New Book Explores the University’s Public Mission

A new book published by Prof Georg Mein, the director of ULIDE, examines a question that feels increasingly urgent: What remains of the university’s public mission when truth is relativised, expertise is attacked, and digital communication fractures the very idea of a shared world?
The new book, “Das Prinzip Universität: Warum Demokratie Wissenschaft braucht”, has a straightforward central argument: democratic societies rely on institutions that cultivate rational scrutiny and treat fallibility not as a weakness, but as a condition for collective learning. When these institutions come under pressure, the democratic project itself becomes fragile.

Drawing on his background in German literature, philosophy, and educational theory, as well as his current role as Director of ULIDE, Prof Mein brings together humanities-based scholarship and contemporary debates on digitalisation and democracy. His long-standing engagement with higher education governance and international academic exchange also informs the book’s reflection on the university as a cornerstone of democratic public life.

“Das Prinzip Universität” seeks to reclaim the university as such an institution – not one that produces consensus, but one that safeguards the very practices that make disagreement meaningful.

• Das Prinzip Universität