However, following the defeat of Orbán’s far-right administration in April 2026 by Péter Magyar, the tide has begun to turn. The report notes that by the end of May, less than a month after Magyar took office, the new government indicated its intention to phase out the controversial private foundation model. Furthermore, the administration moved quickly to rejoin the Erasmus program, signaling a commitment to reintegrating Hungarian scholars and students into the broader European academic community.
Despite these localized successes, Robert Quinn, the founding executive director of Scholars at Risk, warns against complacency. Speaking at the European Association for International Education conference in Glasgow, Quinn remarked that the hundreds of cases documented in the annual report represent "just the tip of the iceberg." He noted that while the global movement to defend academic freedom has grown stronger and more organized, the "bad news is that threats are growing faster than the efforts to protect."
Quinn used his address to call for the creation of a "global academic freedom agenda" that moves beyond "flowery language" and toward "concrete and practical" protections. He argued that the international community must establish clear parameters for what constitutes a violation of academic liberty and create mechanisms to hold governments accountable for such breaches.
Central to Quinn’s vision for the future is the need to re-engage the general public. He suggested that the erosion of academic freedom is partly due to a failure of communication between universities and the communities they serve. If the public does not understand how university autonomy directly benefits society—through medical breakthroughs, economic innovation, and the fostering of a more informed citizenry—they are less likely to defend those institutions when they come under political attack.
"The university that is in service to the public needs to deliver a message that it is in service to the public," Quinn said. He emphasized that universities must spend the coming decades refining this message and ensuring that their primary purpose remains the public good. "I believe if we spend the next 25 years really messaging that properly and absorbing those messages ourselves—that the public is our primary purpose—then the public will also be our primary defender."
As the "Free to Think 2026" report circulates among policymakers and university leaders, it serves as a stark reminder that academic freedom is not a static achievement but a fragile right that requires constant vigilance. Whether through the direct threat of imprisonment or the indirect pressure of budget cuts and administrative interference, the ability of scholars to pursue the truth remains under significant global pressure.
