Democratic processes at the universities

Universities that were once primarily collegially governed institutions are increasingly exposed to the influence of political and economic interests that put neither science and scholarship nor democratic values first. The challenge is for universities to safeguard their autonomy in terms of freedom of research and education, as well as their internal democratic processes which appear to be very much in question.

Moreover, there is the further challenge of both ensuring access to higher education by widening participation, and taking account of the diversity of languages and minorities in the university community within collegial frameworks. Social changes associated with the increasing digitalisation of the media include erosion of media, independence and cooption by interest groups. This also impacts academia and greater attention deserves to be paid to the consequences of this for higher education and for the democratic implications of research. This thematic area focuses on the democratic processes inside universities relating to governance and leadership issues as well as to the constitution of democratic representation in the university community.