, since part of the backlash is the rise of populism with its belief – or rather gut feeling – that simplistic solutions are adequate, that facts do not necessarily matter and that everyone is entitled not only to their own opinions but to their own facts. Encouraged by demagogic leaders, many citizens believe that there can be such things as “alternative truths” and “illiberal democracy” and treat unwelcome facts as “fake news”.

But higher education must do more than develop and disseminate knowledge and understanding. Higher education must influence the way individuals and societies behave. Higher education must lead.

One indication of the importance of leadership is the inclusion of the Dublin Global Forum in the programme of the Irish Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers (Irish Presidency 2022). Two Irish Government ministers, one for higher education and the other for European affairs, addressed the Global Forum. Along with the strong commitment to the democratic mission of higher education on the part of the President of Dublin City University, Daire Keogh, the Irish hosts demonstrated how important it is for higher education to lead rather than just follow, to show the way rather than merely follow the paths trodden by others.

This book therefore appropriately opens in Part I with a presentation of the context in which higher education leadership must be exercised. Matjaž Gruden, the Council of Europe’s Director of Democratic Participation and also a key person in writing the Secretary General’s annual reports on the state of democracy in Europe (Secretary General 2023), demonstrates why we cannot have democracy without education and underlines the fact that knowledge and critical thinking are the driving force of progressive change. The Chair of the International Consortium, Ira Harkavy, shows where this road can lead us if higher education shows leadership and creates a global movement to fulfil higher education’s democratic mission, and develops and sustains participatory democracy on campus, in the community and in the wider society.

Higher education needs to work with the broader society

Higher education needs to show leadership and work with partners locally, nationally and globally to respond to attacks on democracy itself. In Part II, Simon Harris, the Irish Minister for Higher and Further Education, shows how higher education matters within a national context and how this contact has international relevance. Then four chapters from four continents explore how this can be achieved. Writing from a South African perspective, Ahmed Bawa outlines the role of engaged universities and points to significant disruptions – the student activism of 2015-17 in South Africa and the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020 – which are giving rise to a new societal interest in the role of higher education. Based on their experience at Rutgers University-Newark – an archetypical democratic anchor institution in the United States –Nancy Cantor and Peter Englot explore how universities can be trusted neighbours in their local communities. They emphasise that local commitment does not stand in the way of global ambitions and resonance.

From a European perspective, Liviu Matei asks whether universities have an obligation to further democracy. He points to the very different circumstances between institutions that function in a culture of democracy and can express themselves freely, compared with those for which any attempt at democratic engagement can have literally fatal consequences and those that operate under difficult circumstances but nevertheless have some leeway for engagement. In his contribution, Jim Nyland suggests engagement with democracy will be “the next big idea” in Australian higher education and argues that it is essential that higher education retain its “pandemic activism” to address attacks on democracy and its local and global consequences together with the existential threat of climate change.

Furthering sustainable development

Part III of the book addresses sustainable development more directly and asks how a commitment to the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can contribute to the university’s democratic mission in the community and wider society. Drawing on their experience from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and its co-operation with Latin America, Luz Claudio and Rocío Rodríguez-Báez show how higher education can further both diversity and education on sustainable development by improving the representation of minorities in science and medicine by providing members of underrepresented groups with intense research training coupled with effective mentoring. Rosario del Pilar Díaz Garavito, the founder of the Millennials Movement and a Peruvian activist now living in the United States, offers a comprehensive overview of the work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the role of civil society stakeholders in achieving them. Rui Branco from Universidade Nova Lisbon takes the perspective of a political scientist and explores current challenges to democracy – in particular the predicament of new democracies. He argues that higher education institutions must be responsive to societal needs to become agents of change in solving the complex challenges in moving towards a sustainable future, which includes political, economic and social components in addition to ecology.

Promoting social and racial justice

Part IV asks how academia can redesign, and engage in, social and racial justice work in democratic co-operation with others within and beyond its campus. Sibongile Muthwa presents the case of Nelson Mandela University in South Africa to argue that universities need to foreground the scholarship of engagement, revitalise the humanities, advance transdisciplinarity and put the student at the centre of their work. From her double background as the long-serving Rector of the University of Rijeka and as a philosopher, Snježana Prijić Samaržija pleads that universities need to develop innovative modes of action, mutual connection, community and co-ordination. She also maintains that universities’ local mission is crucial because their engagement must always be contextualised and tied to specific community challenges. Renée White from the New School in New York argues that education has always been political, which is proved by movements to ban books from classrooms. She emphasises the importance of antiracist practice in higher education as part of its value as a public good, because it prepares people for full participation in public life through being economically self-sufficient and civically engaged.

Educating ethical and democratic citizens

Part V discusses how institutional practices can help sustain and engage the most at-risk students, while also ensuring that all students are educated to be ethical and democratic citizens. Annick Allaigre presents the experience of Paris 8 University, a relatively new university on the northern outskirts of Paris with a high proportion of foreign students and a policy of openness to the world. Marcelo Knobel and David John Lock draw on the experience of Latin America – in particular, Argentina and Brazil – to argue that practising, and educating for, values is more important now than ever for universities and the authors point to the 1988 Magna Charta Universitatum, its follow-up document from 2020 and the programme of the Magna Charta Observatory as significant supports in the democratic, values-based mission. Galina Rusu describes how legislation, government action and international projects combine to further education’s engagement in fostering democracy in Moldova.

Universities working with local communities

Part VI asks how higher education institutions can build relationships with local communities, especially those most devastated by the pandemic and its aftermath, in light of persistent inequalities. David Maurrasse describes how the Anchor Institutions Task Force helps its almost 1 000 members develop deeper commitments to their local communities and partners, and he argues that these anchor partnerships are crucial to the future not only of higher education institutions but of their local communities. Ryan Feeney provides a brief outline of the long-time engagement of Queen’s University Belfast in the highly fraught context of Northern Ireland, while Andrew Montague – a former Lord Mayor of Dublin – points to the importance of Dublin City University in providing opportunities for the residents of an area of the city that have few offers of education or culture in their immediate neighbourhood. Writing from her vantage point as the (then) Chair of the European Students’ Union, Martina Darmanin demonstrates the potential of student community engagement and suggests how it could be put to better use on a global scale if it were accredited and supported by universities. Katherine Conway-Turner draws on the experience of Buffalo State University to look at ways in which higher education institutions can help communities face tragic events, such as the mass shooting that Buffalo, New York, lived through in May 2022.

Making the democratic mission a priority

In Part VII – Conclusions, Enida Bezhani, who was the General Rapporteur for the Global Forum, asks how we can and need to rethink education in times of crisis to ensure that democracy, sustainability and social justice are strengthened rather than weakened. She quotes Dublin City University President Daire Keogh in his opening address at the Global Forum to suggest that “we should look into building a world not as it was, but as we want it to be and as it should be” and maintains that higher education needs to be both ambitious and humble at the same time. Yadira Pinilla, of the OAS Department for Human Development, Education and Employment, outlines how the democratic mission of higher education resonates with the overall task of furthering democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, while Maija Innola – the Chair of the Council of Europe’s Education Committee – examines how the democratic mission of higher education can and should inform the new Education Strategy that the Council of Europe expects to adopt in September 2023. Within this strategy and the overall democratic mission, the local democratic mission must find its place through the European platform that the committee approved a few months before the Global Forum was held.

In Part VIII, in a series of afterwords, three long-time contributors to the Global Cooperation who recently retired, or are about to do so, draw on their years of work in arguing for the continued importance of democracy and the indispensable role of higher education in developing and maintaining it. Ronaldo Munck argues that in rethinking the whole “knowledge project” that encompasses teaching, research and service as well as the broader question of public knowledge, we need to identify a new sense of purpose. Sjur Bergan argues that, as academics and higher education policy makers, we cannot remain indifferent to the threat that Russia’s war of aggression represents not only to Ukraine but to all of Europe. He argues that the measure of a society’s greatness is not the size of its army but the strength of its civil society as well as its contribution to the greater good of humankind, through education, research, culture, democracy and social inclusion. Tony Gallagher takes a longer-term view and provides an overview of how he has experienced the development of what is now the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education, an experience which leaves him optimistic about its future.

Towards a better future

We hope that Tony Gallagher’s optimism will be transmitted to our readers, and that they will find inspiration in the diversity of views and practices presented in this book. We would like to express our thanks to all the authors as well as to those who work within each of the four partners in the Global Cooperation to promote social justice and sustainability and to develop and maintain the culture of democracy, without which our institutions, law and elections – and our societies as a whole – would not be democratic in practice.

We would in particular like to express our thanks to our strong supporter Snežana Samardžić-Marković, who stepped down as the Council of Europe’s Director General for Democracy shortly before the Global Forum, and Joann Weeks, the retired Associate Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center, who for many years helped hold the Global Cooperation together as the day-to-day co-ordinator of the International Consortium. Our heartfelt thanks also go to Joann’s successor Rita A. Hodges, who played a key role in organising the Dublin Global Forum, and to our editorial assistant Irina Geantă, who did an outstanding job of keeping track of successive drafts of all contributions to this text and helped make this book what it is.

References

Bergan S., Gallagher T., Harkavy I., Munck R. and van’t Land H. (eds) (2021), Higher education’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic – Building a more sustainable and democratic future, Higher Education Series No. 25, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, available at https://rm.coe.int/prems-006821-eng-2508-higher-education-series-no-25/1680a19fe2, accessed 24 January 2023.

Council of Europe (2020), “Making the right to education a reality in times of Covid-19 –A roadmap for action on the Council of Europe education response to Covid-19”, available at https://rm.coe.int/making-the-right-to-education-a-reality-in-times-of-covid-19-a-roadmap/16809fee7b, accessed 24 January 2023.

Council of Europe (2021), “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law – A democratic renewal for Europe”, report by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, available at edoc.coe.int/en/annual-activity-report/9506-a-democratic-renewal-for-europe-annual-report-by-the-secretary-general.html, accessed 18 June 2023.

Irish Presidency (2022), Council of Europe Committee of Ministers Chairmanship, May-November 2022, available at www.coe.int/en/web/presidency/ireland-presidency, accessed 5 June 2023.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe (2023), annual report [and earlier reports], available at www.coe.int/en/web/secretary-general/reports, accessed 5 June 2023.

Part I Prologue

Chapter 1 Why we cannot have democracy without education

MatjažGruden

I would like to start this chapter with an inspirational quote – and here is my take:

In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.

This is Yoda, the Jedi Master, speaking. The choice of quote tells you where I spent most of my time during my university years.

Back then, in the late 1980s in what was still Yugoslavia, apart from watching Star Wars, we were also changing the world. At least we were doing our best to do so, and the university was the place to do that. This was not because professors and students had been secretly plotting to overthrow the regime – we did that only occasionally – but because the university was doing what universities always do: nurturing knowledge and stimulating critical thinking.

The university did so on campus, but also beyond the campus.

Knowledge and critical thinking are the driving forces of progressive change. They always have been and always will be.

This is why higher education is an essential part of democratic infrastructure. Higher education is one of the cornerstones of a society based on the values of humanity, knowledge, openness, curiosity, innovation, respect for individual rights and freedoms, respect for human dignity, a sense of responsibility for community and a sense of solidarity with other people. And this is why authoritarians fear and loathe its independence and autonomy and will do everything within their power to subjugate it. In March 2022, we were all shocked by the letter of support for the Russian aggression of Ukraine, signed by many rectors and prominent personalities from Russian universities (O’Malley 2022). It is difficult to know how much of that pledge of loyalty was genuine and how much was coerced, but it showed that the Kremlin clearly understood one thing. To wage a war built on lies, manipulations and falsifications, the Russian academic community had first to be silenced, neutralised and discredited. We should add that few (if any) Russian rectors got their position through active opposition to the regime and that, even if some may have signed under coercion, others hardly needed to be “convinced”.

This is not a situation that we could have predicted more than 20 years ago, when we started working on the Democratic Mission of Higher Education with our US colleagues in the International Consortium. But what is happening is making our work even more important. It sounds like a platitude, but it could not be further from one. What started as part of the effort to consolidate democratic achievements almost a quarter of a century ago has today turned into a race against time to stop and reverse the democratic decline. Some governments in the Council of Europe still struggle to fully understand and acknowledge the vital role of education in this respect. This project demonstrates that relevance in a very clear and convincing manner. This is why it should be an integral part of the Council of Europe’s future strategy on education. That strategy was discussed by the Council of Europe Education Committee in March and September 2022, and again in April 2023, with hopes that the strategy will be adopted by ministers of education at a ministerial conference at the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg in September 2023.

We are delighted that this co-operation is now “going global” with the full participation of the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities. Together, our two newer partners represent the two broad groups we need to make democracy a reality through higher education: the higher education community of institutions, staff and students alongside public authorities.

The Council of Europe commitment to the democratic mission of higher education is institutional, but we all know that it would not have happened and become as successful as it is if it were not for Sjur Bergan, the outgoing Head of our Education Department. Without people like Sjur, people with commitment, knowledge, ethics and sheer stubbornness, institutions are mere empty shells. Sjur’s colleagues in the Council of Europe are immensely proud of the great honour bestowed on him by our host on 16 June 2022 when he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by Dublin City University at a ceremony held during the Global Forum. It could not go to a more deserving person.

The Global Forum which is the basis for this book was held in Dublin in June 2022 under very special circumstances. One European country had invaded another, and the war is still ongoing as this chapter is being written. Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe in March 2022 because of its war on Ukraine. It misuses education to try to justify its aggression. More precisely, Russia falsifies history.

At the same time, the war on Ukraine has led to a surge in solidarity quite unlike any other that Europe has seen recently. We need to help Ukraine – including its higher education – both now and in the long term.

This is also a reason for concern. Over the past decade or so, democracy in Europe – and not just in Europe – has been backsliding (Council of Europe 2021). At a time of very serious global challenges, from environmental change to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are witnessing increasing attacks on knowledge, on science and on reason. Illiberal populism thrives on ignorance and “alternative facts”. This phenomenon is often attributed to the rise of fake news caused by the internet and social networks. That is true, but only to a certain extent. Conspiracy theories drove and fertilised a whole range of reactionary ideas and ideologies long before the advent of the internet, but it is true that the internet has established an ideal ecosystem for their creation and distribution.

However, the conditions in the market of lies are dictated not only by supply but also by demand. Denial of knowledge is not just a consequence of ignorance or inaccessibility of facts. People often deliberately believe in alternative facts because they provide emotional comfort and an antidote to frustration and anger accumulated over a long period of real and perceived injustice. Rebellion against reason, against knowledge, against facts, though to one’s own detriment, is often experienced as a rebellion against elites.

Regaining trust is always a two-way process, but we cannot change these perceptions unless higher education engages strongly with the broader society of which it is a part. Our project should strive to rebuild respect for and confidence in knowledge in our societies. And the imperative of social justice featuring prominently in the title of this event is a key part of the equation necessary to achieve that.

This includes something in which our host institution, Dublin City University (DCU), is a pioneer: engaging and working with its local community. In 2017, DCU hosted a Council of Europe conference on the local mission of higher education. The Council of Europe is building on that conference and on other work to launch a platform bringing organisations and institutions together to work further on this topic, with an emphasis on the local democratic mission. This platform, which will be launched in 2023, is a logical extension of what we do here today and tomorrow, and DCU plays a key role in both.

I am also very pleased that this conference is part of the programme of the Irish Presidency of our Committee of Ministers and that the presidency in general emphasises education. Having this kind of political support is essential.

The thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment – and I will admit I am paraphrasing Wikipedia here – emphasised the importance of individual freedom, reason and science and the value of human life. More than two centuries later, we seem to be getting tired of the light. The Darth Vaders are winning against the Yodas. We are not yet at the Age of the Eclipse, but we should never forget that, once it gets dark, it tends to be dark for a long time.

References

Council of Europe (2021), “State of democracy, human rights and the rule of law – A democratic renewal for Europe”, report by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, available at edoc.coe.int/en/annual-activity-report/9506-a-democratic-renewal-for-europe-annual-report-by-the-secretary-general.html, accessed 18 June 2023.

O’Malley B. (2022), “Russian Union of Rectors backs Putin’s action in Ukraine”, University World News, 6 March 2022, available at www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220306120204111, accessed 23 October 2022.

Chapter 2Higher education, creative altruism and democracy: where do we go from here?

IraHarkavy

The Global Forum on Higher Education Leadership for Democracy, Sustainability and Social Justice in Dublin was the seventh involving co-operation between the Council of Europe and the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy since their partnership began in 1999. The Dublin Forum, however, was different in its composition and sponsorship thanks to the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities joining the co-operation in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Their involvement, which led to the formation of the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education in 2021, ensured a more global composition and focus.

This forum was also the first since the onset of Covid. In 2021, the partners produced a volume on higher education’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic (Bergan et al. 2021), which included contributions from many of the colleagues who participated in the Dublin meeting. Although the pandemic was not the focus of our conversations in Dublin, its devastating and ongoing impacts could not but affect the proceedings. Among other things, the participants were well aware that the “pandemic-impacted university” needed to be decidedly different from the “pre-pandemic university”, which had failed to adequately address and effectively combat the frightening problems facing the world. Among the most urgent problems discussed at the forum were the serious and growing threats to democracy.

A system in crisis

In the United States, the chasm-like inequities laid bare by Covid-19, the ongoing killing of Black Americans and other minorities, the gun violence epidemic and the armed insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, inspired and instigated by the outgoing president, Trump, and his refusal to accept his defeat in a democratic election, as well as the continuing attempt by a major political party – the Republicans – to subvert the electoral process, are powerful indicators of a system in crisis. These developments reflect global trends that are also signs of deep and deeply troubling problems, which include:

▶ increasing economic, political, social, educational and health inequalities;

▶ increasing racism, antisemitism and xenophobia;

▶ increasing attacks on science, knowledge and democracy itself;

▶ declining trust in nearly all major institutions and the concomitant rise of autocracy and an anti-democratic form of populism.

Many things, obviously, contribute to the present situation. Among them is the failure of universities to sufficiently do two of the primary things they are supposed to do: educate students to be ethical, empathetic, engaged, democratic citizens and advance knowledge for the continuous betterment of the human condition (Benson et al. 2017). In an 1899 speech at the University of California, William Rainey Harper, the first President of the University of Chicago, observed that:

The school system, the character of which, in spite of itself, the university determines and in a large measure controls.... through the school system every family in this entire broad land of ours is brought into touch with the university; for from it proceed the teachers or the teachers’teachers. (Harper 1905: 25)

Agreeing with Harper, I contend that higher education institutions powerfully shape the learning, values and aspirations of students from kindergarten through to graduate school.

To put it simply: no democratic higher education, no democratic schooling, no democratic societies.

As Professor Henry Taylor has written, higher education in the United States has not done what it could and should do to “produce knowledge for racial and social change” (Taylor 2021: 42). This also appears true on a global level. The current situation demands an increased dedication and commitment to realising the democratic mission of higher education, so that advancing democracy democratically becomes higher education’s primary mission.

Where do we go from here?

The question is how do we get there from where we are now?

I certainly do not have a full answer to that question, but Martin Luther King’s last and most radical and prophetic book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? provides a useful beginning for the conversation (King 1967). Where do we go from here was written in a period that saw the rise of Black power and the concomitant criticism of multiracial coalitions, a visible white backlash against Black progress, and an expanding Vietnam War. Dr King felt that these developments and others required him and the movement he helped lead to take stock and make fundamental choices. The alternative for King was stark – chaos or community. Our current choice might well borrow from and build upon the one Dr King presented: chaos and autocracy or community and democracy – specifically participatory democracy.

Creative altruism

The psychologist Howard Gruber’s concept of “creative altruism” might also be useful as we try to develop answers to the question of what approaches to consider as we chart our course.

According to Gruber,

We can envisage and identify cases of “creative altruism,” in which a person [an institution in this case] displays extraordinary moral responsibility.... Creative altruism, when it goes the limit, strives to eliminate the cause of suffering, to change the world, to change the fate of the earth. (Gruber 1989: 285)

Given the state of the earth, universities need to be creative altruistic institutions that are dedicated to community and democracy and that work with their neighbours to change the world for the better. In so doing, they will create a “community of experts” and make increased contributions to research, teaching and learning (Cantor and Englot 2013: 121).

I would be remiss if I did not turn to Benjamin Franklin, the founder of the University of Pennsylvania, my home institution, to help answer the question of how to move forward. According to Franklin there are three kinds of people: those who are immovable, those who are movable and those who move. It seems to me that university academic staff and administrators, community leaders and public authorities must be among those who move, working together to develop mutually (university and community) transformative local partnerships. While the local democratic work is a necessary condition for change, it is not enough. A global movement has to be built and advanced to help universities function as creative altruistic institutions dedicated to the values and practice of democracy, sustainability and social justice.

This is where the Global Cooperation for the Democratic Mission of Higher Education comes in, providing opportunities for colleagues from around the world to learn from one another, as it did at the 2022 Global Forum. Developing ideas and actionable knowledge as a result of global forums and other convenings, as well as sharing that knowledge through publications, such as this book, are the core work of the Global Cooperation. That work is crucial, in my judgment, for creating a global movement to fulfil higher education’s democratic mission and to develop and sustain participatory democracy on campus, in the community and in the wider society.

References

Benson, L., Harkavy, I., Puckett, J., Hartley, J., Hodges, R. A., Johnston, F. E. and Weeks, J. (2017), Knowledge for social change: Bacon, Dewey and the revolutionary transformation of research universities in the twenty-first century, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.

Bergan S., Gallagher T., Harkavy I., Munck R., and van’t Land H. (eds) (2021), Higher education’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic –Building a more sustainable and democratic future, Higher Education Series No. 25, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg.

Cantor N. and Englot P. (2013), “Beyond the ‘ivory tower’: restoring the balance of private and public purposes of general education”, Journal of General Education: A Curricular Commons of the Humanities and Sciences Vol. 62, Nos. 2/3, pp. 120-8.

Gruber H.E. (1989), “Creativity and human survival”, in Wallace D.B. and Gruber H.E. (eds), Creative People at Work, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 278-87.

Harper W.R. (1905), The trend in higher education, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

King M. L. (1967), Where do we go from here: chaos or community? Beacon Press, Boston.

Taylor H. L. (2021), “The pre-Covid-19 world: race and inequity in higher education”, in Bergan S. et al. (eds), Higher education’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic –Building a more sustainable and democratic future, Higher Education Series No. 25, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, pp. 41-50.

Part IIUniversities and colleges working together locally, nationally and globally

Chapter 3Higher education leadership for democracy, global sustainability and social justice

SimonHarris

Higher education

The exact role and scope of higher education has long been debated by academics, policy makers and others. There is no doubt that the collective goal of education must not be confined to skills development, as crucial to our well-being as it might be. Certainly, without the right skills in our economy, we will not reduce our emissions to avert climate breakdown. We will not build the homes our people need. However, a strictly instrumentalist or utilitarian view of education’s purpose is clearly a limited one.

Nelson Mandela famously said, in a speech given on 16 July 2003, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Given the ongoing attacks on democracy all over the world and on our own continent, education – and specifically higher education – can and must play a vital role in protecting our democratic institutions and values. Education has an essential role in not only defending but advancing genuine democracy for all. Indeed, it is the most powerful weapon we have to maintain peace and advance democracy. It can deliver what Mandela cherished, as he said at the end of the Rivonia trial, “the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities” (Mandela 1964).

Council of Europe

In 1949, Ireland was one of the 10 founding members of the Council of Europe. Today, the Council comprises 46 states, spanning our continent and, crucially, including Ukraine. On 20 May 2022, Ireland took the helm of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers for the seventh time. All of the Council’s members have committed to protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law. These are values which Ireland will work to advance during its term. During the Irish Government’s Presidency, one of our priorities is to engage fully with higher education and with the academic community throughout Europe.

The overarching goal of Ireland’s Presidency is to renew “the conscience of Europe”. In the wake of Russia’s expulsion following its invasion of Ukraine, Ireland wishes to refocus on the Council’s core work, so we can deliver the most effective support for Ukraine and its people. We will pursue three clear and complementary priorities during our presidency.

First, as a founding state, we will work to reaffirm “Our Founding Freedoms”, reinforcing human rights protection for civilians across Europe. Second, we will draw from our national experience, including with citizens’ assemblies, to promote participatory democracy and engage young people in the democratic process. Finally, we will work to foster a Europe of welcome, inclusion and diversity. We have framed this around the concept of Fáilte, the Irish word for “welcome”. To support our priorities, we will make an additional voluntary contribution of almost one million euros to the Council this year, channelled in particular to the Action Plan for Ukraine, the new Human Rights Trust Fund and the effective functioning of the European Court of Human Rights.

Ukraine

At the turn of the year, there were few here who would have predicted the outbreak of war in Europe and, with it, the biggest displacement of people on the continent since the dark days of the Second World War. The European Union has shown its true democratic colours and, from the get-go, our nations worked together to support and protect Ukrainian people fleeing conflict. Early this year at the European Council on Education (where EU ministers of education meet), we heard from our ministerial counterpart in Ukraine that the continued access of Ukrainian young people to education will be an essential element in rebuilding their future.

Ultimately, we must and will do everything we can to empower Ukrainians to shape a positive collective future for themselves and their country. As a government and as a country, Ireland is unequivocal in its welcome for people fleeing Ukraine. We are determined to deliver access to education, social income and shelter. I am proud to see that this approach is widely reflected throughout our society. In particular, we have seen a typically open and generous response from Ireland’s third-level (tertiary) sector.

Pronouncements of the importance of education are only as useful as the programmes that are in place to support them. Ireland has established the National Student and Researcher Helpdesk (Irish Government 2022a) as a single point of contact for all displaced students who are seeking to access higher education. It will guide applicants through the documentation required to support their continued access to higher education. We will also facilitate the Ukrainian higher education entrance examinations, which will be taken online in a dedicated testing centre, and we are planning a range of financial supports for Ukrainian students planning to attend Irish universities and colleges.

The Ukrainian people that I meet are united in their determination to return to and rebuild their homeland as soon as they are able to. Our support is unwavering so that, when they return, the forces of democracy in Ukraine and across Europe will be stronger than ever.

Social justice

One of the outcomes I would like to see emerge from the Global Forum would be increased leadership by our higher education institutions in democracy, social justice and sustainability. If we want to widen the net to shape a higher education space that is truly representative, the choice to attend must be a real one; it must be an available one, an accessible one for every single student and family, here in Ireland and across the world.

To make access a lived reality, not only must we fund our higher education as part of the public space delivering a common good, but we must also remove cost barriers for all students. That is why I recently published “Funding the future”, a landmark government policy which has settled the question regarding the funding of higher education in Ireland (Irish Government 2022b). Our higher education system will be a multifunded model of additional Exchequer investment and employer contributions through the National Training Fund. The student contribution will be retained but I am committed to reducing it over time.

Not only will we properly fund our institutions with the core funding necessary to provide this public good, but we are also committed to reducing the cost of education. Particularly, I would like to provide more supports for flexible and blended learning, which will really benefit women, carers, people with disabilities and people from other groups which have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education.

Citizen-centred education

If we want an education system that is citizen-centred, that is democratised, that is empowering future generations to deliver social justice, we must have a unified system without silos. I am very proud of Ireland’s education and research systems and the tremendous track record they enjoy internationally. I saw this especially through the challenges of the pandemic, when the response of staff to the needs of their students was very impressive.

Our policy pathway is to enhance the ways in which the system as a whole responds to the changing needs of students and learners, of industry and of wider society. It is my view that a more unified approach across tertiary education and research can build a sea change of broader yet more cohesive opportunities for learners, researchers and innovators. At its heart, this new design is about opening doors for people, rather than closing them. Unfortunately, a lack of clear signposts or pathways for the learner can serve to exclude many people.

Education should never close doors. Education should always mean opportunity and hope, regardless of who you are, where you come from or where you are in life, young or old. Central to this new policy approach is increasing movement for learners and researchers across and within all aspects of the third-level system.

There is no doubt in my mind that these reforms will advance equality, diversity and inclusion across the educational landscape. This will be good for regional development and industry too. But we do not have all the answers to this and it will only work if driven by the innovators and trailblazers in higher education. My department has now commenced an open consultation process on how we shape this collectively. We are looking for all and any ideas and suggestions for change.

Increasing access

As we break down barriers of cost and illuminate more effective pathways across parts of the third level (the tertiary system), a truly democratic education system ensures that access and inclusion are core values and practices. We have come a long way here in Ireland. We have increased access for people with disabilities, and we have more members of the Traveller community than ever before in higher education.

Very shortly, I will bring to the government our new National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education. This plan is to ensure that the student body entering into, participating in and completing higher education at all levels reflects the diversity and social mix of Ireland’s population. It identifies the target groups that are currently underrepresented in higher education. These include entrants from socio-economic groups that have low participation in higher education, such as Irish Travellers, students with disabilities, including for the first time a dedicated pathway for students with intellectual disabilities, first-time mature student entrants, part-time/flexible learners and further education award holders.

Education advances equality – Literacy

We are reforming third-level education beyond higher education too. My generation must not forget those who went before us and were locked out of the education system. We talk of our knowledge-based economy and talent as our greatest strategic asset. In this rapidly changing world, knowledge and talent will drive forward democratic transformation. But everyone must have an equal opportunity to contribute to and participate in these advances.

Crucial to democracy, equality and sustainability is literacy. Beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, literacy is now understood as a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world. On the other hand, unmet literacy needs adversely affect the enjoyment of other democratic rights.

Unfortunately, the stark reality in Ireland 2022 is not so rosy on the issue of adult literacy. One in six Irish adults cannot read or struggle with reading. I have met people around the country from all walks of life who have hidden for years in forgotten worlds where literacy and numeracy needs are often experienced in shame. Well, I think the shame is ours as a society.

I was proud to publish the first ever 10-year Adult Literacy Strategy in 2021 (Irish Government 2022c). We will shortly be recruiting and appointing new literacy co-ordinators in each region of the country and a new National Programme Office to deliver a cross-government, cross-economy and cross-society response.

Gender equality

I cannot address the theme of social justice without speaking about gender equality. In Ireland, our own experience with the Citizens’Assembly on Gender Equality demonstrates how engaging citizen dialogue can make change happen within society and across government systems (Citizens’Assembly 2021). This was a significant moment in the long history of advocacy and public discourse around how we treat and value women and girls in this country. The Assembly recommended that all levels of the education system should monitor policies and practices through the lens of gender equality and report regularly on trends and outcomes by gender.

I recently addressed the Oireachtas (National Parliament) Joint Committee on Gender Equality established on foot of the Assembly’s recommendations. I shared with my parliamentary colleagues some of the changes we are progressing, such as the National Review of Gender Equality and the Gender Action Plan.

Another significant disrupter is the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative (HEA 2019). This programme has created rapid and sustainable change in the representation of women in the senior professor grade, with funding for 45 prestigious senior leadership posts over three years. There are other positive developments such as the Gender Equality Enhancement Fund, as well as the 98 Athena Swan awards earned by Irish higher education institutions (HEA 2023).

However, gender inequality is a deeply ingrained cultural problem. Until we achieve gender justice, our universities and in fact all parts of society are prevented from realising their full potential. I know that the Council of Europe is side by side with us on this journey.

Sustainability

Another journey the whole world is taking together is that of climate change and sustainability. With this, we have to recognise that the human condition fears change. On climate, the public are way ahead of us. They know things need to change, but not everyone knows how we are going to get there.

This is where higher education comes in, educating and informing us all. It is our higher education researchers who will find the zero-carbon replacements and new ways of living and working that we need. In Ireland, we have to ensure that we maintain momentum around the Climate Action Plan and our goal to achieve a 51 % reduction in overall carbon emissions by 2030.

My own department is of course uniquely placed to play its part. Those we work with and represent are integral to every part of the solution to this issue, from the academics and researchers who will create the evidence base to tackle this global crisis to the builders and retrofitters who will undertake the work needed to reduce our carbon footprint.

Research, innovation and climate change

Addressing climate change is a fundamental, complex and multifaceted issue for society. I recently launched Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy (Irish Government 2022d). This is our shared ambition for research and innovation for this decade. This will see us through these years of accelerated change and rapid transformation. The strategy aims to support the development of new ideas, technologies, skills, knowledge and solutions which can transform our prosperity and the way we work and live.

The impact we are determined to deliver is an effective response to the twin transition challenges of climate change and digitisation. The strategy commits to maximising the impact of the Irish research and innovation system on critical sectoral agendas of government.

We know that high-quality research is vital for a robust evidence base. However, a decarbonising economy will also bring opportunities, including in research and innovation. These are clearly emerging in energy efficiency, in renewable energy, in resource recovery, in the circular economy and in the bio-economy, and they need to be systematically developed through research and innovation.

For the first time ever, under Impact 2030, I will chair a group of the six government departments with the largest research budgets. Through this and other measures, we will ensure research and innovation are critical enablers to support delivery of our climate action targets and to address wider environmental and sustainability challenges as part of the strategy’s first work programme to 2024.

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has also undertaken a significant new project, in collaboration with Science Foundation Ireland, called Creating Our Future (Irish Government 2021). This is what you might call “a national conversation” with the people of Ireland on science and what types of issue matter to them. We asked about the issues that researchers and innovators should be looking at into the future. We will use the data captured to set up a series of grand challenges. Climate of course featured heavily, so watch this space over the next few years to see the innovations and new solutions flowing from this work.

Conclusion

James Joyce wrote in Ulysses, “To learn one must be humble. But life is the great teacher”. Life is teaching us a lot at the moment. More than ever though, we need an education system that is properly resourced and protected as a public good. But we need our educators to be humble also and help us to find the solutions to the challenges of the future. We have to keep in mind the need to include the broadest cross-section of people in all our endeavours and to continually ask how we can put our commitment to inclusivity, equality and diversity into practice.

References

Citizens’Assembly (2021) “About the Citizens’Assembly on Gender Equality”, available at https://citizensassembly.ie/overview-previous-assemblies/assembly-on-gender-equality/, accessed 5 June 2023.

HEA [Higher Education Authority] (2019), “Senior Academic Leadership Initiative”, available at hea.ie/policy/gender/senior-academic-leadership-initiative/, accessed 6 June 2023.

HEA [Higher Education Authority] (2023), Athena Swan Ireland, available at www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/international-charters/athena-swan-ireland, accessed 6 June 2023.

Irish Government (2021), Creating Our Future, available at https://creatingourfuture.ie/, accessed 6 June 2023.

Irish Government (2022a), “The National Student and Researcher Helpdesk FAQ”, available at https://files.pac.ie/public/organisation-23/FAQs-for-PAC-portal-PC-9PCW9G3-NSR-Application-Desk.pdf, accessed 5 June 2023.

Irish Government (2022b), “Funding the future” [policy document], available at https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/222798/56d15094-5221-42ba935a-943970e044e5.pdf, accessed 5 June 2023.

Irish Government (2022c), “Adult Literacy for Life”, available at www.adultliteracyforlife.ie/, accessed 5 June 2023.

Irish Government (2022d), “Impact 2030: Ireland’s research and innovation strategy”, available at www.gov.ie/en/publication/27c78-impact-2030-irelands-new-research-and-innovation-strategy/, accessed 6 June 2023.

Mandela N. (1964), “I am prepared to die”, Speech from the dock at the Rivonia trial, available at www.nelsonmandela.org/news/entry/i-am-prepared-to-die, accessed 5 June 2023.

Chapter 4 Defence of democracy in South Africa: the role of engaged universities

AhmedBawa

Conditions in South Africa

At the end of 2021, Universities South Africa held its Second National Higher Education Conference, entitled “The Engaged University” (USAf 2022). The theme was chosen as an opportunity to think about higher education’s engagement with its multiple publics and within society at large. Underpinning this choice was a deeper interest in wanting to engage in reimagining the university as a social institution and wanting to understand how universities could best address what appear to be so many intransigent socio-economic challenges of this adolescent democracy. Two very significant disruptions, the student activism of 2015-17 and the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, gave impetus to this surge of interest, and there have been many lessons learned about the state of higher education and in particular its relationship with broader society. The erosion of democracy, deepening poverty and inequality, rampant public and private sector corruption, rising xenophobia, a stagnant economy and severe energy crisis and volatility – all form a backdrop of prodigious proportions.

As one witnessed at UNESCO’s World Higher Education Conference 2022, entitled “Reinventing Higher Education for a Sustainable Future”, in the rapidly changing environment in which higher education finds itself there is a global surge of interest in thinking about its future as a public good and its role in the path to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO 2022). During the deliberations in Barcelona, where the conference was held, a lot of time was spent on the need to (re) imagine engagement, but in a context where many of the challenges that universities worked with were simultaneously local and global. Among them we find the recent assaults on democracy and the shifting boundary conditions of truth, with the concomitant impact of rising populism and anti-intellectualism. Many old and new democracies face challenges that have the potential to weaken their effectiveness and their trustworthiness if they are not addressed suitably.

While these challenges have implications for the role of universities as social institutions, they also have implications for the future sustainability of universities. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a rise in interest to revisit/reimagine/reshape the nature of universities and their complex relationships with the societies they serve. More practically, while it appears that higher education has recovered from the pressures brought to bear on it by Covid-19, much has yet to be understood about the impact of the pandemic on critical aspects of the operations of universities such as the future profile of supply and demand, unbundling and the creep of the gig economy on the higher education labour market (Nelson et al. 2020).

The student uprising of 2015-17 very nearly brought the South African higher education system to a staggering halt. The major motifs of the student demonstrations were two campaigns: #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall. While these were initially separated along ideological lines, they flowed together to generate powerful interventions. As one vice chancellor put it, in getting former President Jacob Zuma to meet at short notice with the leadership of the many student movements and vice chancellors, the students had achieved in a few days what the vice chancellors had never been able to do. Yet, the legacy of the student uprising was that it shook the system to the core, giving impetus to transformative, longer-term impact on this project of reimagination. First, it broadened the base of interlocutors with multiple threads of student, staff, faculty and public involvement. Second, it shaped (perhaps for the first time since the early 1990s) the discursive nature of the project of engaging the future of higher education in relation to what was perceived to be the prevailing objective national conditions (Bawa 2021).