The President of the German Conference of Science Ministers, Minister Martin, and HRK President Professor Rosenthal congratulate the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on its 100th anniversary in difficult times and also signal solidarity with Israeli partners in academia.
Calls for a suspension of the EU Association Agreement with Israel or even a boycott to the detriment of Israeli science and international university cooperation with Israel, as can currently be heard in some quarters of European academia, were once again clearly rejected by the President of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Prof Dr Walter Rosenthal, in Berlin today: ”Israeli universities and the academic community in Israel as a whole have always been a strong liberal, democratic force and a central element of academic and ethical reflection and balance, especially in the Middle East conflict – within Israeli society, in cooperation with Palestinian partners and in the international context. Especially now, they make an important contribution to maintaining links and exchanges between people, institutions and societies affected by conflict and war.”
HRK President Walter Rosenthal criticises the US government’s decision to ban Harvard University from accepting international students and to force enrolled international students to transfer to other universities or lose their residence status as an unjustifiable attack on academic freedom itself. “The political pressure currently being exerted on universities and academia in the USA is simply catastrophic. The measures taken by the Trump administration at federal level, but also in some individual states, are difficult to reconcile with the principles of the rule of law, they massively and lastingly jeopardise the performance of the US research system and contradict the values of a liberal society – ultimately everything that the USA has stood for as a role model worldwide for decades.”
The General Assembly of the HRK met to discuss the current extremely high threat situation for universities regarding cybersecurity. Recommendations were adopted for universities, the federal states and the federal government to help ensure IT operations at universities and the safeguarding of particularly sensitive data, even in view of the increased dangers and specific challenges following the so-called turning point in history.
Professor Walter Rosenthal, President of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), is concerned about the political pressure that research and public and private universities in the United States have recently been exposed to: “The freedom of research and teaching and the autonomy of universities are essential guarantors of the performance and quality of universities and the research system. They are precious, indispensable – and at the same time, fragile. I am therefore deeply concerned about the growing political pressure on research and on public and private universities in the USA. President Alan Garber of Harvard University has made it clear: No government should seek to dictate what is taught or researched at universities. Ideological restrictions on who is admitted to study or who is employed at a university are equally unacceptable.”
The three rectors’ conferences from Germany (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz; HRK), France (France Universités), and Poland (Konferencja Rektorów Akademickich Szkół Polskich; KRASP), representing the university sector in their respective countries, urge adequate and future-proof EU research funding that is placed on an open and excellent footing. While they back current considerations within the European Commission to promote EU’s competitiveness by strengthening research and innovation, the conferences call for a 10th edition of the tried and tested funding programme for research and innovation.
