ABSTRACT
The university has always been in close relationship with the outside world. Through the ages, professors had connections with political rulers or were appointed by them. Sometimes they were directly involved in politics, sometimes they undertook research commissioned by industries. The history of universities has—from a very early stage in its development—seen many examples where student protest, and even student violence, went beyond self-definition and youth culture, and entered the world of real politics. Not all kinds of political action by students are the same and they do not stem from the same source and the same motivation. At least two different types of political action by students can be distinguished. The first one is political action in defence of themselves as a group or in defence of the university. The second type of student political action is not, or is only in an indirect way, concerned with the university. It focuses directly on the political situation outside the university.
