Katja Brøgger

I am proud to take up the position of Professor of Higher Education Policy and Governance at the Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University. I am the research program director of Policy Futures, a wonderful research community I share with strong scholars at DPU, spanning departments and extending well beyond Aarhus University through our wide international network and many international scholarly events.

I am Chair and PI of the EU COST Action CA22121 (OPEN), under Horizon Europe. Starting in 2027, I will serve as mentor and host for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship on academic freedom in liberal democracies, in collaboration with TC Columbia University and UNESCO, also under Horizon Europe. In 2026, I will finish two international comparative projects as PI, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark through a Sapere Aude Research Leadership grant and an Inge Lehman grant. The EU and IRFD projects examine different aspects of how geopolitical shifts are exerting growing pressure on academic freedom and openness in European higher education and research.

My studies on higher education policy and governance explore the relations between geopolitics, the nation-state, and the university. In recent years, I have taken a great interest in studying conditions for and pressures on academic freedom and university openness.

Starting in 2026, I serve as a series editor – together with Michael Kozakowski and Tamara Kamatovic – for CEU Press’ new book series, Academic Freedom and the Democratic University. I am also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Education Policy and Globalisation, Societies and Education, and the lead editor of the World Yearbook of Education 2026 (Routledge).