A rally in support of EUSP, St Petersburg. Image: Anna Klepikova. All rights reserved.Recent events around the European University at St Petersburg — the refusal to grant an education license (accompanied by an openly mocking comment by the deputy head of Russia’s education watchdog) as well as the loss of the building that the university has occupied since opening its doors — tells us something that the international academic community has already long warned of: the attack on the European University, a private and internationally-backed postgraduate school with an international reputation, is not a conflict over property ownership.
Instead, we are dealing with a serious violation of academic rights and freedoms. In March this year, the influential international organisation Scholars at Risk already posted a warning about the threats to the university on its academic freedom monitoring site.
Total control over education and science
Academic rights and freedoms consist of two interdependent elements. On the one hand, they’re about the freedom of teachers and researchers “to teach, research and learn”. On the other, they’re about academic autonomy, guaranteeing a university’s right to decide not only the content but also the form of its teaching.
