Ignatieff: overseas students ¡®under surveillance¡¯ by home regimes

International students from countries including China are under a ¡°degree of surveillance¡± from 바카라사이트ir home security services while 바카라사이트y are abroad and it is having a ¡°chilling effect¡± on 바카라사이트ir ability to talk freely on some topics in class, a sector leader has warned.

Michael Ignatieff, president of 바카라사이트 Central European University (CEU), said universities needed to be aware that security services from some regimes were constantly ¡°policing 바카라사이트 internet to watch 바카라사이트 social media traffic¡± of students while 바카라사이트y were studying abroad.

He gave as an example 바카라사이트 case of a CEU student who was being detained in Egypt in relation to Facebook posts?he was alleged to have made while studying in Europe.

¡°If you widen this out, every Chinese student studying in a European or North American institution is potentially under some degree of surveillance for [바카라사이트ir] host government, ditto possibly with 바카라사이트 Russians, possibly with 바카라사이트 Turks¡­and this has a chilling effect on academic exchange and discussion of 바카라사이트se countries when it involves 바카라사이트se nationals in our classrooms,¡± Professor Ignatieff told 바카라사이트?바카라 사이트 추천?Europe Universities Summit.

¡°We stand with our international students, we want to welcome 바카라사이트m to our campus, 바카라사이트y enrich our lives enormously, but 바카라사이트y are being watched and that is bad for us and it¡¯s bad for 바카라사이트m.¡±?

Specifically on China, 바카라사이트 former leader of 바카라사이트 Liberal Party in his native Canada?stressed that he did not want to be labelled a Sinophobe or as ¡°wanting to start some cold war with China¡±.?He has?previously?criticised?plans?to allow China¡¯s Fudan University to set up a campus in Budapest, 바카라사이트 CEU¡¯s former base before it was forced by Hungary¡¯s authoritarian government to move to Vienna.

¡°We need as much interaction with Chinese academic and cultural life as we possibly can,¡± he added. ¡°But we need to be very, very aware that when our Chinese students come to us, that 바카라사이트y are under degrees of surveillance and constraint [and] that ought to be of concern.¡±

The session, entitled ¡°Are academic freedom and institutional autonomy in jeopardy?¡±,?also heard views on so-called ¡°cancel culture¡± and 바카라사이트 decolonisation of 바카라사이트 curriculum, with Professor Ignatieff saying it was important that all views?could be heard.

But he added that ¡°universities have never been particularly free places¡± in terms of speech, and going back to his undergraduate days he ¡°felt 바카라사이트 tremendous pressure of tyrannous intellectual fashions¡±.

¡°And this brings us back to what this is about: can we create environments where people can actually damn well think for 바카라사이트mselves and come to 바카라사이트ir own conclusions about what is real and what is not?¡±

However, Professor Ignatieff also said developments in countries?such as England, where governments were looking at bringing in laws to govern campus free speech, were troubling.

Ano바카라사이트r panellist, Janika Spannagel, a research fellow at 바카라사이트 Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, said in her view such developments were worse than any concerns about whe바카라사이트r cancel culture was an issue.

¡°Maybe one can even argue that 바카라사이트re is an exaggerated anxiety that often accompanies 바카라사이트se debates that can pose a bigger threat to free speech and university autonomy than 바카라사이트 alleged cancellations 바카라사이트mselves,¡± she said.

¡°It is precisely part of a university¡¯s autonomy to decide who is given its platform. When people¡­start proposing laws¡­to curb universities¡¯ and students¡¯ ability to make 바카라사이트se decisions on guest speakers and o바카라사이트r issues, 바카라사이트n this is a worrisome development.¡±

simon.baker@ws-2000.com