Interview with Liviu Matei

Liviu Matei joined King’s College London this month as professor of higher education and public policy and head of the School of Education, Communication and Society. Previously, he was provost and professor of higher education policy at the Central European University (CEU). His areas of expertise include university governance, funding, internationalisation, institutional autonomy and quality assurance.

Where and when were you born?
Romania in 1965.

How has this shaped you?
School and education were important, even though influenced by a totalitarian ideology. I was lucky. If I were born today, in democratic Romania, I would not get a chance to finish high school. I encountered remarkable, superbly qualified teachers who took risks defying the party line, all the way from primary school to university. I could learn and I experienced no knowledge handicap when undertaking further studies and work at home, then abroad. I have also learned, in and outside school, that political regimes can be inherently criminal, but searching for freedom is always possible.

What kind of undergraduate were you?
I was inquisitive and thirsty.

Have you had a eureka moment?
Inside the great reading hall of the Central University Library in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 1985: it was an older building like from an exquisite dream about libraries, at least for my young mind of that time. I had the revelation of so much knowledge available – accessible even to someone like me, without an intellectual family background – that one can learn in some kind of learning hive inside the university, and also contribute new knowledge, even as a first-year undergraduate student.

What divided your life into a ‘before’ and ‘after’?
More than one such moment: when I left Romania in 1999, and now that I leave “Europe” for the UK.

Tell us about someone you’ve always admired.
Patricia Albjerg Graham, a great historian of education, and the first woman dean of a graduate school at Harvard. She had so much experience and wisdom, she would understand any governance challenge in a school or university within a second, even when completely new for her, and have a profound thought on how to deal with it. I admire equally the “foot soldiers” and “generals” who accomplish impactful professional work with intellectual elegance, morality and great discretion, irrespective of their place in a hierarchy. I have known a few of them at the CEU. The person who for me embodies this best, though, is Sjur Bergan, one of the elders of higher education in Europe. He has contributed perhaps more than anybody else in the past two to three decades to major, positive changes in this field that are not knowingly linked to his name, not even among dedicated researchers and observers.

What has changed most in global higher education in the past five to 10 years?
Reduced public support for and appreciation of higher education, [evidenced in] reduced public funding, restrictions of academic freedom, repudiation of expertise and dwindling enrolments; the golden age of ever-increasing massification may have passed. There are also positive changes, like an increasing awareness of the need to decolonise the university, the emergence of the Sustainable Development Goals as a global policy framework for higher education, and the creation of new types of higher education institutions, namely transnational integrated network universities.

What’s your most memorable moment at university?
Participants in the Global Teaching Fellowship programme I initiated at the CEU taught in Myanmar in the period between the last two military juntas. They contributed successfully to reforming Burmese higher education. Or perhaps not. They were advanced doctoral students from all over the world, preparing to make a research career. Upon completing the programme, they all said it had been a life-changing experience; they learned about fundamentals of the academic profession and made it possible for others to learn, for Burmese students who would have stood no chance otherwise to get access to up-to-date, advanced knowledge. This, and other reform work, however, couldn’t stop the military from taking over again and the tragedy that has since befallen higher education and the entire country.

What is the biggest misconception about your field of study?
I am not sure; it could be that higher education policy is misconstrued as a unitary field of studies.

What one thing would improve your working week?
Meeting more people from whom I can learn about what I may never be able to come across alone.

What’s your biggest regret?
Not learning Hungarian perfectly.

What advice would you give to your younger self?
Read a lot more in the humanities and social sciences; learn computer science; reach out to peers in other disciplines.

What do you do for fun?
Running, thinking, listening to classical and contemporary music and reading history of science and arts.

If you weren’t an academic, what do you think you’d be doing?
Either be a folk singer or possibly a kind of student-at-large of comparative folk music.

What brings you comfort?
The warmth of family; poetry and music; the quiet excitement of applicable, unexpected intellectual discoveries.

What saddens you?
The combination of power and deceit affecting people and institutions anywhere, but even more so in higher education.

Do you live by any motto or philosophy?
“Never be cynical with people, it will make them suffer” – a principle I have learned from Yehuda Elkana. A Holocaust survivor, he was a historian, a philosopher of science and a university leader. He also used to say, “In a university, people are even more important than ideas.” I am still struggling to understand that.

What would you like to be remembered for?
I have written about the crisis of academic freedom. The work to promote a new codification for it is part of the efforts to address the crisis, intellectually and practically. I have also established a Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, based on the conviction that new conceptualisations of academic freedom emerge rarely, but currently such an effort is necessary, and there is a window of opportunity for it to succeed.

CV

1985-89 BA, philosophy and psychology, Babeș-Bolyai University
1990-2000 Assistant professor, lecturer, Babeș-Bolyai University
2004-07 PhD, sociology of higher education, University of Bucharest
2000-22 Academic secretary, professor of higher education policy, vice-president, chief operating officer and provost, Central European University
2022- Professor of higher education and public policy, head of the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London

Appointments

Emma Johnston is joining the University of Sydney as deputy vice-chancellor (research). Currently dean of science at UNSW Sydney, the marine ecologist is also past president of Science & Technology Australia. Professor Johnston said she was “excited” to take on the new role “as a leader and advocate for what is already an outstanding research ecosystem”, adding that she believed “we can play a role in strengthening Australia’s research and development capabilities to build resilience and prosperity for the wider community”.

Andy Long will be the next vice-chancellor of Northumbria University. Presently provost and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, he will join Northumbria in August, following Andrew Wathey’s retirement in May. Professor Long, a leading researcher of polymer composite materials, has spent more than two decades at Nottingham. Roberta Blackman-Woods, chair of Northumbria’s board, said Professor Long’s “clear strategic vision and wealth of experience in leadership in higher education will be invaluable in taking this great university into its next phase”.

Kevin Hetherington has been appointed deputy vice-chancellor of Staffordshire University. He will take up the role in March, having previously served as pro vice-chancellor for research, enterprise and scholarship at The Open University.

John Evans will be Swinburne University of Technology’s first pro vice-chancellor for indigenous engagement. He is currently professor of indigenous health education at the University of Technology Sydney.

Mark Hunter has been appointed vice-principal (curriculum and students) at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is presently deputy dean (education) in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries at Middlesex University.

The University of Wollongong has appointed Sean Brawley, professor of history and pro vice-chancellor (programmes and pathways) at Macquarie University, as pro vice-chancellor (strategy and planning), and Louise Hickman, presently director of palliative care programmes at the University of Technology Sydney, as pro vice-chancellor (health – Sydney campuses).