Researchers from 38 European countries will evaluate the state of openness and freedom in higher education and research in the light of the crises in the EU over the past decade.

“Over the past decade, a rise in new nationalisms, geopolitical changes and wars in Europe have fuelled a more Eurosceptic opposition. The transformations in the political world have put the openness of higher education and research under increasing pressure,” explains Associate Professor Katja Brøgger.

She is head of the new pan-European project OPEN, which is anchored at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University. The OPEN project is a new interdisciplinary research network (also known as a COST Action) which offers an opportunity to bring together researchers and other stakeholders across national borders in order to strengthen Europe’s capacity to meet academic and societal challenges. The project will run for four years and is funded through the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

Universities caught between conflicting visions for Europe

Katja Brøgger points out that the financial crisis, the debt crisis in southern Europe and the migration crisis created more fundamental challenges for the pan-European integration project and the liberal globalisation agenda which dominated for many years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“Today, the universities in Europe are caught between conflicting visions for Europe: Deeper political integration and openness, on the one hand, and a manifestation of the European nation states as centres of political sovereignty and social security, on the other,” says Katja Brøgger and continues:

“In addition, the EU’s security policy considerations with regard to countries such as Russia and China also limit the ambition to achieve full openness which otherwise characterises the EU’s research policy. Therefore, protectionism, regionalism and security policy challenge open exchange with neighbouring countries and communities outside the EU. So we are seeing a development that affects academic freedom and the international engagement and mobility of universities. We will explore the increased pressure of new nationalisms and geopolitical tensions on the openness of European higher education and research, and the implications for the future of Europe.”

The OPEN COST Action is organised into four working groups that bring together researchers across countries and disciplines such as political science, education studies and sociology to explore the changing dynamics between the university, the nation state and the European integration project.

Through knowledge exchange and collaboration, the project will strengthen European research and work together with key stakeholders in higher education and research. The aim is to generate ideas and initiatives that can address the current challenges facing universities.

About The OPEN COST Action

The OPEN COST Action has been developed on the basis of the ‘Asserting the Nation’ projects headed by Katja Brøgger and funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark through a Sapere Aude research leader grant and an Inge Lehmann grant.

An EU COST Action is an interdisciplinary research network that offers an opportunity to bring together researchers and other stakeholders, such as special interest organisations, across countries in order to strengthen Europe’s capacity to meet academic and societal challenges. A COST Action runs for four years and is funded through the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

The strategic priorities of a COST Action are to promote excellence and equality in research, support interdisciplinary research breakthroughs, and strengthen and retain young researchers.

Read more on the COST Actions official website: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA22121/ and on the OPEN COST Action website: www.opencostaction.eu