The Future of Fundamental Values in the EHEA: The Russian War on Ukraine and Re-Thinking Safeguards Against Non-Democracies

Abstract

The concept of the fundamental values of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)–academic freedom, academic integrity, institutional autonomy, participation of students and staff in higher education governance, and public responsibility for and of higher education–received little attention and was taken for granted during the first decade of the Bologna Process, even if some of the values were addressed independently of each other before the concept was formally introduced. This chapter aims to contribute to the discussion on the fundamental values in the context of the Bologna Process from two perspectives. First, it provides an overview of the EHEA response to the Russian war on Ukraine and analyses the procedural complexities of its decision-making process. This discussion is supplemented by an account of disruptions incurred by the Ukrainian higher education system due to Russian military attacks since 2014. The depiction of academic freedom and public responsibility for and of higher education in Ukraine provides the argument for a bottom-up model of policy implementation in emergencies. Second, the chapter argues the need to uphold fundamental values in international cooperation with non-democracies and authoritarian regimes that infringe on democracy, human rights and the rule of law and promote authoritarian ideologies. It analyses the concept of democratic change through engagement and provides examples of legitimisation of authoritarian ideologies through ‘soft power’. Finally, the authors suggest implications for collaboration between the EHEA and other countries as part of the Global Policy Dialogue.