Responsible Internationalisation

The V-Dem Institute at University of Gothenburg holds the largest database on democracy in the world and confirms how the world is undergoing autocratisation. Autocratisation refers to a gradual erosion of democratic practices within both democracies and dictatorships. Research clearly indicates that autocratisation is also taking place within established democracies, often through anti-democratic actions by the ruling elite, such as media censorship, persecution of the opposition, restrictions on civil society, curtailment of academic freedom, and undermining of independent electoral mechanisms. The gradual limitation of political rights and civil liberties is often difficult to detect because it rarely occurs through abrupt, violent interventions but rather more sophisticatedly with subtle mechanisms and often within the framework of an existing multiparty system.

Our international collaboration in teaching and research must take into account that increasing autocratisation affects our operations, which are based on democratic norms and values with academic freedom as a foundation. To put it simply, we should assume that educational collaborations in countries with authoritarian regimes and limited academic freedom are expected to pose challenges to manage. However, autocratisation also highlights how more apparent collaborations with partners in other democracies may come with increased complexity than previously expected. Democracy and academic freedom are under pressure in dictatorships and democracies today, which brings the issue of Aint into focus.

Sweden is a small, open country that is dependent on the wider world and thus needs cross-border collaborations. Global issues and changes require collective management and new knowledge, and Swedish institutions need to act strategically to promote knowledge development through quality teaching, cooperation, and research. With increasing globalisation, there are changing political and economic power structures that affect the education sector. A positive trend is that countries whose education and research were previously underdeveloped are now advancing, providing new opportunities for Swedish higher education institutions for international cooperation. A negative trend is that several of these countries lack or have limited democratic norms and values where human rights and academic freedom are severely restricted.

In a short period, the conditions for international cooperation in education and research have changed drastically. Countries that a few decades ago had less significance for international collaboration are today rapidly growing knowledge hubs, while several of them are governed by dictatorial regimes that use education and research not solely to promote knowledge development by acquiring technology, innovations, and knowledge but also for national and international security and power. International collaboration with partners from countries with limited democracy and academic freedom thus requires increased awareness and responsible management, taking into account research ethics, human rights, academic freedom, and individual as well as national security.

Lnu is part of the international academic community and is imbued with academic values emphasised in the Magna Charta Universitatum. In a global perspective, the internationalisation of higher education strengthens the international community and benefits democracy and diversity. Internationalisation is a very important aspect of Linnaeus University's quality work and a means to achieve the highest quality in the various parts of its operations. This means that internationalisation work should be evident in governance, education, research, operational support, and in the physical and digital knowledge environment, and should clearly permeate the institution's values. Through the institution's strategic tradition of internationalisation, teachers, researchers, and administrators should be given new global opportunities based on increased awareness and general education about the importance of Aint.

Aint should permeate:

• the content of education with international experiences and intercultural encounters among teachers and students;
• research with quality-assured and competitively developed research environments that foster creative knowledge development with internationally visible research environments, collaborative projects, conferences, and publications;
• leadership and operational support that are based on and support the internationalisation of the core activities, based on the staff's international experiences, intercultural competencies, and language skills.

In the internationalisation work, Linnaeus University's position as an international university is a natural starting point, and we should capitalise on the functioning partnerships we already have around the world. At the same time, we should be curious to explore new potential collaborations and forms of cooperation that a constantly changing world provides. Decades of general openness following the end of the Cold War have, however, been challenged in recent times by security policy, ideological, and political changes where increasing autocratisation has led to limited democratic rights and freedoms worldwide, affecting our internationalisation. Our operations are exposed to risks that must be responsibly considered, for example, limitations of academic freedom and autonomy, political influence, corruption, lack of research ethics, data breaches, the use of knowledge and products in civilian and military areas, espionage, etc. These risks must be responsibly managed, but with maintained insight into the importance of international cooperation for knowledge development.

Aint is an important tool for developing and quality-assuring our university's operations and should, therefore, be an integrated dimension in all areas of the university.

When planning to engage in international collaborations, this should be based on a conscious idea of how the collaboration will enrich our education, research, and/or administration. The international cooperation needs to be thought through responsibly. Collaborations that infringe on human rights, individuals' democratic rights and freedoms, and academic freedom are obviously harmful partnerships that should be terminated immediately. Most collaborations will not consist of these serious restrictions and can be successfully conducted through responsible internationalisation for mutual knowledge development where our fundamental norms and values regarding freedoms are promoted.

Responsible international collaboration requires tools. The Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF), among others, has developed a checklist as a guide to promote responsible internationalisation in our international collaborations. Indicators that should be useful are:

Democratic principles and restricted academic freedom

• Collaborations can be planned for many different reasons. Similar strengths among partners can result in increased resources and knowledge, but different strengths can complement each other and thus offer advantages. Regardless of the reason for collaboration, have the partners' political, legal, and cultural contexts been carefully considered to limit risks?
• Political and legal differences between partner countries can provide new knowledge and questions for study, but what significant risks to academic freedom and the democratic norms and values that these freedoms rest upon can arise?
• Cultural differences can strengthen collaborations by contributing to new perspectives and knowledge, but how are cultural differences considered to avoid misunderstandings and unexpected expectations that can complicate collaboration?
• What awareness does the higher education institution and staff in teaching, research, and administration have of these political, legal, and cultural conditions at partner institutions and regimes?
• Is the education partner based in a country that is subject to sanctions by your country and/or the EU due to limited democratic rights and freedoms and/or limited academic freedom?
• Is there a risk that the country's authorities and/or partner university will limit academic freedom by influencing the content of the project, the choice of research area, or data collection, etc., which has negative consequences for academic freedom?
• Do the financial conditions pose a risk to democratic rights and freedoms, academic freedom, autonomy, and integrity, and/or ethical aspects?

Partner reputation and university values

• Are there possible ethical or reputational risks for you, your colleagues, your institution, or your partners?
• What is the relationship of your partners to the country's government and political parties?
• Does your collaborative project or any part of it put you in conflict with your higher education institution's fundamental values?

Conflicts regarding use of data, intellectual property rights or patent rights?

• Do you and your partner have a common understanding of access to data before use, implications for confidentiality, ownership of results, intellectual rights, and contributors' right to utilise research results for patents and commercialisation, etc.?
• How will proper data protection be ensured?

Misuse of research and negative unintended applications

• Can the visit/project/collaboration be directly misunderstood, misused, or have obvious unintended applications that would be negative?
• Does the collaboration include, or can it be linked to, an actor within or closely connected to the armed forces or defense industry, or a partner that violates human rights?

Ethical dumping and security around personnel and biological data

• Is the collaboration conducted in countries/regions where there is a risk that the collaboration undermines ethical principles, human rights, and/or academic freedom?
• Does the project/collaboration raise significant ethical issues related to the use of animals, humans, human tissue, or personal data?
• If necessary, has the research project obtained ethical approval in the partner country and by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority?
• Does the collaboration involve sharing personal data or large-scale biological data that can be traced to individual information without ethical permission and data transfer agreements in place?

Safety

• Is the collaboration well-grounded at home?
• Is there any risk of discrimination or vulnerability for you or your partners legally and/or practically?
• Could the collaboration entail a risk that the partner's regime could influence the content or objectives of the collaboration to promote certain national interests?
• Could the collaboration pose a risk to the reputation of the higher education institution or the individuals involved?
• Could the collaboration pose a risk to the independence and academic freedom of the higher education institution and/or individuals?
• Could the collaboration pose a risk to the safety of the higher education institution and/or individuals concerning, for example, diseases, terrorism, threats, crime, corruption, espionage, or information theft, etc.?

The management, faculties, and departments of the higher education institution must together ensure that all staff have knowledge of Responsible Internationalisation. The fundamental principle is that the responsibility for responsible internationalisation lies at the management level, which decides on collaborations. For individual collaborations, the responsibility normally lies with the individual employee, but for formalised collaborations based on agreements at the research group, department, faculty, or institutional level, the above principle applies.

Each manager is responsible for ensuring that risk management is carried out systematically within their area of responsibility. Risk and authority (the possibility to influence) must be aligned. This means that the person who carries a risk should also have good conditions to be able to manage that risk. The department is responsible for developing competencies for responsible internationalisation among its staff. If risks cannot be managed satisfactorily, this should be reported to the nearest superior, who can then pass the question up the institutional hierarchy as needed.

Learn more on Staff:

• Support in research collaborations
• Equal opportunities
• Code of Conduct for Government Employees

Learn more on lnu.se:

• Magna Charta
• Scholars at Risk

National Resources

SÄPO

• SÄPO Security Guidance
• The Security Service's yearbook

STINT (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education)

• Guidelines for reflection on international academic collaboration
• STINT Recommendations to higher education institutions on how to work with responsible internationalisation

SUHF (Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions): Global Responsible Engagement Checklist

UD (Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs): UD's travel information

European Resources

• European Union – Tackling R&I foreign interference
• EU Sanctions Map
• UK Guidance for academia (aims to support the integrity of the international research collaboration system)
• Travel recommendations of EU countries
• The European Parliament's declaration from 2020 on protecting academic freedom (see the website The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Observatory Magna Charta Universitatum (The signing universities, including Linnaeus University, are connected to the organisation through their commitment to follow the principles of the Magna Charta Universitatum)

Other organisations focused on democracy and human rights

• Scholars at Risk (An international network aimed at supporting and defending the principles of academic freedom and human rights for scholars around the world. Linnaeus University has been a member since 2016. Learn more on Staff. They publish an annual Free to Think report documenting attacks on higher education.
• Human Rights Watch (an economically and politically independent international human rights organisation).
• Freedom House (an independent organisation with the expressed aim of acting as a politically independent research institute to promote political freedom and democracy around the world).
• Academic Freedom Index (provides an overview of the state of academic freedom around the world).
• World Justice Project Rule of Law (an independent, multidisciplinary organisation working to promote the rule of law worldwide).
• Corruption Perception Index (Transparency International has published an annual Corruption Index since 1995, ranking countries by "their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys". This is generally defined as "the abuse of public power for private benefit).
• UN report from 2020 on academic freedom (From David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur "on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression").
  See the presentation “Freedom of Opinion and Expression and Academic Freedom” on YouTube.
• UniPID Ethical guidelines for responsible academic partnerships in Global South.
• Courses that provide support for field studies in a conflict zone: 4 Day Course Security Awareness First Aid (SAFA) HEAT for Researchers Training; Protection against risks in conflict areas | Folke Bernadotte Academy

Other

• List of countries that the USA deems to finance terrorism
• Chinese Defence Universities Tracker – ASPI (The China Defense Universities Tracker is a database of Chinese institutions engaged in military or security-related science and technology research. It was created by ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre).