52
Why must universities be autonomous?
Historically, there has been a struggle for university autonomy, arising from the conviction that a university can best serve the needs of society when it is free to do so according to the dictates of the intellectual enterprise itself. In the past few years, however, there have been an increasing number of reports of perceived or threatened government interventions in matters of internal university governance and administration in Canada. Most recently, there have been public allegations that the government of Newfoundland and Labrador has intervened in a university presidential selection process.
As recipients of significant sums of public monies, there is no question universities must be accountable. The public has the right to know how public funds are used for the betterment of society. Universities fully accept the obligation to account for their expenditure of funds, through their boards and through a range of audit and public reporting mechanisms. Indeed, a variety of accountability mechanisms are in place in all provinces and at the federal level to provide openness, transparency and accountability.
At the same time, it is essential that governments recognize that institutional autonomy is vital to universities' ability to play the roles expected of them in society: ensuring high quality education to as many academically qualified individuals as possible; conducting scholarship and research at the highest possible standards of excellence within the constraints of the resources available to them; and serving their communities through a wide range of partnerships with the private sector, not-for-profit groups and public-sector organizations. Through the core activities that characterize every university - teaching, research, community service - they have a major impact on Canadians' economic competitiveness and productivity, social and cultural development and overall quality of life.
Preserving institutional autonomy while ensuring appropriate government stewardship of public investments in universities is a delicate balancing act that requires respectful leadership both in universities and government, as well as effective checks and balances within the universities themselves. The latter are at the heart of the university governance models that have evolved in this country. Maintaining the balance is essential to ensuring universities can recruit, free from political interference, the best possible leadership for their institutions and the best possible academic talent to teach and do research for the benefit of society. Real or perceived government interference in a university's governance and administration is not compatible with providing a climate conducive to freedom of academic inquiry and expression - and without such a climate, it is difficult to recruit top-flight academic talent.
There is increasing concern in our university community that government interventionism, at least in some provinces, is threatening the delicate balance. However well-intentioned, governments' forays into micromanaging universities risk undermining the very roles they expect universities to play in society. Institutional autonomy and the related principle of academic freedom provide the best conditions for the conduct of scholarship and higher education in a free society. Institutional autonomy is important to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. For example, to join the association, a member institution must have an independent board of governors, or appropriate equivalent, that is committed to public accountability and functions in a transparent manner, and that has control over the institution's finances and administration. A member institution must also ensure that academic decisions - what is taught, who teaches it and how it is taught - are vested in academic staff through an academic senate or appropriate equivalent.
As recipients of public funds, universities have an obligation to be accountable. At the same time, as educators, centres of free inquiry, trusted sources of scientific expertise and creators and transmitters of knowledge, universities have an obligation to society to resist outside intrusion into their governance and administration and to insist that institutional autonomy be recognized by governments and others as the necessary precondition to their proper functioning. It is essential that universities have the freedom to set their research and educational priorities without threats to their institutional autonomy.
