University leaders hammer out the Hamburg Protocol

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
June 16, 2015

THREATS to university autonomy and academic freedom to conflicting theories of the university and education took centre stage at a council of university leaders hosted and sponsored by the city of Hamburg last week.

Some 50 rectors, vice-chancellors and presidents of universities and academic associations from Europe, Asia, Africa and America deliberated on issues affecting the global university system at the Inaugural Transnational University Leaders Council co-organised by Universität Hamburg, German Rectors' Conference and Körber Foundation.

The aim of the council was to initiate a high-level dialogue among university leaders about the key challenges that national higher education systems are confronted with.

"This meeting provides an opportunity to define positions," explained Prof Dr Horst Hippler, president of the German Rectors' Conference. "We aim to encourage an open exchange in an intimate atmosphere, free from specific national and supranational obligations. Universities are under considerable economic pressure. Frequently they are the playthings of political developments. At the same time, if we want our societies to be innovative and mobile, we need universities to be creative and independent. We will discuss these inconsistencies with reference to such core issues as university access, educational justice, and the differentiation of the university landscape."

To this, Prof Dr Dieter Lenzen, initiator of the council and president of Universität Hamburg, added: "All over the world the higher education sector is developing without restraint and at a very rapid rate into a private university system with a high degree of social selectivity. Important national differences and the achievements of other educational traditions are in danger of disappearing."

The remark made by Dr Lothar Dittmer, a member of the executive board of the Körber Foundation, is particularly relevant: "Ideally, we will succeed in strengthening the voice of reason which is collectively present in the universities worldwide in a time marked by numerous international conflicts." This year is the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Hiroshima, including the destruction of its university, and later Nagasaki city.

Against such a background, the university leaders were engaged in an intensive personal exchange to formulate collective values which should serve as guidelines for further development in the global higher education sector. The Hamburg Protocol concluded at the end of the meeting was categorical in its shared values.

It is categorical that no single university model should dominate over others. Diverse concepts of the university, embodying cultural identity, should be promoted, particularly in a globalised world with the aim of safeguarding the university's mission of generating new knowledge for humankind and educating responsible global citizens. Out of concern about developments in post-secondary education systems worldwide, the council also agreed among others that:

Today, no simple definition of the term "university" is available, or even desirable. The traditional understanding of a university, the principal purpose of which is to advance science, research, and education, is challenged by a variety of forces that require universities to be adaptive to changing conditions in society, for instance simplistic reactions to market pressures, while preserving their core values.

While the university is an institution that impacts society, it is also a place of individual education and a public good.

The protocol advocates both academic freedom, typically understood as the freedom to teach and the freedom to conduct research in an academic environment, and also institutional autonomy, which comprises legal, financial, organisational and academic autonomy, to be co-determined by the university's members.

Contrary to current practices, research excellence is not the only feature of high quality. Other features of quality should also be rewarded. It is within the responsibility of the universities to respond to the needs of the students and society – independently of the underlying system – and to articulate the quality of the different university missions beyond research. There is no single way to follow, flexibility is needed.

That said, necessity of public funding of basic research and higher education as public goods should therefore be acknowledged. This is the only way to safeguard the universal right to access higher education. Hence, every effort should be made to reach and encourage participation of marginalised communities. Only the institution should decide on matters of access; more than secondary school results should be taken into account.

Coming very soon after the 2015 World Education Forum in May, with the issuance of the Incheon Declaration, the Hamburg Protocol has a very special significance. It is articulates specifically the way forward for the university and higher education, more so than the World Forum.

The writer is a member of the Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council.