Inaugural session of the Kings College London Presidential series for 2022-23

Is there a need to reimagine academic freedom?

This was the question raised at the inaugural session of the Kings College London Presidential series for 2022-23 on 5 December 2022.

Following introductory remarks by the King’s Principal and President, Shitij Kapur, Liviu Matei, Head of the School of Education, Communication and Society at Kings and a member of the MCO’s Governing Council introduced the question, illustrated it with examples and concluded that a new understanding of and conceptual framework for academic freedom was needed – complex and challenging as it would be to develop that.

David Lock, MCO Secretary General, followed by setting out the importance of academic freedom in the Magna Charta Universitatum, the reasons why the MCU was reviewed starting in 2018 and how academic freedom is seen in MCU 2020 as the lifeblood of universities.

He was followed by Tamires Sampaio, former Vice-President of the Brazilian Students’ Union and a member of the drafting group for MCU 2020. She put a student's perspective making reference to the Bergen declaration with which she was involved.

Clare Robinson of Scholars at Risk and Terrance Karran of the University of Lincoln added perspectives before a probing question session.

You can find the recording of the event here below.