International Conference on Ethical and Moral Dimensions for 

Higher Education and Science in Europe

Bucharest, 2-5 September 2004

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Throughout their histories, universities, other types of higher education institutions and academic organizations have been regarded not only as having educational and research responsibilities but also as being promoters of the ethical and moral values of modern society . Over the past century, they were the initiators, the partners, and the places of some of the most important ethical debates that shaped the ethical dimension of such public spheres as the civil rights movement, the gender issue, the issue of affirmative action and equality of opportunities, the moral dimension of science, etc .

The deep transformations that characterized the last decade of the Twentieth Century, with particularly the specific dimensions and the complexity of those occurring in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, added new perspectives to the ethical and moral dimensions of higher education and science in Europe . Evidently, there were a number of implications for other regions of the world as well .

The following excerpts from a speech delivered by President Jacques Chirac at the 32nd General Conference of UNESCO, very clearly formulate current and future risks if ethical and moral issues of scientific work are not confronted:

“The many outstanding achievements of life sciences in recent years hold out prospects that no one could have dreamed of one or two generations earlier . It is becoming possible to prevent or cure hereditary diseases and those linked to aging . We are now familiar with organ transplant techniques that saves lives that earlier would have been lost . We can control fertility, and we are better able to fight sterility. These scientific advances do more than just improve our health . They have changed our experience of life and death . They have led us to ask new ethical questions about what gives our societies their humanity: our values, our rights, our duties, and our goals .

The past century provided an abominable example of the abuse of science . From the earliest days of genetics, Darwin ’s work and Mendel’s discoveries were misused by politicians, ideologues, and corrupt scientists to justify racist theories, massacres, and the Holocaust .

We are already seeing new threats and new abuses: eugenics, discrimination based on genetic heritage, selling of gametes over the Internet, ‘surrogate mother’ services, traffic in human organs, clinics specialized in euthanasia, and medical experiments under conditions that are contrary to human dignity . They are now real threats, inspired by a lack of morality, greed or even madness .”

In regard to this “reconfigurating” of global reality, the universities, and the other types of higher education institutions and academic organizations are expected to assume are even more prominent role as promoters of the crucial values of modern democratic society: freedom of expression, freedom of association, equality of chances, solidarity, responsibility towards stakeholders, justice, etc . The members of the academic communities have in many cases embarked on specific actions to define, design, implement, and evaluate policies that pertain to the dissemination of these values within the entire society .

At the same time, in more recent times and, in particular, in view of the emerging knowledge based societies, a growing feeling has developed that higher education and research institutions and organizations have more direct functions to assume in the economic and social life of society . Consequently, moral and ethical responsibilities of universities and other higher education institutions and academic organizations should characterize them both as economic actors in the society and as communities of academics, researchers, and students . By playing their academic roles as well as by being proactive and nourishing human values, all these institutions and organizations can reinforce their specific role in society .

Moreover, we are witnessing today a paradigm shift in the organization and functioning of higher education . While in the mainstream, most debates on higher education focus on topics such as institutional structure and management, student flows, quality assurance, marketization of and trade in educational services, etc . , academic values have been rather sidelined and the basic principles of “what is and what is not appropriate” has gone astray . The risk of erosion of core academic values is not “academic talk” as inattention to academic fraud, nepotism and corruption in academic matters as well as governance can lead to undermining the status and role of higher education in democratic society .

Equally, student awareness of value changes and of the responsibilities of higher education concerning economic and social life have been somewhat missing from study programmes or just neglected . For this reason, the call made by Peter Drucker – a major theorist of the knowledge societies that our world “needs a different kind of educated person from the ideal for which the humanists are fighting”, is more than even valid .

But in order to respond to such challenges, it is necessary to see a balance between those “qualifications” for which students must be trained and the “qualities” that they must acquire, so as to lead them to appropriately match and develop their academic and professional responsibilities whilst at the same time developing their personalities as free and equal citizens in a democratic society .

Even if already observed, it is an imperative that a growing number of universities, higher education and research organizations, as well as academic associations and learned societies take an active stand and start to formulate appropriate policy guidelines, procedures, and regulations to address the ethical dimensions of their activities .

It is within this context that UNESCO-CEPES and the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities – Academia Europensis, in collaboration with The United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo and the Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences, UNESCO Paris, have decided to analyze the current state of those developments, and based on analysis and discussions held at the International Conference on Ethical and Moral Dimensions for Higher Education and Science in Europe (2 - 5 September 2004, Bucharest, Romania), to formulate a set of recommendations – the Bucharest Declaration –  intended to encourage the development of activities leading to a wider acceptance of ethical and moral dimensions in higher education and science .

In summary, the work of the meeting should adopt the following goals:

In conclusion, the themes and issues to be dealt with by this conference are of prime relevance, especially that many of the implicit assumptions regarding the moral and ethical dimension of higher education and science are currently being challenged .  

The topicality and importance of the issues to be undertaken are confirmed by the acceptance of Mr. Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic, and Mr . Ion Iliescu, President of Romania, to confer their high patronage on the organization of this conference .

The selected papers of the conference will be published in UNESCO-CEPES quarterly review “Higher Education in Europe”, which is produced in English,  French and Russian language versions .