The role of universities

President’s blog 21 May, 2024.

Today, together with the Vice President and the University Director, I have received and listened to representatives of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have set up camp on the Stockholm University campus in protest against the war in Gaza. Already in December last year, I met and listened to the students’ association Stockholm Academics for Palestine, and received a petition from them. Since then, other university staff members have also met and listened to representatives of this association.

Since the beginning of October last year, the war between Hamas and Israel has caused immense human suffering and bloodshed among the civilian population. It is a humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding and I am not alone in calling for an immediate ceasefire and a prompt peace.

Strong opinions and a deep commitment surround the Middle East conflict. Around Sweden, as in many other countries, there are protests of various kinds, not least on university campuses.

Students as well as staff at Stockholm University have an unconditional and constitutionally protected right to participate in the democratic dialogue and to express their opinions. It is important though, that demonstrations and expressions of opinion are carried out with respect for all staff and students and in a way that allows the University’s activities to continue. The University is firmly resolved to ensure a good working environment, safety and security for all students and staff. Stockholm University is also committed to promoting respectful dialogue and mutual understanding on campus.

A higher education institution is not just any organisation. It is a place of free research and education. It is a place where ideas and knowledge are created and exchanged regardless of political affiliation, religion or nationality. Academic freedom, openness and intellectual diversity are the very foundations of universities. This also means that openness, dialogue and critical thinking are important, including on issues that may be perceived as controversial. As expressed in the Chicago Statement, which I have quoted previously in this blog: the university should be the home and patron of critics, it should not be a critic itself.

Stockholm University is also an administrative authority under the jurisdiction of the Swedish government, and as such is governed by the Government and must comply with Swedish law, guidelines and directives. As a government agency, the University can neither act as a political organisation nor pursue its own foreign policy.

Stockholm University is committed to international academic cooperation, which generates new knowledge for the benefit of humanity. Researchers and universities can contribute to consensus and promote peace by maintaining an open dialogue and international exchanges of knowledge.

For some time now, there have been discussions and demands on universities to take a stand on different questions. There is pressure to take action and impose sanctions of various kinds and to suspend academic cooperation with universities in different countries – at the moment this concerns our cooperation agreements with Israeli universities. At today’s dialogue meeting, several comparisons were made with the suspension of cooperation with Russian universities, where however – as I have previously blogged about – both the Swedish government and European bodies imposed sanctions on Russia and called for the suspension of all government cooperation with Russian counterparts.

Stockholm University will not take a public stance in relation to Israeli higher education institutions. The same applies to the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF), which today published a statement that can be read on suhf.se. “Uttalande med anledning av kriget mellan Israel och Hamas” (in Swedish).

A university should allow for a pluralism of opinions and perceptions, but also the possibility to remain neutral and not take a political stance. In this conflict, as in so many others, the University’s researchers are involved in providing context, analysing and interpreting complex events from different perspectives, in order to contribute to the collective knowledge of the surrounding society.

Finally, many of us have a sincere desire for peace and an end to the suffering of all those affected by the horrors of war today.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding
President