Over the past decade, academic freedom has deteriorated across the world, with some of the most shocking and prominent examples being China silencing the first physician to identify covid-19 for spreading rumors, Hungary expelling a well-endowed and prestigious university by refusing to implement its own legislation, Russia bombing Ukrainian universities and killing academics and students alike, Turkey retroactively charging hundreds of professors for signing the Academics for Peace petition and firing another 5,000, and the United States withdrawing over a third of Harvard University’s operating budget for refusing to audit its staff to ensure ideological balance.

Although by no means a novelty, these happenings have led us — both academics and citizens — to unfortunately become quite desensitized to academic repression in the 21st century, a century of evidence-based policymaking. In this context, the de facto exile of a Turkish PhD student involved in the legal defense of imprisoned academics, the dismissal of a Hungarian professor for defending a student, and the resignation of a Danish doctoral candidate in protest of systemic issues prevalent across academia all emerge as critical cases that warrant attention and concern.

This panel on Establishing a Permanent Infrastructure for Supporting Academics in Europe within the COST Action 22121 / OPEN on the interplay of nationalism and geopolitics with the openness of European higher education systems sheds light on these major issues but also foregrounded microaggressions in contexts that we generally do not associate with academic repression (or any type of repression, for that matter). Seemingly minor infringements on academic freedom — often dismissed as microaggressions — can mark the early stages of a longer trajectory toward more overt forms of academic repression, as observed in contexts such as China, Hungary, and Turkey.

To draw on examples from this panel, assuming that well-established democracies like Denmark or Sweden — with strong institutions and a tradition of academic excellence grounded in academic freedom and scientific openness — are immune to backsliding would be both negligent and short-sighted. Such complacency risks not only a decline in academic standards within individual disciplines but also potential spillover effects across fields and into academic systems in other countries.

Nonetheless, it is clear that the responsibility to safeguard academic freedom falls on every academic — and every citizen. To paraphrase Martin Niemöller: they are coming for certain academics today, and we may not speak out because we are not among them. But if we remain silent, they may come for others tomorrow — and by then, no one may be left to speak out. Protecting academic freedom is not only a moral imperative but also a foundational element in building a permanent infrastructure of support for academics.