Soros puts US$1bn into HE to counter authoritarianism

George Soros, the global financier and philanthropist, has announced the creation of new global university network to foster critical thinking and open inquiry and better prepare students for current and future challenges “amid the current resurgence of authoritarianism”.

He is backing the initiative with US$1 billion in funding and has asked other philanthropists to contribute as well.

The Open Society University Network or OSUN, which will operate globally as a network of higher education, research and cultural institutions, will integrate teaching and research across universities worldwide and will offer simultaneously taught network courses and joint degree programmes and regularly bring students and faculty from different countries together with in-person and online discussions.

A statement on OSUN’s website says it aims to “counteract intellectual monocultures and polarisation by uniting institutions around the world in collaborative research projects and by encouraging students to examine issues from different perspectives and through reasoned arguments”.

It seeks to reach the students who need it the most and to “promote the values of open society – including free expression and diversity of beliefs”.

Announcing the initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Soros, who has given more than US$32 billion over the past 30 years to education and social justice causes, said he considers the Open Society University Network to be “the most important and enduring project of my life” and he wanted to see it implemented “while I am still around”.

He said: “I believe our best hope lies in access to an education that reinforces the autonomy of the individual by cultivating critical thinking and emphasising academic freedom.”

OSUN says it will seek to promote rigorous education and reach institutions in need of international partners, as well as neglected populations, such as refugees, incarcerated people, the Roma and other displaced groups.

Massive scholars at risk programme

With the help of other supportive organisations, it also claims to be ready to start a massive ‘scholars at risk’ programme, merging a large number of academically excellent but politically endangered scholars into this new global network.

OSUN is being co-founded and run by two institutions, Central European University, which recently relocated from Budapest to Vienna, and Bard College, New York, with the support of the Open Society Foundations (OSF).

A dozen universities will be participating in its first phase projects. These are: Al-Quds University/Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences (Occupied Palestinian Territories); American University in Bulgaria; American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan); Arizona State University (United States); Ashesi University (Ghana); Bard College Berlin (Germany); Birkbeck, University of London (United Kingdom); BRAC University (Bangladesh); European Humanities University (Lithuania); Fulbright University Vietnam; Sciences Po in Paris (France); and SOAS University of London (UK).

Research institutions and education organisations involved are: Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (US); Chatham House (UK); Institute for New Economic Thinking (US and UK); Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Austria); Open Society Archives (Hungary); Rift Valley Institute (Kenya); and the Talloires Network (US).

Soros said OSUN will offer an international platform for teaching and research. In the first phase it will connect closer together an existing network to develop a shared curriculum and teach students as part of this global university network, creating opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds across the world.

In the second phase it will open up this network to other institutions that want to join and are eager and qualified to do so. “We are looking for far-sighted partners who feel their responsibility for the future of our civilisation,” Soros said.

‘Potential to transform’

Michael Ignatieff, president and rector of Central European University (CEU), said: “George Soros’ magnificent gift has the potential to transform global higher education in defence of open society. CEU is deeply proud to be a founding member of OSUN and will work hard with all of our partners to make the network a reality that changes the lives of students and faculty around the world.”

Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, who has been named first chancellor of OSUN, said OSUN will be committed to the importance of curricula in the liberal arts and sciences, “particularly to the value of the social sciences, the arts and the humanities, to civic engagement as fundamental to higher education, and to the imperative to extend higher education to underserved communities”.

John Aubrey Douglass, editor of a forthcoming book on neo-nationalism and universities, told University World News: “In an era of increased attacks on academic freedom by autocrats and demagogues, Soros’ new initiative provides a meaningful attempt to bolster links between universities in more free societies with those operating under repressive government.”

Leslie Vinjamuri, reader in international relations at SOAS, said “OSUN will be transformative in providing access to a liberal, open education, across the globe. It is a tremendously inspiring initiative and comes at a time when the values we embrace at SOAS are under attack in many societies. I am tremendously proud and excited that SOAS will be part of the first phase of this university network.”

More opportunities

Botstein told members of the Bard College community that in practical terms the initiative will mean more opportunities for Bard students to undertake short- and long-term exchanges and more opportunities to participate in international alliances and civic engagement projects and more network classes involving Bard students and faculty and partners across the globe.

“For faculty, OSUN will mean new avenues for participation in international exchanges, curricular innovation, and research projects with colleagues worldwide.

“Institutionally, OSUN will allow Bard to extend the scope of its international activities, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

Douglass, who is a senior research fellow and research professor at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, said the programmatic aspects of the initiative “are a bit vague – more exchanges, more dual and joint degrees, sharing best practices I presume; that’s all good but not exactly a new concept. But that can come later as the network matures.”

However, he said on the plus side the network does place value on promoting civic engagement and international exchanges – an area in which many universities need to innovate. “But it appears to me the greatest value is the real and symbolic concept of the global community attempting to support faculty and students, and university administrators, who are fighting for civil liberties in their locality in the face of rising nationalism and need extra tools to help in that cause.”

The choice of Bard as a co-founding institution has raised an eyebrow even among Bard staff. History faculty member Gennady Shkliarevsky, in an open letter to the Bard community posted on Facebook, questioned why “a small relatively undistinguished artsy school” was being given such a prominent role and accused Soros of pursuing a political agenda. “When education starts serving political goals, it becomes indoctrination. That’s what lies ahead in Bard’s future if it becomes part of the OSF network,” he said.

But Douglass said this new initiative fits into Soros’ decidedly globalist vision of the world, and “acts as a kind of countervailing force to the darkest versions of neo-nationalism, backed by real money”.

He cautioned, however, that to be successful requires scale, including the additional participation by a magic number of prestigious universities in Europe and the US, and, more importantly, more institutions operating within illiberal democracies or worse.

“If, for example, a few universities in Turkey, or in China, can join the network, that strengthens the concept of the initiative considerably.”