Preserving University Autonomy: The Essential Role of the 6th Estate

Universities play a major role in the quality of democratic institutions, both here and around the world. In the United States, Mr. Trump’s presidency forebodes a weakening of their influence. 

The president has already hinted that he will attack university accreditations, which are currently the responsibility of an independent committee. Make that committee partisan, and you have removed university autonomy, which is essential to the exercise of academic freedom as it allows professors to express their views publicly on issues in their area of expertise. It is through this academic freedom that the University can establish what is factual and what is not, even when contradicting the government’s position. Would Mr. Trump allow an expert from Berkeley to contradict him without reprisal? Unlikely. 

Universities, because of their independence, are an important counter-power. In an age of disinformation, the university is one of the few reliable sources of information. 

The power of the 4th estate, the press, is eroding. It is being weakened by the rise of social media and its unverified information. The control of certain media by interest groups, even political groups, removes their independence. The press itself is increasingly giving way to opinion journalism.  

The 5th estate, as social media are often identified, rarely contributes to the quality of democracy. Voters are poorly informed, if not misinformed. 

The 6th Estate, which must be preserved at all costs, lies in universities when they are accessible and autonomous, and when they operate in a context of academic freedom. 

The University, a Pillar of Democracy

As rector, not a day goes by without my having to defend university autonomy. This has become the norm: my colleagues, the rectors of all the universities in the world, are experiencing it as well.

Pressures on autonomy can come from many sources, public or private. In return for a donation, a philanthropist, for instance, might demand the right to oversee a university’s teaching or research. However small the influence, this would make the university an agent of the donor and remove all credibility from its professors. A donation must never weaken university autonomy. 

Government officials might also want to interfere with university strategic decisions or influence research avenues. Pressures on autonomy are very frequent. But in my experience, they are relatively minor and often arise from a lack of understanding about universities or from simple clumsiness. A rector must be able to say no.

In Trump’s America, the stakes are much higher. The university is at risk of losing its role as a pillar of democracy, through direct attacks on their funding from federal sources if they don’t comply with presidential desires, or indirect attacks via the accreditation committee’s independence or through the funding rules of the National Science Foundation, some research topics being suddenly banned from funding.

The Importance of Academic Freedom and Public Engagement

It is crucial that university professors never fear retaliation when taking part in public debate with expert advice. UQAM’s professors, such as Benoît Barbeau, Stéphanie Yates, Charles-Philippe David, and Pierre Fortin, for example, are names well known to the general public. 

These experts are not afraid to speak out to confirm or debunk a theory. They support their arguments with facts and rigorous research.

Participation in public debate is a role that our professors take very seriously. The quality of our democracy depends on it, in a century where the safeguards are disintegrating and where critical thinking is too often expressed in 280 characters.

The university is an essential pillar of democracy. We should always fight to maintain the independence that allows it to play its role.