Declaration on the Fundamental Principles of Universities Worldwide
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The three partners of the University Alliance Ruhr have jointly signed the Magna Charta Universitatum 2020 on 24 October: a strong commitment to the universal mission of universities.
The Magna Charta Universitatum (MCU) brings together universal values and principles that connect universities across epochs and countries. The document was first drawn up in 1988, when the University of Bologna, the oldest university in the world, celebrated its 900th anniversary. More than 950 universities on every continent have since joined the MCU. In 2020, the manifesto was renewed to emphasize the responsibility of universities in global change.
Promoting university values
With the joint signing in October, the universities of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) have committed themselves to the values of the MCU. The President of the University of Duisburg-Essen Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert, the President of Ruhr University Bochum Prof. Dr. Martin Paul as well as the President of TU Dortmund University Prof. Dr. Manfred Bayer comment on their commitment: “In Germany, we often take for granted the independence and inseparability of fact-based research and teaching, open in dialogue and free from political influence and economic interests. But in other parts of the world, freedom of research and teaching is fiercely contested. With the Magna Charta Universitatum, renewed in 2020, we accept the responsibility to promote university values and to use our research to address global challenges in order to develop solutions to preserve the planet. Health, prosperity, and intellectual enlightenment are fundamental values that universities, with their global knowledge networking, help to realize.”
Universities are vivid actors in our society, generating and publishing new knowledge with increasing dynamism, at the same time that global trust in science is declining. All the more, the Magna Charta Universitatum aims to position universities as the places from which fact-based research, analysis and informed action emanate.