Higher education institutions must convince the public that academic freedom is a right that protects broader society rather than just a ¡°privilege for professors¡± if they are to resist repression by authoritarian governments, the leader of the threatened Central European University has claimed.

Michael Ignatieff, president of the Budapest-based institution, said that universities needed to be ¡°very clear about how we are seen¡± and had to ¡°turn the language of ¡®academic freedom is our privilege¡¯ into ¡®academic freedom is a right that protects us all¡¯¡±.

¡°It¡¯s the key move we all have to make if we are going to defend universities in the 21st century. We are not just fighting for a corporate privilege for ourselves; we are defending a counter-majoritarian institution whose function is to serve and protect and defend the whole society¡¯s capacity to know anything at all,¡± he said. ¡°If we defend it as a corporate privilege, we¡¯re done for.¡±

Delivering the Burton R. Clark lecture at the annual conference of UCL¡¯s Centre for Global Higher Education, Professor Ignatieff argued that universities must be understood as ¡°counter-majoritarian institutions¡±, in the same way that a free press and an independent judiciary are seen essential counter-balances to majority governments.

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But he admitted that before the future of CEU became so imperilled, he had ¡°never really thought that hard about academic freedom¡±.

¡°I took it for granted. Or, if you pressed me, I thought it¡¯s a privilege for professors. It just means they can¡¯t fire you. I mention this because I think a lot of people in the general public think of academic freedom that way,¡± he said.

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CEU has been in a long-running battle with authorities to stay in Hungary after the government passed a law in April last year that imposed a range of restrictions on overseas universities in the country, including the need to maintain a campus in their home country. Academics see the move as a politically motivated attack on its liberal democratic mission.

During a speech that touched on threats to academic freedom in China, Turkey and Russia, as well as in Hungary, Professor Ignatieff said that ¡°one of the institutional dispositions of universities is to¡­avoid conflict¡±. But CEU¡¯s ¡°lesson is sometimes you¡¯ve got to fight¡±, he said.

¡°Universities should not underestimate their public support. They should not underestimate the power of their network. And there are occasions, if you get really pushed by a government, when standing up can raise the price for the other side,¡± he said. ¡°You sometimes have to fight a political battle to defend academic freedom.¡±

Professor Ignatieff said that the ¡°thumping two-thirds majority¡± for Viktor Orb¨¢n¡¯s government in Sunday¡¯s parliamentary election means that the prime minister ¡°now holds all the cards¡± when it comes to CEU¡¯s future.?However, Professor Ignatieff?continued, the outcome will depend on whether closing the university ¡°turns out to be sufficiently unpopular inside his own party¡±.

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He added that if CEU cannot remain in Hungary, he would ¡°have to move an entire university across a European frontier to a European state where they can¡¯t screw us around¡±.

Last month, the university announced that it was in talks to open a branch campus in Vienna amid continuing uncertainty over its future in Hungary, but insisted that Budapest would ¡°remain our home base¡±.

Professor Ignatieff reasserted that commitment during a discussion?after?the speech.

¡°I don¡¯t want to move the entire operation to Vienna at all ¨C because it¡¯s a logistical nightmare and because it¡¯s an admission of defeat,¡± he said. ¡°I think under any circumstances we will continue to maintain programmes and activity in Budapest.¡±

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ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com