Academia worldwide is currently facing a multitude of issues – budget cuts, attacks on academic freedom, and deportations of students being some of the areas of concern. Far-right politics and authoritarianism in North America and Europe are the leading causes behind this trend, as one of the main strategies of fascists is to dismantle and overtake our knowledge systems. In these critical times, we need to remain wary and protect the academic institutions our free societies build on.

My point of departure are two closely related incidents. The first are the budget cuts for academia in the Netherlands, propelled by the far-right government led by PVV under Geerd Wilders. The second is the assault on academic institutions in the United States of America (USA) such as Columbia and Harvard University by the Trump administration. While the contexts and actions differ between both examples, the goal is the same: to assault academia and critical thought.

In this article I will reflect on what is currently happening to academic institutions in the Western world, using these two countries as examples and how this may impact academic institutions in the future. I do not assume that academia is or was ever independent, objective, and dedicated to the pursuit of greater human good, but the current events are causing great concern regarding the very foundation academia is built upon. I am also aware that these fascists are currently causing issues in other domains outside of academic elite debates. Given my background and the context I am living in, I feel most competent to comment on the attack on academia. However, we have to be aware that the assault on academia intersects with issues such as racism, mass surveillance, and rising inequalities, therefore this debate is part of a larger discourse.

As someone who comes from an Austrian context with its (Austro) fascist history, I cannot underemphasise the gravity and tragedy of what is currently unfolding in front of our eyes. The upcoming years will be challenging and filled with various struggles. Let’s make sure to learn from the past and present and combat the assaults on our universities.

Universities under Pressure in the Netherlands and United States of America

The Netherlands and USA belong to leading countries in research, harbouring renowned universities and institutes. In both countries, universities and their research contribute significantly to economic development and societal debates, which signifies their importance. At the same time, both countries are currently governed by authoritarian far right parties. Shadow prime minister Geert Wilders from the PVV built his political career on exclusion, hatred, and authoritarianism (him being the sole party member). Donald Trump and his techno-fascist minions are currently fundamentally transforming the USA state (read more here) through their racism, misogynism, and anti-democratic broligarchy. And in countries, universities are currently under assault.

In the Netherlands, the far-right government wants to significantly reduce university funding. As such, on 08 April, the Dutch Senate (Eerste Kamer) approved cutting the budget for higher education by € 1.2 billion (read more here). Already before the voting, the discussions surrounding the budget cuts have resulted in hiring freezes, uncertainties within the staff, and the dissolution of entire departments. Most recently, the geosciences department of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has been dissolved as a result of the austerity, leading to 40 scientists losing their job and students’ education breaking apart (read more here). Other institutions which are affected by these cuts include Tilburg Universiteit, Leiden Universiteit, and Universiteit Twente (not even talking about the countless universities of applied sciences which are affected too).

In the USA, a similar story with different dynamics is unfolding. In the past months students have been harassed and some face deportation by the US government due to their political activism, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Öztürk, who was assaulted by thugs from the immigration office on the street. In March, Columbia University has been hit by a severe funding cut of $ 400 million and it kneeled to the pressure (read more here). Harvard university too has been threatened with severe funding cuts and is currently battling for its existence (read more here). More universities in the USA are expected to fall prey to the government and just a few weeks ago, leading scholars who researched fascism at Yale University left the USA for Canada due to mounting political pressure (read more here).

Budget Cuts to Reduce Critical Research

In both the Netherlands and the USA, universities, their staff and students have become victims of the current political climate. The rise of authoritarianism and far-right parties results in budget cuts, increasing fiscal and authoritative pressures on academic institutions, and the destruction of the knowledge systems which have advanced our societies on so many levels. Far-right governments assault (critical) research institutions as they host the researchers who expose their ideology. Authoritarianism thrives in environments where critique is muted, education systems manipulated, and people dulled.

This fits well in the fascist playbook to dismantle and overtake knowledge systems. In the short and medium term, the goal is to sow uncertainty in universities, disable free and critical research, and disentangle the networks which make academia so successful. Reducing the already scarce academic budget is a logical strategy, as the number of staff and the quality of the supporting infrastructure can be significantly reduced through that. Once the staff has been slashed and structures removed, in the long run, new university structures and obedient staff ensures that universities become a means of propaganda. In a far-right authoritarian future, AI research will feed into better surveillance methods, robotisation will remove workers, and biology will be replaced by ethnonational sciences. The current assault on universities can, hence, have a long-lasting negative impact on academic research.

These negative effects are not restricted to higher education but can spill over in domains and ultimately affect (political) discourse. Trust in and within institutions could be further eroded, ultimately serving the manipulative and destructive agenda of far-right authoritarianism. Societal discourse would be centred around far-right propaganda, creating a society of forgotten desires for knowledge, creativity, and exploration. Austerity in knowledge institutes will trim their capacities to conduct independent research and steer them into a dependency. In short, cutting university budgets is one of the many steps to transform Western societies into manipulated and malleable masses.

Academic Freedom at Stake

In the past years I have observed the trend wherein universities are slowly being transformed into institutions which ought to produce ‘applicable’ knowledge and train their students to be ‘ripe for the job market’ as soon as their education finishes. Euphemisms such as public-private partnership or university-business collaborations mask the slow but progressive corporate overtake of our knowledge institutions.

Research projects, study programmes, and university staffing are slowly being oriented towards the needs of the market and corporate players, rather than the pursuit of knowledge. Start-up challenges and on-the-job learning inject the individualistic personal growth mindset into young students. Even worse, they replace the reason why an academic education is to be pursued for in the first place: to develop your critical thinking, learn how to position oneself in the world, and to strive to explore new areas. Rather than training the next cohort of critical thinkers, universities take over the education responsibility of corporates. This corporate thinking justifies budget cuts in critical research found in the fields of arts, humanities, and social sciences, which does not adhere to the technocratic solutionism from incumbent and authoritarian structures.

This is relevant to consider in the context of the budget cuts, as they will intensify the corporatisation trend and ultimately harm our academic institutions. Far-right parties need students who cannot critically reflect on what they are taught to do. This fits perfectly into the authoritarian play book, slowly taking over the state, its institutions, and its people. So what can be done about it?

Organise for Powerful Universities!

I do not claim to have the answers, as there are many qualified people active in university politics and who can strategies solutions for preserving independent universities. Most people are advised to get organised for power in representation bodies such as university unions, and join the struggle in a solidaric way. It is of uttermost importance that universities get organised and seek alliances within and between universities, as well as with other societal and political stakeholders.

Beyond that, I think that universities can retain and ultimately strengthen their position as independent organisations (i) in the short term, by uniting and remain in solidarity with the struggle; (ii) in the mid term, by strengthening students and their position in university politics; and (iii) in the long term, by ensuring to have sufficient independent funding allowing them to pursue their research effectively.

1. Stronger solidarity between and within universities (short term)

The neoliberal agenda of the past decades injected the mindset of competition into universities – think of the intransparent and illogical rating systems based on which a university’s merit is to be assessed. This has sown the seeds of insolidarity and individualism among and within universities. However, to confront mounting challenges such as the climate crisis, rising inequalities, and far-right authoritarianism, we need stronger collaboration between research(ers) to create interdisciplinary and actionable knowledge which is societally relevant. Central to such type of research is bridging (siloed) perspectives and have genuine collaboration between different fields of research. Stronger solidarity among university staff and between universities is central to this, which has to be taken to the streets through protest and other types of civil action.

2. Stronger support for students (mid term)

Having had the privilege of experiencing universities from the perspective of a student and the perspective of a researcher / staff member, I can only emphasise that a university’s success depends on its students. Without their students, universities would be hollow and sclerotic constructs without relevant impact on society. As history and the present show, students are the agents of progressive change and they are transforming societies in a positive way. Therefore, to ensure that universities can be societally relevant through their students, we need to ensure that studying is not reserved to the privileged few as it is now, but that all sectors of the society can pursue studies. This also requires giving student representatives a stronger onus in university decision-making through institutionalising their inclusion.

3. More independent funding to ensure independent research (long term)

Universities need to ensure their (scientific) integrity by having funding which is not contingent on external parties’ requirements, creating dependencies and tensions in the way research is conducted. University research has to remain independent from external interests, be them political, corporate, and other influences. This also means reversing the current corporation trend in universities and having a stronger focus on rigorous theoretical training in their curricula. University funding should be conditional on the quality of research and its contribution to scientific debates, rather than the marketability of their results. Societally relevant research thrives in an environment where the institution and its researchers can explore new fields without having to worry about whether their findings offend the funding body.