Globalisation and Higher Education: Academic Freedom Under Scrutiny in Times of Global Crisis

In the age of escalating global crises, the value of academic freedom is increasingly important in the context of debates, where social media and artificial intelligence can be increasingly playing an important role. The chapter explores how academics dealt with the problems of expressing solidarity to Ukrainian colleagues after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It focuses on discursive dilemmas and analyse intellectual positions in the context of disagreements about the nature of the invasion. In the long run, the chapter will demonstrate how academic solidarity persists and contributes to sustaining belief in academic freedom. Academic freedom can be easily compromised when public intellectualism supersedes the research-based approach required for addressing complex problems that demand extensive investigation and expertise.