Independence is a concept that has gained increasing attention within higher education ever since the Bologna declaration was established. Not least in relation to the degree projects which students normally write during the course of their education. This is evident for instance in how independence, or the students’ ability to work autonomously, is frequently mentioned in steering documents on different levels. At the same time, independence is an ambiguous concept that may be understood in a variety of ways in various contexts. How we understand and use the concept within higher education may, furthermore, affect both how we assess the students’ accomplishments and the didactic choices made by the teachers.

Differences in how independence is understood and handled in practice may lead to insecurity and may even be an obstacle for international student exchange and international comparability between universities according to the Bologna declaration. The aim of this project is, consequently, to examine how the concept “independence” is understood and used on different levels in two higher education programs: journalism education and teacher education, in two countries, Russia and Sweden.

The project group consists of the project manager Jenny Magnusson, senior lecturer in Swedish, Södertörn University, Jan-Olof Gullö, senior lecturer in journalism, Södertörn University, Greg Goldenzwaig, PhD, Swedish Institute & Södertörn University, and Maria Zackariasson, professor in ethnology, Södertörn University.

This interdisciplinary project is connected to the School of Culture and Learning, the School of Social Sciences and the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies at Södertörn University, as well as to the Department of Teacher Education.

Within the project we cooperate with researchers within and representatives from journalism and teacher education at Moscow State University, S:t Petersburg State University, Herzen University S:t Petersburg, Northern (Arctic) Federal University, Archangelsk, and Malmö University.