Seminar series Academic Freedom part 4: The freedom of education
We warmly welcome you to the fourth part of the seminar series on academic freedom, which is aimed at all employees and students. The seminar will be held in Sundsvall on 7 May and will be broadcast live online.
"There is a chainsaw massacre going on at American universities" read a recent headline in Dagens Nyheter. Academic freedom is rapidly being dismantled, even in parts of the world that many have seen as champions of freedom. Our seminar series on academic freedom is therefore more relevant than ever.
The fourth seminar has the theme of the freedom of education. The freedom of education is about both the university's ability to develop and provide education without control from the state, commercial interests or political ideologies, and about the students' right to choose education and freely develop and express their opinions.
In discussions and analyses of academic freedom, the freedom of education is often overshadowed by the autonomy of higher education institutions and the individual researcher's freedom to choose research problems, themes and methods. At the same time, the freedom of education is not protected by law in Sweden, and it is not uncommon for political decisions on the content and conditions of education to severely restrict the freedom of higher education institutions and teachers to design and plan their education. This raises questions about what a free education means at a time when societal and political interests are increasingly influencing the content and form of higher education.
The basis for the freedom of education is the free search for knowledge and that education should not be limited either by political powers, prevailing norms or the opinions or values of individuals. In the same way, students' opinions and ideas should be freely expressed and tested within the framework of higher education.
The seminar highlights and problematizes the concept of freedom in relation to education and discusses it from both a higher education institution and a student perspective.
The seminar will be held in Swedish and is based on three short lectures by the following speakers:
Jacob Färnert, former chairman of the Swedish National Union of Students and now an investigator at Stockholm University. Jacob's lecture is titled: "The conceptual confusion in academic freedom – time to return to the Humboldt ideal".
Tobias Dalberg, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, Didactics and Sociology of Education, Uppsala University. Tobias' lecture is titled: "The academic freedom in the light of the sociology of education".
Anitra Gudmarsdotter, chairman of Sundsvall's student union. Anitra's lecture is titled: "It takes a fool to remain sane".
The lectures will be followed by a panel discussion with the speakers. The seminar is led by Vice-Chancellor Anders Fällström and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Anna Olofsson.
The seminar series on academic freedom is organized by the Research Council at Mid Sweden University.