Introduction
About the event
The SPHERE Online Seminar on Values in higher education: challenges, practices and perspectives took place from 2-3 June 2026 online event organised by the SPHERE team. While previous SPHERE events have addressed values in higher education, this was the first one dedicated to it.
Attendance
Around 80 participants had registered for the event including the organisers and speakers. During the event itself the number of participants varied between 40-70. Some HERE and NEO had been invited to take roles in the event, by providing presentations and contributing to panel discussion. Beyond some participants pro-actively contributed by posing questions and engaging in the discussions both during breakout discussions and in plenaries.
Why this event
Values are very important for universities, and for their missions: conducting research, providing education, and serving society. Some values are closely associated with the academic profession and its forms of organisation, and have been existing for centuries, such as academic freedom and integrity, autonomy and the collegial model of institutional self-governance. Others such as student centeredness, social equity and equality, diversity, sustainability and democracy, are closely related to society and its development, be it local, national or global levels.
Post 1989, there has been some expectations that the situation of values in higher education would gradually improve over time: on a global scale, the world would become more democratic and more peaceful. But recent decades suggest that this is not necessarily the case, at least not as an automatic linear process. Universities may be affected by weak commitments to civil and human rights of the national systems they are situated in; they may also be challenged by geopolitical polarisation and instability, and affected by economic and technological changes, including artificial intelligence. Therefore there is growing concern about backsliding of the respect to values.
Recent findings from the Academic Freedom Index indicate that “over the last decade, academic freedom has declined in 50 countries, while only 9 have registered improvements.” The annual Academic Freedom Monitor 2025 of the European Parliament concludes that ‘’the state of de facto academic freedom across the EU continues to erode’’ arising largely from political interference, political polarisation, the impact of security policies and foreign interference. These trends underline the importance of sustained attention to core academic values, in all higher education systems, including among the SPHERE countries.