Our rector is appointed by and answers to a Board which includes politicians, career board members, and CEOs, none of whom have any connection to daily life of KU. These external Board members form a majority and are not elected by those who make up the university.
KU management has recently called police armed with assault rifles and attack dogs on pro-Palestine students exercising their right to freedom of speech and assembly. These students have been threatened with expulsion to serve as an example and to suppress further dissent.
Until recently, KU has been profiting from investments in UN-blacklisted companies operating in illegally-occupied Palestine. The absence of any transparency in investment reporting makes it difficult to determine what other illegal activities the university may be profiting from.
Despite urgent concerns of its students and staff, KU has not committed to sustainability as a core strategic ambition in its strategic plan for the next decade, nor has it implemented any of the sustainability policies recommended by civil society groups.
KU has a special academic exchange agreement with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is illegally occupying Palestinian land according to international law, and has been providing military, academic, and legal support to the Israeli apartheid regime.
KU hosts a NATO-funded military research center (NATO DIANA Quantum Centre), whose activity benefits organizations and companies centered on military intelligence and weapons research, instead of transparent research for the well-being of all.
We are a group of employees and students from the University of Copenhagen (KU), who have gathered around a shared concern for how our university is currently being run and to clarify the different roles we all have to ensure the university is a democratic institution.
What we see happening
Despite its claims to have democratic mechanisms in place, KU has exhibited a clear trend in the opposite direction: we regularly see top-down management decisions that bypass or even undermine the aspirations of their staff and students. We are left without tools to make our voices heard and met with both formal and informal measures that suppress dissenting opinions.
We can do better
Centralized power and hierarchical structures undermine the exchange of ideas and collective decision-making within the university, and constrain its engagement with the rest of society. This is evident, for example, in the management’s unilateral decision to implement a highly unpopular administration reform, its complicity in an ongoing genocide, its criminalization of students, and its unwillingness to take on sustainability as a strategic ambition.
By building a platform for strengthening ongoing and nurturing new initiatives, providing information, connecting movements, and spreading awareness, we envision a university community that will not only be truly democratic, but also deserving of its students and staff.
Why now
In recent years, several new academic movements have emerged. They represent a growing dissatisfaction with how the university is dealing with everything from a lack of academic and creative freedom, its ongoing complicity in genocide, climate and biodiversity collapse, eroding working conditions among the administrative staff, to student well-being and mental health.
In this moment, where multiple, global crises are accelerating and worsening, we see an urgent need to connect diverse struggles and amplify each others’ voices.
Take action!
You can contribute to steering us away from a managerial corporate university and towards a truly democratic one that is accountable to both its own students and staff and the broader society.
We encourage you to become part of the many movements that already exist or to help us facilitate collaboration across the different initiatives and issues. If you are a student or a staff member who believes that creating and protecting a democratic culture at KU is a worthy cause — come join us!
