On April 2nd, protesters occupied a UM building on Oxfordlaan. By afternoon they were removed. The Executive Board cited safety concerns: superconducting magnets, cooling gases, genuine risk. I believe them. But it points to something larger: the space between institutions and dissent is hardening.
The same week, the Academic Freedom Index 2026 measured de facto academic freedom across 179 countries, not what laws say, but what happens: can researchers teach freely, can institutions govern themselves without political interference, do campuses feel safe? Score from 0 to 1, based on 2,300 scholars worldwide.
The Netherlands scores 0.76. Belgium 0.95. Germany above 0.90. The EU average well above 0.85. We are not at the bottom of the world, but at the bottom of our own neighborhood, ahead of only Greece, Romania, and Hungary. The culprit: a growing sense of unsafety on campuses, police interventions at protests, a hardening between institution and dissent. For a country that built its academic reputation on openness, that should sting.
Two unrelated events in the same week, both part of the same erosion: a campus culture that has stopped asking what universities are for. We are not alone in this. In the US, academic freedom has fallen fifty percent in a decade, now scoring 0.40, lower than the Netherlands during the Second World War. Fifty countries declining, nine improving.
I am not naive about Oxfordlaan. Occupying a building with superconducting magnets is not smart tactics (or, is it?), and the Executive Board acted in good faith. But the right to protest, to dissent, to make institutions uncomfortable, is not a technicality. It is what the greenhouse is supposed to shelter.
Universities are not degree-dispensing machines. They are public greenhouses, and a greenhouse only works if it stays open. Seal it shut in the name of order, and what grows inside dies. Professional behavior here does not mean staying quiet or not making problems for anyone. It means engaging honestly, even when inconvenient. Academic freedom is not a luxury. It is what makes the greenhouse work. We only notice when the index tells us, and by then we are already at 0.76 and falling.
The public greenhouse must stay open. That is what it was built for.
Jonas Heller, assistant professor Marketing & director SBE DEXLab