The workshop was held at santralistanbul on 23-24 October 2009, hosted by İstanbul Bilgi Üniversity Human Rights Law Research Center and sponsored by Network for Education & Academic Rights (NEAR) and Scholars at Risk Network (SAR).

Leading scholars, advocates and professionals came together to rethink issues of university autonomy and academic freedom. The dual aims of the event were to better understand the regional dimensions of these issues, while asking participants to inform and shape our on-going work to promote these values worldwide. 

The event was to be held over two days. On the first day, participants from Afghanistan, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ghana, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, UK and USA provided background and context by presenting reports on conditions in their country and region. On the second day, participants discussed case examples developed by SAR/NEAR, with the goal of developing recommendations of future activities aimed at promoting higher education values worldwide. 

Turgut Tarhanlı, Murat Belge, Halil Berktay, Burhan Şenatalar, Mete Tunçay, Lami Bertan Tokuzlu, Galma Jahic and Seda Kalem also contributed during the meeting.