An international ombudsman to uphold the “principles and values” of higher education should be established alongside a global index of academic freedom. These are the key recommendations made by senior figures in European education who gathered in Romania’s capital Bucharest, in early summer (May) to attend the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) forum on higher education. The proposals are made in the ‘Bucharest Message’, which was submitted for validation to Unesco’s 2009 World Conference on Higher Education held in Paris in July.
The key recommendations are the creation of an international ombudsman and a global index to rank nations according to their commitment to university autonomy and academic freedom. The Bucharest Message says: “Institutions of higher education promote values essential for democratic society, as well as for the cultural development of society and the personal development of individuals. For this very reason, higher education cannot be separated from values and ethics. They are, together with academic freedom and institutional autonomy, key tenets of higher education.”
Bastian Baumann, secretary general of Italy’s Magna Charta Observatory, who led the debate on ‘values’ at the meeting, said that discussions focused on the need for an ombudsman, rather than the details of how it would work.
The Bucharest Message also calls for international support for plans to set up a global index on academic freedom. Baumann said that the index would “provide transparent information about obstacles to academic freedom in specific countries”. This could result in a ranked table, similar to Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer, he said.
(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)