Universities as Institutions of Higher Education Between Formation and Research

Abstract

This contribution targets the need to manage the balancing act faced by middle-sized, non-elite universities between serving as educational institutions with a strong regional focus on the one hand and research institutions that meet international standards on the other hand. The difficulties of meeting these diverging demands will be assessed and spelled out with regard to how university governance and strategic research planning can proceed while taking into account legal, institutional and financial constraints.

The argument proceeds in three steps. First, the normative framework provided by the fundamental right to academic freedom is established. Second, the chapter develops the specific question of whether academic freedom is at stake in cases (as happened in the middle of twentieth century) where universities have been created with a view to bringing higher education to a region without a strong academic background and this in the aim of serving both the population and the local economy. Third, it is shown that the problem can be overcome by the dynamics that academic work unfolds.

Citation

Risse, V. (2020), "Universities as Institutions of Higher Education Between Formation and Research", Sengupta, E. and Blessinger, P. (Ed.) Teaching and Learning Practices for Academic Freedom (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 34), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-119. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000034010