Virtual Resources

SAR’s Promoting Higher Education Values (PHEV) materials can be used to frame and facilitate discussion about higher education values and their implementation in a wide range of settings. It starts from the view that healthy higher education communities matter enormously for societal progress. But to be healthy, higher education communities must be grounded in core values: equitable access, accountability, academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and social responsibility. SAR’s Promoting Higher Education Values framework is intended to assist states, higher education institutions, leaders, scholars, staff and students as they wrestle with contemporary challenges–now more important than ever. If you or your institution might be interested in exploring ways to facilitate a virtual values discussion for your campus, contact us below. Explore the new Promoting Higher Education Values Discussion Guide and Workshop Supplement.

With the recent shift of higher education to a landscape that is largely online, the global pandemic has presented countless challenges and opportunities for learning at all levels. At the same time, interference with and distortion of data to the public and policymakers alike appear to have contributed to delayed and disorderly responses. How do we defend scientific integrity and academic freedom? What practices can we now put in place to defend scholarly dialogue and debate? Why should society value quality higher education during such a critical time?

Scholars at Risk invites these conversations as part of the free online course, Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters, developed in collaboration with the University of Oslo and partners on the Academic Refuge Project. The self-paced course is divided into three one-week modules and is available multiple times throughout the year.  SAR staff are here to discuss how you can integrate the MOOC into your existing online course.

Given the current travel restrictions related to COVID-19, SAR continues to think of ways that our network can assist threatened scholars who may not be able to travel. While we all look forward to an improvement in the COVID-19 situation, remote fellowships are a valuable way to assist scholars. These fellowships illustrate the creative ways in which our network of universities has adjusted to respond to the ever-changing situations of scholars around the globe, and also serve as a reminder that there are multiple ways to assist threatened scholars.

Universities within the Scholars at Risk network can create remote fellowships through which a SAR scholar can receive a university email address; access library and database resources through this email address/university affiliation; publish work using the university’s affiliation; in some instances, connect with mentors or teach remote classes at the host university; and re-engage with academia after being pushed outside the university space, sometimes for years.

Student Advocacy Seminars provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to develop human rights research and advocacy skills by investigating and acting in support of threatened members of the global higher education community. Arranged and supervised by local faculty in partnership with Scholars at Risk, each seminar takes on the case of one or more scholars facing unjust restrictions, prosecution, or imprisonment. SAR supports seminars in a virtual format by connecting seminars with human rights professionals, SAR scholars, and family members of scholars in prison, who call into classes; brainstorming online forms of advocacy, including social media campaigns, placing op-eds, producing podcasts, and writing to government officials; and providing virtual advocacy trainings.

In an effort to support the collective shift to online learning, we’ve developed the Virtual Speaker Series as an opportunity for higher education institutions to invite SAR scholars to their online classrooms. During these Speaker Series events, SAR scholars share insights on academic freedom based on their unique experiences and may discuss topics ranging from their experience on a SAR campus, the importance of their academic work, and how being under threat has impacted their academic career.

SAR staff will work closely with our members throughout the planning and selection process, including identifying suitable SAR scholars for your Speaker Series. An online event might feature a lecture by a SAR scholar or a panel including the scholar, and might be broadcast to a class or to the public at a remote university event. The university is asked to arrange for the use of videoconferencing equipment and to offer a small honorarium to the scholar.