Freedom of research and teaching, in other words the freedom of researchers from state intervention, is a fundamental pillar of democratic societies. This means that state institutions may not intervene in researchers’ work, even when the research receives public funding. To make this possible, many universities and other higher education institutions in democratic states are given the power of self-administration and are able to make important decisions independently of the state and political institutions. The following paper presents a model for self-administration at universities.