Academic Freedom

Denmark follows Turkey, India and Hungary in attacking democratic academic freedoms, inviting the question of whether the country is in the initial stages of a similar path towards autocratization.   There was a specific reference to the below journal in the parliamentary debates. You can find the response from the editorial board here: https://tidsskrift.dk/KKF/announcement/view/886

On September 17, Trump spoke from the National Archives Museum. College students, he claimed, are being “inundated with critical race theory,” which is a “Marxist doctrine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation.” On September 22, he issued an  executive order  that alluded to Rufo’s work, forbidding the federal government and its contractors and grantees from holding training sessions that the president said promote racial or sexual “stereotyping” and “scapegoating.” The order outlined nine “divisive concepts” that cannot be taught or promoted, including that: “the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist.” “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” “an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.” “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the s...

In truth the real expansion in higher education law and regulation mostly occurred after 2010, as we saw ever stricter immigration controls, the introduction of the Prevent duty, HEFCE incrementally moving from friendly funder to wannabe regulator, and the evolution of quality and standards from an enhancement carrot to a regulatory stick. For more:  https://wonkhe.com/blogs/keeping-track-of-the-ever-evolving-laws-of-higher-education/?utm_content=buffer5a907&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 https://labornotes.org/blogs/2014/10/wave-contingent-faculty-organizing-sweeps-campuses

  Class Shock: Affect, Mobility, and the Adjunct Crisis by  Yasmin Nair   For years, academia was a hallowed portal into a magical way of life. Or, to be more realistic, it seemed to be one way towards class mobility that was secure, respectable, and relatively easy to obtain, or so most people thought. If you believe cinematic and televisual representations, all academics are professors who live in immaculately maintained houses glowing with the soft light reflected off antique wooden furniture, their rooms filled with never-ending shelves of books, sunlight dappling warm kitchens, and living rooms abounding with vases of fresh-cut flowers. It’s not that such scenarios no longer exist; there is a stratosphere of academia where such idyllic existences are still possible. But, as the mainstream public is quickly learning these days, a growing number of academics are in fact underpaid and overworked graduate students and adjuncts. The dreams of class ascension and mobility ...

 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/academia-suffering-adjunctivitis-low-paid-adjunct-professors-struggle-make-ends-meet