Time: November  18th, 2021, at 15.00-16.00 Central European Time (CET) 

Place: A Zoom-link will be shared with the participants closer to the event

Register before: 16.11.2021

Press here to register for the event

Speaker: 

Katja Brøgger is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is the research program director of Policy Futures and host of the Policy Futures International Webinar Series. Her research on education policy and governance focuses on the role of universities and explores the relations between international reform processes and national policymaking. Brøgger is the PI of two comparative projects on the rise of neo-nationalism in higher education funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. Brøgger has published several articles, books and book chapters on education governance, the EU, the European Higher Education Area, privatization, accountability policies and the rise of neo-nationalism

Chair: Dr Søren S.E. Bengtsen, Co-Director of CHEF, Aarhus University, Denmark

Abstract:

Presentation of the Sapere Aude and Inge Lehmann projects by Associate Professor and research program director, Katja Brøgger. The projects are funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark and will be launched autumn 2021.

The projects explore how the rise of neo-nationalism in Europe seem to challenge post-World War II international alliances’ attempt to harmonize European higher education systems. These alliances and organizations, such as the OECD and the EU, created an era of unprecedented internationalization following the war. Since the 1990s, the Bologna Process has transformed the European higher education systems through the complex construction of the so-called European Higher Education Area. With the Bologna Process, the EU has sought to forge a fragile EU unity through education. This unity is currently challenged by the turn towards national solutions and the rise of neo-nationalism. The projects center on universities and compare how neo-nationalism has affected higher education policy in Poland, France, UK and Denmark. It also examines recent actions taken by the EU to counter neo-nationalist trends in Europe. Using the case of Denmark, this presentation briefly explores two interrelated domains in which neo-nationalist trends in higher education are currently manifesting: how national politicians seek to intervene in or restrict the freedom of research and how governments influence and restrict universities’ ability to engage with the international community, including the inflow and outflow of student talent.