NTNU lacks plan for scholars at risk

NTNU is still far from hosting its first “asylum researcher”.

As part of its master plan for internationalization, the NTNU Board voted in February 2009 to join an international network called Scholars at Risk - or SAR. The university wanted to open its doors to individual researchers who are threatened in their home countries because of their research.

Academic freedom

SAR works to promote academic freedom, and monitors political conditions for researchers and academics worldwide. As part of this effort, SAR member institutions provide persecuted researchers sanctuary by offering them temporary research stays of varying lengths. The network currently has more than 200 member universities and colleges. The idea is that the host institution also benefits from the scheme, because of the teaching and research expertise brought by the guest academics.

SAR has its secretariat at New York University, where much of the work is coordinated. Every week, SAR sends out a newsletter with lists of individuals who the group believes are in genuine danger. An anonymous list is also provided on the website. The newsletter is an invitation to the network's members to accommodate researchers for a shorter or longer stay.

Host institutions can select academics in several ways: the university itself can tell the secretariat in New York that it is interested in a name on the list, or individual researchers may apply to a university that is a member of SAR. Academic groups can also suggest colleagues who have problems conducting research due to political difficulties.

Weekly contact with names

It has now been more than a year since the board’s resolution. Every week, NTNU receives a list from SAR’s secretariat at New York University with concrete situations and names of scientists who need temporary academic refuge because of threats, or the risk of arrest and incarceration.

According to Guri Eggan of the International Section, who is NTNU’s SAR coordinator, one of the reasons there has been no action is because budgetary matters remain to be clarified. The Board’s decision states that funds for the programme should come from the central budget, not from individual departments or faculties.

Eggan says that there are no policies or plans for the actual selection of academics and the implementation of the programme.

Six Norwegian universities and colleges are SAR members (see fact box). They first met in April this year. Eggan notes that several institutions are experiencing the same administrative roadblocks as NTNU.

A national committee has now been created to coordinate experiences and best practices. Eggan hopes this will be a first step in the actual implementation of the NTNU Board’s decision.

Little known scheme

Few at the university are aware of NTNU’s membership in SAR and its implications.

“No, I knew nothing about it,” said Axel Christophersen, director of the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, who visited the Palestinian territories in April 2008. A Palestinian archaeologist colleague at Birzeit University on the West Bank was in a difficult work situation, and Christophersen considered the possibility of offering him temporary work at the museum.

“The plan foundered because we at the museum lacked the resources to support it,” says Christophersen.

It is not clear whether this Palestinian archaeologist would have met SAR’s formal criteria for being a “scholar at risk”.

Latin American researcher at the University of Oslo

The University of Oslo (UiO) has come the farthest in Norway in implementing a SAR programme, and is currently hosting a researcher from a Latin America country. UiO had previously hosted two other SAR academics.

Marit Egner at UiO does not want to provide too many identifying details about this latest researcher. The host institution is obliged to consider the individual’s security and cannot promote the fact that it is hosting the researcher. The individual in question is not in the internal telephone directory. All that Egner can say is that the researcher works in one of the social sciences, and that his research was of a sensitive political nature in his homeland.

“It is important that he reaches out with his research. He is working now to publish in English,” Egner said.

She would not specify the kinds of difficulties the researcher experienced in his home country. However, the SAR website contains lists of academics who say they suffer from political repression, fear of arrest and imprisonment, and threats to life and health.

One year at a time

It is often in the nature of this kind of situation that it requires rapid action. The University of Oslo’s Board has delegated financial and decision-making authority to the university director. Salaries and other expenses are covered by the central budget.

It costs around NOK 500,000 a semester to accommodate this special type of guest researcher.

The university board has also approved a concrete goal for the scheme: The objective is now to house one researcher one year at a time, every other academic year, according to Egner.

Difficult follow-up

Endangered academics can be offered a stay as short as six months. But even one year may be all too short before returning home can be safe. Many on the SAR list come from countries such as Burma, Russia, and Iran, where regimes show no signs of disappearing any time soon.

The host institutions therefore have to think about what will happen once the contract expires. The University of Oslo is working on this issue with the SAR secretariat in the United States and the researcher himself, according to Egner.

The hope is that during the researcher’s stay in Norway, he will build a network with an eye to additional research stays elsewhere, if it is not safe for him to return to his home country.

Requires commitment

SAIH (the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund) has previously focused on academic freedom in other countries. The organization was among the first to urge Norwegian universities and colleges to join the SAR network.

“At present, only the University of Oslo is hosting researchers. We have hope that the joint initiative of the Norwegian institutions will speed up efforts in Norway. The fear is that there will be just one person at each institution who will be given all the responsibility to get this going. This work requires a clear commitment from each institution,” says Ragnhild Therese Nordvik, SAIH executive director.