Liviu Matei is a professor of higher education and public policy, and Head of the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London. He previously served as Provost of Central European University, where he played a central role in the efforts to safeguard academic freedom and institutional integrity in face of the attacks against this and other universities by the illiberal regime of Viktor Orbán.
In 2023-2024, he coordinated the Presidential Series on Reimagining Academic Freedom at King’s College London. A set of Principles for Reimagining Academic Freedom was developed at the end of this series, with large international participation. He founded the Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, the Yehuda Elkana Center for Higher Education, and the Global Teaching Fellowships Program.
He is a member of Governing Council of Magna Charta Observatory. He served on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Working Group on Fundamental Value contributing to drafting the statements with shared European conceptual references for the six EHEA fundamental values (academic freedom, academic integrity, institutional autonomy, participation of staff and students in higher education governance, and public responsibly for and of higher education). These statements have been adopted by ministerial delegations of all European countries between 2020 and 2024 (Russia and Belarus are suspended since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine). He also led the development of a monitoring mechanism for the fundamental values of higher education in all EHEA countries, officially finalized in 2024 when the EHEA ministers requested that a first monitoring report be made public before their next regular meeting in 2027.
Liviu Matei taught at universities from Europe, the U.S. and Asia, consulted extensively in higher education for the Council of Europe, the European Commission, the World Bank, UNESCO, OSCE, other international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and for public authorities and universities from Europe and Asia. His primary areas of expertise include academic freedom and university autonomy, governance, funding, internationalization of higher education, quality assurance, and the history and politics of higher education.