European Universities Strain for Neutrality Amid Political Chaos

(Bloomberg) — Universities on both sides of the Atlantic were under intense pressure to deal with campus conflict over political issues long before the Trump administration started cracking down on higher education.

In the past three years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war on Gaza, prompted by a Hamas attack, have led to student protests around the world and put university administrators in the uncomfortable position of having to take political positions – or try their best not to. 

“These days, there is hardly a crisis that doesn’t hit the campus with unbridled force,” said Ulrich Rüdiger, rector of RWTH Aachen, one of Germany’s top research universities.

In countries like Switzerland and Germany, universities have generally tried to stay neutral, which has in turn raised questions about whether that’s a realistic goal, and what such neutrality might be in service of. 

At the beginning of March, ETH Zurich received a questionnaire from the Trump administration asking whether a research project that receives US funding was in line with new government policies on diversity, equity and inclusion. The university, which has received about $2.5 million on average over the last ten years from the US government, decided not to respond, according to ETH Zurich spokesperson Vanessa Bleich. Later in March, the university announced that it would not make official statements on geopolitical issues.

Switzerland guarantees freedom of research and teaching. At the same time, Swiss universities have to abide by laws restricting the export of technologies that can have both civil and military applications, including those designed in universities. As a result, ETH Zurich announced last year that it would increase scrutiny in the admission of foreign students, especially from China. The decision was denounced by students and researchers, including some who described the policy as in conflict with the country’s geopolitical neutrality.

In Germany, where the most universities are financed by the government, institutions have to be politically neutral when it comes to party politics, and follow German law. But that’s the extent of it – universities are free to take stands when not doing so would threaten their functioning, and they are allowed to uphold values enshrined in the country’s constitution, a policy that allows for broad interpretation.

Often, these actions are relatively uncontroversial. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, universities in Constance, Halle and Cologne, among others, issued statements expressing solidarity with Ukraine. The following year, the Technical University of Dresden campaigned for their research fellow, economist Gubad Ibadoghlu, to be released from prison in Azerbaijan. In early 2024, the HRK, an organization that represents Germany’s university rectors, called on the country’s scientific community to stand against discrimination in response to a secret meeting between members of the far-right AfD party and neo-Nazi sympathizers.

Israel’s war in Gaza, however, has complicated matters. As universities around the world have erupted in protest, German institutions have been influenced by the so-called reason of state doctrine, which mandates that the country defend and preserve the state of Israel. Consequently, many German universities have held fast to partnerships with Israeli universities, and in some cases, doubled down on them. 

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a German research university that considers itself politically neutral, said in March it was going to intensify its relationships with Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa and Hasoub, an Arab-Israeli innovation center. KIT does not want to “exclude or separate itself,” but rather foster dialogue, the university said. 

German society at large is more critical of Israel’s actions. A ZDF Politbarometer survey, one of Germany’s most important opinion polls, indicates that already in early 2024, only 18% of respondents still believed Israel’s military activity in Gaza was justified and 87% wanted Western governments to increase pressure on the Jewish state to ensure that aid reaches civilians. 

As the government has taken additional steps to defend Israel under the banner of fighting antisemitism, questions have been raised about how far is too far. Last November, the HRK pushed back against news that Germany’s parliament intended to call out the country’s higher eduction sector for failing to act more decisively against antisemitism. The rectors’ organization called the move “objectively not necessary” and “not useful against the backdrop of university autonomy and academic freedom.” Three months later, the Bundestag passed a resolution calling on universities to take stronger stands against antisemitism.

While she thinks universities should try to steer clear of taking geopolitical positions, Jutta Günther, the rector of the University of Bremen, believes no one should be prevented from standing up for Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law. “We are not neutral towards the Basic Law, we are committed to it. It is the foundation that guarantees freedom of research and teaching in the first place,” she said. In an article Günther wrote for a German science and education website, she appealed to the scientific community to fight for democracy at a moment in which it is under attack.

Such actions are important, said Jonathan Dreusch, the political secretary at the German National Union of Students, but he cautioned that political stands must be taken organically, and not in response to outside pressures. “Universities must not become pawns. And this also includes instrumentalizing them for short-term political purposes, even with the best of intentions,” he said.

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