Hanna Snellman, from UNICA’s Steering Committee, to speak about UNICA’s values at EUA Annual Conference 2022
28 March 2022 | From UNICA
Story highlights:
– EUA Annual Conference at the end of April
– UNICA will be presented as a form of living university values by the University of Helsinki
– Other UNICA members will also deliver presentations
Hanna Snellman, Vice-Rector International from the University of Helsinki and member of UNICA’s Steering Committee, will represent both her home university and the UNICA Network at the EUA Annual Conference, next 28-29 April in Budapest, Hungary. With many countries going through a large-scale, societal reflection on democratic values in recent years, the conference’s topic is “University values: what, why and how?”.
Hanna Snellman will deliver a presentation in one of the breakout sessions on the first day of the Conference, 28 April, from 3.30 pm to 4.10 pm (CEST), titled “Safeguarding academic values: Examples from the UNICA network and the University of Helsinki”. The presentation will provide evidence on how university values are lived individually and collectively by the University of Helsinki. The UNICA Network will be included in this presentation precisely as a form of guaranteeing and promoting the safeguard of academic values.
Read the abstract of Hanna Snellman’s presentation
The University of Helsinki has recently established a new strategy (2021-2030), which is based on our core values: of “truth”, “bildung”, “freedom” and “inclusivity”. These values constitute the core of our identity, the basis of our objectives and our value-based judgements for navigating good and bad. They constitute the foundation of our operations and interaction, while also guiding our choices and reforms. Active engagement as a member of the UNICA network — an institutional network of universities from across European capital cities — is a key means of promoting the safeguarding of academic values. Collaborating with other universities in a shared vision of academic values enhances individual institutional resilience, empowers the impact of the network collectively, and strengthens the concept of, and need for, democratic societies. In my presentation, I will shed light on how being a part of the UNICA network is a form of guaranteeing and promoting the safeguarding of academic values
Other UNICA members in the Conference
Besides the direct representation by Hanna Snellman, UNICA values will also be represented in the Conference through different UNICA members who are also set to participate in different sessions. Check the session with representatives form UNICA member universities:
- 29 April | 9.30 -11.00 am CEST: “Addressing the crisis of academic freedom in European higher education: The “Fundamental Values of Higher Education” Project”, with Liviu Matei, Kings College London, UK;
- 29 April | 9.30 -11.00 am CEST: “The impact of authoritarian China’s rise on academic freedom in Europe”, with Eva Pils, Kings College London, UK
- 29 April | 9.30 -11.00 am CEST: “A new Magna Charta: the featured values and how universities might embrace them effectively”, with Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Stockholm University, Sweden, and Sijbolt Noorda, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands;
- 29 April | 11.30 am -12.45 pm CEST: “Negotiating contested values: Building a new university embedded in and responsible for its region”, with Sijbolt Noorda, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and Ivanka Popović, University of Belgrade, Serbia;
- 29 April | 2.30 – 3.00 pm CEST: EUA Hot Topic Session: Leadership for autonomous universities, with Marcin Pałys,, University of Warsaw, Poland
About EUA’s Annual Conference
The 2022 EUA Annual Conference will provide a platform to discuss which values shape the missions and strategic objectives of Europe’s universities and how these values help to guide their activities. The event will be of interest to institutional leaders (rectors, vice-rectors and heads of administration), higher education researchers and analysts, as well as representatives of other bodies involved in educational policy. Learn more
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.