On Monday 10 June at 1pm the Royal Irish Academy Social Sciences committee organised a half day seminar. The event explored shifting principles, aims and values in higher education, such as academic freedom, impact, peer review and open innovation, against the backdrop of current economic challenges. Speakers considered the effective 're-visioning' of education and the values–open and hidden–at play. Contributions included a look at higher education in Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe. More details: https://www.ria.ie/about/our-work/committees/committees-for-the-humanities-and-social-sciences/social-sciences-committtee/news.aspx

1. Academic Freedom: A Provocation?
Professor Patrick Prendergast MRIA, Provost Trinity College Dublin
10 June 2013
Uachtaráin na hÉireann Micheal D Higgins, Members of the Academy, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Professor Lizbeth Goodman for the invitation to address you this
afternoon. When Lizbeth asked me to speak, she said I could give a ‘provocation’ as much
as a talk and I’ve taken her at her word – so my title today is “Academic freedom: a
provocation?” – and rather than delivering a sustained argument, my intention is to make a
number of provoking comments which, I hope, can stimulate debate afterwards.
I should say that academic freedom is something I’ve been thinking about a lot and have
touched on in a number of speeches. Some of the current tendencies to undervalue
academic freedom are the product of recent developments, and like anyone dealing with the
‘new world order’ of austerity, so to speak, I’m feeling my way here. I’d like also to say at the
outset that I can only speak as Provost of Trinity in my remarks that follow, but I’d like to
open up this debate to the whole sector.

2. ***Academic Freedom in the Trinity Statutes***
In Trinity College Dublin, we’ve written academic freedom into our Statutes. I won’t quote the
entirety of the passage – it takes up three paragraphs – but we define academic freedom as:
“The freedom, subject to the norms of scholarly inquiry, to conduct research, teach, speak,
and publish without interference or penalty, no matter where the search for truth and
understanding may lead.”
And the passage ends: “The College will seek to develop the search for truth as a part of the
experience of teaching and learning, relying not on the imposition of authority or acceptance
of received knowledge but rather on the exercise of the critical faculties of the human mind.”
These statements are I think, uncontroversial. I expect most good universities have defined
academic freedom in similar terms. But however universities define academic freedom, it’s
not something that commands attention day-to-day … either within the university or outside.
Sometimes academic freedom is equated with freedom of speech - we tend to think that as
long as academics are not being censored outright or imprisoned for their views, then
academic freedom is intact. We overlook the more subtle, the more insidious, threats.
So I think it’s helpful to start by defining academic freedom more precisely.

3. ***Academic freedom: Scholarly Inquiry***
If you look at the Statutes which I’ve just quoted, academics claim the freedom to “research,
teach, speak, and publish without interference or penalty, subject to the norms of scholarly
inquiry.”
That ‘scholarly inquiry’ is crucial. We don’t claim the freedom to research, teach and publish
on any subject. I’m an engineer. If I were to start spouting on, say, theology or French
literature, well I could evoke my right to freedom of speech, but I couldn’t evoke academic
freedom, because I’d be talking about something outside my expertise and using no ‘norms
of scholarly inquiry’ to substantiate my argument.
So academic freedom starts with curtailment. We claim the freedom to research, teach,
speak, and publish only in those areas to which we’ve devoted profound study, on which we
have an expertise that we can share our knowledge for the public good, knowledge that is
situated within the rigorous intellectual tradition of our discipline. Our sense of that tradition,
of all the thinkers in our discipline who have come before us, makes us aware of academic
freedom as a privilege and as something hard-won - an outcome of a thorough grounding as
researchers and scholars in our field. In fact, academic freedom brings such a weight of
responsibility that it’s not something we claim lightly - but we know that it’s not something we
can escape. It is part and parcel of university life.

4. ***The Academic Agenda***
This is a crucial point because when we talk about “the freedom to conduct research, teach,
speak, and publish”, what we’re really talking about is the freedom to set the academic
agenda – that is, the freedom to decide what and how to research and teach.
I emphasise ‘research and teach’ because in Trinity, as in other research-led universities,
the two are inextricable – they do not run along separate tracks. What we research ultimately
decides what we teach – and what we teach inspires the research our students get involved
with.
It may seem, again, uncontroversial to claim the freedom to set the academic agenda, but
this entails the freedom to decide on which staff to appoint to academic posts and how to
remunerate them, subject of course to sound budgetary discipline. Ultimately who you
appoint determines the research direction and the curricula of your institution.

5. ***Constraints: Government***
I became Provost of Trinity just under two years ago, and at my inaugural speech in
September 2011, I raised concerns about what I called ‘constraints acting on higher
education’. Let me quote what I said then:
“To compete globally, I need to have flexibility and decision-making powers – the same
flexibility that other presidents of leading universities can count on. Particularly with regard to
hiring and promotions. At the moment I need to get permission for what I do.”
In the two years since that speech, things haven’t got better. The Universities Amendments
Bill and the Employment Control Framework represent more control, tying the hands of
universities and preventing us from competing globally. And global competition between
universities , and between cities in which they are embedded, is not a myth, certainly not in a
world where talent – of staff and students – is increasingly highly mobile.
When a university’s independence to take decisions on hiring, remuneration, research
funding and tuition fees is curtailed, then the direction of third level education is being subtly
controlled. This means that universities are not free to set their academic agendas, and to
add maximum value to the society in which they are embedded. Their academic freedom is
insidiously compromised.
When I say ‘insidious’ - I don’t mean it in the sense of ‘treacherous’ or ‘perfidious’ but in the
sense of ‘gradual, subtle, but harmful’. I am sure that those who propose and back the
Employment Control Framework and the Universities Bill do not intend to threaten academic
freedom. I’m sure they’re motivated by a sense of doing good for the country in these difficult
times. But I do think the full implications of these measures simply haven’t been considered.
I believe these measures are proposed because people are unclear about what universities
are accountable for, and who they should be accountable to.

6. ***Universities in the Public Good***
An alternate sub-title for today’s speech, suggested by the organisers, was ‘Whose
universities are they anyway?’
I didn’t go with this title because I think it’s too explosive to try and answer this question –
Ireland is not ready for such a debate.
Do universities belong to the government? Do they belong to the people? To the students?
Are they here to serve the market and produce commercial research?
There are all kinds of models for higher education. There’s the ‘dirigiste’ model - one where
government identifies skills gaps in the market and directs universities to concentrate
resources on those disciplines currently in demand, while cutting off resources to disciplines
where there is less immediate need. Government is the owner, the planner.
On the other hand there’s the ‘student-driven’ model, which treats universities as service-
providers and students as the end-users who get to decide what’s working and what isn’t.
The student, thought of as a customer, drives the system.
Do universities belong to students or to government? When I consider the role of
universities, my answer always comes back to their dual function.
Universities confer both a private and a public good. They confer a private benefit on the
individual student who gains the skills to pursue an interesting career and lead a fulfilling life;
and they confer a public benefit in terms of educating the citizens and workers who provide
essential services, drive the economy, and safeguard democracy.
So whose universities are they anyway? They are society’s universities. They operate in the
public interest. They are among the key civic institutions – like the judiciary or the media -
which keep society going, and without which it is quite impossible to imagine a functioning
modern democracy.

7. ***Separation of Powers***
You are all familiar with Montesquieu’s separation of powers into the executive, the
legislature, and the judiciary. And you all know that to these three, was added a ‘fourth
estate’ – the press or the media, which should also act independently in a democracy. It
seems that Edmund Burke was the first to use ‘fourth estate’ to describe the press in 1787.
I’m delighted a Trinity alumnus contributed to this great debate.
Montesquieu came up with three powers and Burke added a fourth, but of course it’s not
about numbers. What counts is proper ‘separation’ between the different actors in civic
society. Each must function independently, and must be enabled - indeed compelled - to
take responsibility for their actions.
Industry could be another example of such democratic players - in democracies, we don’t
see State-control of industry as the best route to economic success. And another example is
universities and centres of higher learning.
So when we talk about the independence of universities and the freedom to set the
academic agenda we’re tapping into something deep and fundamental to the way our
democracies are run.
Universities today are expected to play a key role in driving the economy. They are
encouraged to commercialise research and grow the ‘innovation ecosystem’. This is
unequivocally a good thing. But curtailing in the independence and room for manoeuvre, and
academic freedom, of universities has a distortionary effect, preventing them from sustaining
the cultural ecosystem in which they exist.

8. ***No Innovation Without Independence***
Good universities, such as Trinity and other Irish universities, seek to develop critical
thinking, independence and initiative in students. They do this in a variety of ways, such as
through original research, extracurricular activities, and encouraging innovation.
There is consensus that the skills gained are beneficial to the individual and to society at
large. Everyone is agreed on the need to nurture independent thinking and leadership skills
in students, and on the need for university research to feed into the economy.
But how can universities encourage independence and responsibility in students, unless
they are themselves independent and accountable? How can they encourage decision-
making skills when they cannot themselves take decisions on staff hiring, budgets, and
research? How can they innovate and come up with exciting new products and services in
an environment of control and curtailment?
If you look at the great universities of the world, the universities that support vibrant and
successful innovation ecosystems, what characterises them is a high degree of autonomy. I
could go so far as to state that universities with the ability to act independently is a key
indicator of innovation. This is recognised even in countries where independent autonomous
universities would not have been the tradition – in this respect Ireland seems to be, in
relative terms, going in reverse.
This is not only to do with mentoring innovative, independent students. It reaches beyond to
the question of the long-term research agenda.

9. ***Research: Long-Term Sustainability***
We all know how research funding works. You can effectively silence commercially unviable
research, not through censoring it, but through denying it funds, and one insidious way to do
this is to separate it from the teaching function.
That said, we aren’t naïve and utopic - we know it’s impossible to prevent inequality in
funding. At any given moment in history there’s always going to be a particular demand for
particular research. That’s just what happens.
But if we accept this, we also accept that what is profitable, important, and in demand today,
may not be so tomorrow.
Today, as we suffer the most savage global recession of the post-war period, we understand
only too well the problem of focussing on short-term profit. Corporations and institutions
round the world now seek long-term sustainability. And as third-level research feeds more
directly into the economy than ever before, the need for long-term sustainability in research
becomes ever more pressing.
Who can say which research will prove important in the future? The answer is, of course,
that no individual, corporation, or institution can claim to hold the key to long-term
sustainability.
But it’s fair to say that experience and expertise go a long way. An excellent researcher is in
the best position to predict what might be long-term trends and growth areas in his or her
discipline. He or she can identify the innovations which may prove ground-breaking.
When it comes to the research which will power the future, universities collectively have
great experience and expertise. Of course there’s always an element of risk, but there’s less
risk than when this decision is taken out of their hands and given to people without direct
responsibility for it, for university teaching.
This, of course, ties into what I said about academic freedom as a hard-won privilege.
Universities claim the freedom to set the academic agenda, including the research agenda,
not from any sense of entitlement, but because we know we are best positioned to
determine the academic agenda so as it delivers the public good of higher education.
Universities are also, I believe, well-armoured against the seduction of the short-term.
Successful knowledge economies are those that put trust in their universities and research
centres. They trust that what may look like strange, maverick research decisions will
eventually add to the sum of human knowledge andas well as wealth creation – and lead
mabye in the end to some wisdom as well. Successful knowledge economies give their
universities freedom to set their own academic agenda.

10. ***Conclusion***
I believe that in Ireland we understand the importance of an independent university sector.
All our traditions are geared towards autonomy and independence. This can be to Ireland’s
great advantage in a time when higher education is becoming even more important to our
prosperity and well-being.
Edmund Burke coined the phrase ‘Fourth Estate’ at a time when the press was gathering
importance and becoming a professional force. Naturally, governments sought to influence
this new force, and sometimes succeeded. But the press was able to articulate the value of
its being separate and independent of government.
Today, with the growth of online media, the fourth estate faces unprecedented challenges.
But it is helped in confronting those challenges by the distinct sense of identity it has carved
out over the past two hundred and fifty years.
The fourth estate has been able to do this because it understands its importance as a key
democratic player. It understands that the public interest is best served by press autonomy.
It understands that media is one of those ‘powers’, like the judiciary, which must operate
freely if democracy is to operate well. The phrase “an attack on the freedom of the press” is
a rallying cry – the implications are immediately understood by all.
I’d like to see universities gaining this kind of identity. I’m not saying we should refer to
ourselves as the fifth estate, but the phrase “an attack on the freedom of the press”
resonates in our society and my provocation to you is now can we make “an attack on the
freedom of universities” resonate similarly. Isn’t it a profound threat to education, research,
and ideas when universities come under government control.
Whose universities are they anyway? They are universities for all society, acting in the public
interest, according to the best judgement, experience, and expertise of their governing
boards and academic councils, to use academic freedom in an accountable way for the
public good. Like all key democratic players, universities need to have the trust of the public
to operate effectively.
I believe our universities have that trust. The standard of our third level, the excellence of our
graduates is something the whole country takes pride in. It’s up to the sector to draw on that
pride and trust to articulate the vital importance of what we do. We must come together to
uphold academic freedom - in the full understanding that such freedom is inseparable from
the freedom to act independently in the best interests of those the usiversity is designed to
serve.
Thank you.