JUS | Discussion Group on Comparative Constitutional Law and Theory – Workshop

Workshop: The Impact of New Public Management on Academic Freedom

A Comparison between Nordic and Central European Countries

Date: 15.12.2025, 3:00–6.00 p.m.
Venue: Room L621, 6^th floor | Faculty of Law | Sigmund Freud University | Lassallestraße 3, 1020 Vienna

Programme

15:00
Konrad Lachmayer
Introduction

15.20 
Niina Mäntylä | Melanie Regine Hack | Henrik Wenander
The legal position of academic staff in a changing university landscape: A comparative analysis of Finland, Norway, and Sweden

16.20       
Hedwig Unger
Navigating the Tension Between Autonomy, Accountability, and Academic Freedom: The Impact of New Public Management on Austrian University Governance

16.40  
Eleonóra Wagenknecht
Reshaping Universities in an Illiberal State: Academia under New Public Management in Hungary

17.00
Konrad Lachmayer
Conclusion – A post-individual academia

The workshop explores the impact of New Public Management (NPM) reforms on academic freedom and university autonomy in a comparative perspective between Nordic and Central European countries. Managerialism, performance orientation and market-based governance have increasingly shaped higher education systems, raising questions about their compatibility with academic self-governance and constitutional guarantees of academic freedom.

Contributions from the Nordic countries analyse how managerial reforms have influenced the legal status and working conditions of academics in Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Comparative insights from Central Europe illustrate similar dynamics in different legal and political contexts: in Austria, following the 2002 University Act, and in Hungary, where NPM-inspired reforms have coincided with more direct restrictions on academic freedom.

The workshop aims to assess how legal frameworks and governance models mediate the effects of NPM on academic freedom and to reflect on broader implications for academic freedom and university autonomy in Europe.

Please register until 14.12.2025: konrad.lachmayer@jus.sfu.ac.at

• Further information

Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna
Faculty of Law

Address Lassallestrasse 3, 6th floor, 1020 Vienna
Phone 0043 1 4700 104
E-mail jus@sfu.ac.at
Web: https://jus.sfu.ac.at

• Google Maps