Sunday 9th of January Dr. Sjur Bergan, the Head of Education at the Council of Europe, was the lecturer for the 7th GSF Academy session from the first module: “The Fundamental Values of Higher Education”.

The session will examine the fundamental values of higher education as defined in the European Higher Education Area: academic freedom and integrity, institutional autonomy, participation of students and staff in higher education governance, and public responsibility for and of higher education. It will seek to identify salient issues and look at some recent cases concerning, in particular, academic freedom and institutional autonomy. The focus will mainly be European, but the session will also seek to draw on experience from some other parts of the world, in particular in contrasting European and North American approaches to academic freedom and institutional autonomy. It will also look at recent evolutions in the governance models for higher education and their impact on student and staff participation.