1. SAFEGUARDING VALUES AND
ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION:
A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
IAU International Conference
Vilnius, June 24 – 26, 2010
Sjur Bergan, Council of Europe

2. COMMON CHALLENGES
• Increasing diversification and
specialization of knowledge
• Demand for accountability
• Short term perspective?
• Community or splintered groups?
• Common understanding of ethical norms
and duties?
• Concern for ethics?

3. AN IMAGINED COMMUNITY?
• Community of scholars and students
• Students as full members of the
academic community (EHEA)
• Common heritage
• Ivory tower?

4. A COMMUNITY OF VALUES –
WHAT VALUES?
• Academic freedom
• Institutional autonomy
• Search for truth
• Assessment of evidence on its own merits
• Democracy
• Participation

5. A RESPONSIBLE COMMUNITY?
• Consciousness of responsibility toward broader
society?
• Ethics for specialists only (philosophy, theology,
other non-remunerative disciplines) ?
• Responsible for the education of future:
– Employees/economic actors?
– Citizens?
– Scholars?
– Scholar-citizens?

6. AN EDUCATED PERSON?
• Well trained or well educated?
• Intellectual, subject specialist or both?
• What does literacy mean in modern societies?
• Who is the educated person today?
• What transversal competences?
• Need specialized knowledge and understanding
but must also be able to put this into a broader
context

7. UNIVERSITIES AND
VALUES
• Institutional policy must promote values
• Study programs should:
– encourage students to think about values and ethics
– develop the ability to weigh consequences in both the
long term and short term
– develop attitudes and competences for citizenship
• Academics as agents of ethics in broader
society?

8. RESPONSIBILITY
• Responsibility, n. A detachable burden
easily shifted to the shoulders of God,
Fate, Fortune or one’s neighbor. In the
days of astrology it was customary to
unload it upon a star
– Ambrose Bierce: A Devil’s Dictionary
• Today: ethics and values not a burden
detachable from the mission of higher
education