What do nations owe their universities?
Résumé
At the beginning of the late-modern era, the Scandinavian universities in Copenhagen (Denmark), Uppsala and Lund (Sweden) generally remained traditional universities and were not deeply affected by the political changes from the beginning of the 19th century. The only major exception was the foundation of a Norwegian university in Christiania (Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitet) in 1811: since the 1790s, the local elite strongly committed itself into the foundation of a Norwegian academic institution, under cover of the Enlightenment ideals. The discussions (known as "the university turmoil") intended to convince the absolutist authorities about the possibility of a university. This debate has to be understand in a context of a more general critic of traditional and scholastic institutions which then failed to promote natural sciences and utilitarian knowledge, and it outlined a new model of academic legitimacy promoting a duty for national enlightenment. However, the foundation of the Norwegian university mainly happened in a difficult material context, which compelled the new institution to be pragmatic: the most important plight was the education of bureaucratic elite which would be able to ensure the survival of a fragile newly-founded Norwegian State in 1814.
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