High-Level Seminar: Reinventing Campus Democracy
26 November 2025
Birthday celebrations continued with the High-Level Seminar, “Reinventing Campus Democracy: Bridging Divides and Advancing Solutions”, co-organised with Utrecht University and supported by ESU. With more than 100 participants, the seminar served as the final landmark event of the CG’s 40th anniversary year. It addressed one of the most pressing questions universities face today: how can they foster democratic culture on campus at a time of increasing polarisation?
The seminar opened with the keynote contributions of Henk Kummeling, former Rector Magnificus of Utrecht University, and Margareth Hagen, Rector of the University of Bergen, followed by an address from Arno Schrooyen, Vice-President of ESU. Their reflections emphasised the responsibility of universities to nurture open dialogue, civic participation and critical thinking as essential pillars of democratic life.
At the core of the programme were six interactive breakout sessions, each exploring a distinct dimension of the current democratic crisis and the role of universities can play in responding to it. Topics included student participation in university governance, how universities can address climate change scepticism, the importance of EDI in democratic practice, and the various ways universities can contribute to repair our democracies. Each session combined expert insights with open, participatory discussions inspired by the Deep Democracy model.
The concluding panel, chaired by Eva Voldřichová Beránková, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at Charles University, brought together the session moderators – Kaja Sandvik, Nicoleta Popa, Daniel Donoghue, Franziska Sophia Knogler, Arno Schrooyen and Jürgen Barkhoff – to summarise the key takeaways and propose concrete next steps for the Coimbra Group’s future work on democracy. Their contributions highlighted the richness of the discussions and the value of multi-voiced, inclusive engagement.
A particular highlight of the seminar was the broad and energetic participation of students from Coimbra Group universities, ESU and ESN. The pivotal role of students was further emphasized by the signature of a new Memorandum of Understanding between the Coimbra Group and ESU, formalising and deepening the long-standing partnership between our member universities and student representatives.
