Knowledge securitisation policies in international academic collaboration: Geopolitical obstacles to academic freedom
Tuesday 4 March 2025, 13:30 - 14:30 via Zoom
Abstract
Academic freedom has evolved from a marginal to a central concern for higher education across many national contexts. Geopolitical tensions, knowledge security concerns and policies, the rise in anti-intellectualism, challenges to the internationalisation of higher education, and related polarisation in the political and academic debate have all contributed to this development. One salient element of this shift is an expansion of the concepts of “responsible internationalisation” (Shih, 2024) and “ethical internationalisation” (Pashby & Andreotti, 2016) from a discussion of research integrity and socially just approaches to internationalization of higher education to one of “responsibilising” internationalisation in response to perceived political threats and apparent risks of “foreign interference” with so-called national or regional knowledge assets (especially related to science and technology).
In this contribution, we focus on knowledge securitisation policies at national and regional levels, with specific emphasis on the impact on higher education in high-income countries and on research collaboration between high-income countries and potential research partners. Our analysis includes policies from the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and the European Union—and implications for the global academic community, in particular the intersection of ethical internationalisation or internationalisation of higher education for society and academic freedom in international research collaboration. We suggest that the reframing of internationalisation through these policy developments restrict and threaten academic values, especially academic freedom in the practice of research collaboration.
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About the Speaker/Authors
Hans de Wit is Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow of the Boston College Center for International Higher Education. He is a Senior Fellow of the International Association of Universities (IAU) and a member of the expert team Academic Freedom and the Democratization of Science of the Council of Europe. He is co-editor of the publication International Higher Education and of Policy Reviews in Higher Education. He was founding editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education, and has published books, articles and blogs on the internationalisation of higher education.
Tessa DeLaquil is postdoctoral research fellow with the PINNACLE project at University College Dublin. She is on the executive board of the Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education Society, co-editor of the Debating Higher Education: Philosophical Perspectives series, and associate editor of Policy Reviews in Higher Education. Her research focuses on ideas and values in national, regional, and international policy in the fields of international development and international higher education.