In response to the lockdown situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers have made huge efforts to switch to teaching and learning online. Many of us are wondering what education and research will be like after this. What will happen if physical distancing continues to be necessary for an extended period? What will happen to online learning? A sociohistorical approach can help us to make decisions in the present.
When universities first came into existence in the Middle Ages, students came from all over Europe to attend them. To protect these new travellers from the dangers of their peregrinatio academica, the authorities had to issue protections, while professors and students began organizing themselves into guilds or corporations (universitas) for the purposes of cooperation, self-defence, institutional development and assurance of continuity.
The support of the public authorities proved key, but generally it was offered in exchange for some kind of control or benefit, which is why institutional autonomy and academic freedom were established as fundamental principles of the university. Humboldt, the father of the modern university, asserted that the mission of higher education was “to give the fullest possible content to the concept of humanity”, and stressed that this could only be achieved through “vital action”, public protection, mobility, cooperation, and freedom. It was clear that to put these principles into practice, communication, interaction that would allow an open exchange of ideas, would be essential.
