Politicians ask universities to ensure ‘politics is not as convincing as science’

Brussels (Khrono): A decision in the Danish Parliament has set fire to the Danish investigative debate in recent days. It storms universities.

An assault on freedom of research, says Anders Bjercliffe, president of the Danish Deans’ College.

– As if I were going to the neighbor and telling him not to pee on the fence in my yard. Most people would probably agree he shouldn’t – but why should I tell him that if he hasn’t already, rhetoric professor Christian Cook asks.

Obviously asking universities to separate research from politics and asking politicians to stay away from incest, as mentioned on the extended page he serves. Videnskap.dk.

File also played To communicate Of the 262 researchers who wrote that they were “intimidated and harassed to the point that more illnesses were reported”.

adopt this

I Folketing decides, entitled “On Hyperactivity in Certain Research Modes”, among others – and we quote in Danish:

Folketing expects university boards to ensure that self-regulation of academic practice works. This means that there is no standardization, that politics is not masqueraded as science and no one can escape justified professional criticism.”

I expect managers to make it part of their work routine and part of the job description to monitor these things. Otherwise, the minister must intervene, says Henrik Dahl of the Liberal Alliance scientific report.

Researchers and executives view the decision as a ferocious attack on research and reporting videnskap.no.

“Activity in pseudowetenschap”

The debate did not start with last week’s decision in Parliament. This is the latest chapter in a fierce political investigation struggle in recent months that has also found a Norwegian scholar at its heart.

The controversy escalated when, in March, Dahl mentioned a settlement with the deputy leader of the Danish People’s Party, Morten Messerschmidt, which included, among other things, immigration investigations which they said were “stained with left-wing activism and pseudo-science”.

Messerschmidt. also sent series of questions The Minister of Research of the Social Democrats.

“How will the Minister ensure that politicized agendas and activists, which foment hatred and mistrust in our social structures, do not infiltrate universities under the guise of freedom of research and the principle of distance?” mentioned in one of the questions.

Cautious Policy The controversy continues in the fall of 2020, when 14 researchers appeared in the paper Berlingsky They write that they have come under increasing pressure on freedom of research and recall memories of the “politicized universities of the 1970s”.

It was not aimed at Denmark

Research Minister Annie Halsbo-Jorgensen responded to politicians from the right that politicians should not interfere with the results of an investigation, but added that “the principle of unmerit goes both ways, and no one should sit back as a researcher and think that one should act. Politically with research “. Then I misunderstood the mission.”

The meeting ended with a meeting between Halsboe-Jorgensen and the university presidents, during which the minister wanted to discuss his concerns about the politicization of certain types of research, as summarized by Akademiekerbladet.

– If it is a concern, it is not focused on Denmark, but on development in other countries and a word like cancel cultureDirector of the magazine said after the meeting.

– Grow some balls

While the Social Democrats to the right in Folketing won a majority of the decision, the rest of the left voted in favor of a proposal from the Radical Left, assuming that universities really care about what needs to be addressed.

Stenus Lindgren of the Radical Left warns against the decision of the majority. According to Science Report, he fears that the ongoing controversy will deter people from studying certain topics.

If you risk such a difficult journey and be humiliated by politicians, I fear the research will hurt in the long run, he says, calling it politicized research.

Director Jesper Langergaard has spoken about some of the same things at Danish universities.

While we would like to discuss freedom of inquiry in universities, we do not believe that the debate has taken place in an appropriate manner recently. Entire areas of research have been suspended on the basis of claims and assumptions that have no roots in reality, he writes scientific report.

The same newspaper wrote that the Danish Master’s Association (DM) warns against self-censorship among researchers. The DM leader, Camilla Gregersen, describes the harsh tone of the debate. While some think it’s okay, for others it leads to self-censorship.

Henrik Dahl of the Liberal Alliance replies that “if a scholar stood up and said something about Monty Python, there might be something to say that he is quite mentally weak.”

The growth of a few balls is his message to the researchers.

I don’t trust gender research

In the discussion, Dahl and Messersmidt referred to specific researchers. Dahl also did so from the stage in Folketing when the decision was made, calling Middle East researcher Professor Jakob Skovgaard Petersen of the University of Copenhagen a “one-eyed”.

Skovgaard-Petersen responds to Dahl.

My field is modern Islam, an area that Dall believes he knows and has a strong say in. As political critics in the Folketing have stated, Dahl’s bad research is actually good research he doesn’t like, the professor wrote in a comment republished in Uniavisen.

For his part, Dahl was not content to mention individual researchers.

I don’t believe in gender research. I don’t believe in racism researchers and immigration researchers. He says I believe in some researchers in the Middle East, but not all of them Radio Denmark (Dr).

To researchers in an open letter to the Minister

The politically motivated skepticism in our research has significant academic and personal costs to us and to the freedom of research. Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen, you are our minister, do you intend to confront intimidation? “

The question posed in an open letter to the Minister of Research, signed by 262 researchers, is one area under attack in the debate. The message was posted in Policy.

They write that many patients have been reported and that “suspicion and harassment pose a serious risk not only to our well-being and job satisfaction, but also to our freedom of inquiry and expression.”

We are very concerned about the growing distrust of our research, which we see from some politicians and now also from the party of the Minister of Education and Research, the Social Democrats, who seem to be buying up Dahl and Messerschmitt’s statement that there are problems with our own state research. We don’t think so. And if so, it would be more reasonable for us to know on a good basis rather than clinging to loose claims in the media and from the Folketing, says one of the initiators, Associate Professor Michael Niebling. Petersen from the University of Copenhagen Policy.

University comment: – Acknowledgment of distrust

Emeritus professor of sociology at the same university, tells the newspaper that he understands that they are upset. He believes that this is “an indication of a grave danger to free investigations when Parliament, that is to say, the government, is present and in practice declares distrust of the investigation”.

– It’s just distorted. It is strange that people in Denmark come there. He says the Danish researchers are highly disciplined and short-sighted, and must undergo multiple assessments to qualify for an associate professorship.

Heine is not the only one who sees this mistrust.

– It is an expression of distrust, said the president of Rector College at Danish universities Anders Bjercliffe to Dr.