When international governments targeted universities

Recent state directives directed towards U.S. universities have prompted certain scholars to seek out relevant historical parallels for understanding.

“I’ve been contemplating this emerging dispute between the government and universities as potentially reminiscent of the 1950s during the McCarthy period,” noted William C. Kirby, T.M. Chang Professor of China Studies within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Kirby alongside other Harvard scholars possessing expertise on educational suppressions in diverse national landscapes convened on a recent panel hosted by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES). Narratives surfaced regarding governments in various nations stifling student expression, placing universities in receivership, or encumbering institutions with bureaucratic formalities.

The event, part of the center’s Democracy and Its Critics Initiative, had been in planning since December. “We had no comprehension back then of how vital this issue would evolve for the institution where we are convening today,” said moderator Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History.

The narrative traces back to central Berlin, as Kirby began, author of “Empire of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China” (2022). The University of Berlin, established in 1810, was the preeminent research university globally. It was the first dedicated to both the creation and transmission of knowledge. It set the standard for academic freedom for both students and faculty. Additionally, it emphasized liberal arts over professional training at its foundation.

“It established a blueprint for all esteemed research universities,” remarked Kirby, who held the position of FAS dean from 2002 to 2006.

As late as 1930, Kirby noted, the University of Berlin — currently known as Humboldt University — was internationally regarded as the most esteemed institution of higher education. However, its reputation deteriorated with the ascent of the Nazi regime, characterized by book burnings, mass dismissals of Jewish scholars, and restrictions on curricula deemed inadequate in terms of German cultural alignment.

Some distinguished universities in South Asia were modeled after the University of Berlin, indicated panelist Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs. He referenced “the Humboldtian project” being realized at his own alma mater — Kolkata’s Presidency College, founded in 1817 — “with subsequent influences in Dhaka, Lahore, Aligarh, Allahabad, and Bangalore.”

The decline of these institutions in India commenced in 2016, Bose mentioned, when advocates of Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated what he described as “an unchecked assault on India’s premier universities.”

A former parliament member from India, Bose played a recording of a speech he made during that time. Nationwide, students were protesting against caste-based discrimination, adopting slogans perceived as broadly antagonistic toward the government.

“That was during the initial term of the Modi administration,” he recalled. “It was still feasible to oppose principled arguments within the Indian parliament.”

For nearly a century, the leading universities in India received direct funding from the federal government, Bose elucidated. “At present, central universities, like Jawaharlal Nehru University or Hyderabad Central University, are directly under government control.”

Other state universities are also affected, which are now overseen by chancellors affiliated with Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The private universities and other independent institutes in southern India are faring much better,” explained Bose, noting several states in the region not governed by the BJP. “These serve as spaces for dissent and advocating for academic principles that uphold the integrity of universities.”

Laura V. Jakli, a business administration assistant professor at the Business School, detailed the recent assault on Hungarian universities. She recounted delivering a lecture at Budapest’s Central European University (CEU) in 2017.

“At one point near the conclusion, an individual approached me and whispered that parliament just enacted a law that might render this university nonviable,” Jakli shared. The student body quickly mobilized to protest Lex CEU, an educational regulation that effectively forced the U.S.–accredited CEU out of Hungary.

Subsequent actions taken by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán brought institutions like the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Theatre and Film Arts, both located in Budapest, under management by foundations closely connected with the Orban government.

The “note of optimism,” Jakli remarked, is Hungary’s status as a member of the European Union. EU authorities have responded to these actions by restricting funding to schools run by quasi-public foundations, for instance. They also litigated Lex CEU before the EU’s Court of Justice, which invalidated the rule in 2020.

However, by that time, Jakli asserted, “It was too little too late.” CEU had already shifted its core academic operations to Austria.

Kirby, a historian focused on modern China, redirected the discussion to Asia for one final case study. During the late-Qing and Republican eras, China boasted an “extraordinary collection of smaller universities,” he noted. Yet these institutions were seized or closed after Chairman Mao Zedong and his Chinese Communist Party assumed power in 1949.

Kirby listed numerous examples — from Peking Union Medical College, taken over by the Communist Party in 1951, to Tsinghua University, whose famous gate was demolished by the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution. The entire system was “Sovietized,” as Kirby described, or repurposed to prepare workers according to state demands.

As the event drew to a close, one participant pointed out the absence of inspiring cases. “We haven’t encountered a narrative of a successful resistance,” concurred Daniel Ziblatt, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and director of the CES.

In response, Kirby guided the conversation in an unexpected direction.

Today, he suggested, China’s research universities are maneuvering around governmental constraints to recover some of the scholarly excellence from a previous era. Institutions such as Tsinghua University, located in Beijing, have surpassed Princeton and Yale in at least one global ranking.

Tsinghua officials openly advocate for “an education enriched with ‘Chinese characteristics’ — whatever that may mean,” Kirby noted humorously. “No one quite grasps what it entails. Ultimately, it serves merely to placate the leadership.”