For centuries, universities have played a crucial role as sites of refuge. As the world is witnessing yet another bloody conflict, how should we, as an academic community, respond?

Specific initiatives from the past may serve as inspiration for the present. On 17 September 1933 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the Turkish authorities, asking them “to allow forty professors and doctors from Germany to continue their scientific and medical work in Turkey” because they could not “practice further in Germany on account of the laws governing there now”.

Einstein’s request was initially rejected because, according to the handwritten note at the bottom of the letter by then Prime Minister, Ismet Inönü, “Their salaries will be unaffordable to us”. However, his request was granted after the intervention of Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk. In this way, 220 scholars and their families were offered safe passage and ultimately more than one thousand lives were saved.

Scholars at risk

The ongoing war in Ukraine is not the first conflict the world is witnessing since Einstein’s letter was written. However, the fact that we, as an academic community, have not always taken concerted action in the past to help scholars at risk is a poor excuse not to do so yet again. We can, and must, learn to do better. An ongoing petition to establish Leiden University in Exile is a first step toward a more structured framework to support academics fleeing from conflict, not merely from Ukraine.

Almost ninety years after Einstein’s letter, concepts such as University Social Responsibility (USR) call on universities to “go beyond the core functions of teaching, research, and service and voluntarily act beyond legal requirements to promote the public good and environmental sustainability” (Lo, Pang, Egri, & Li 2017). In his latest blog, the Chair of International Studies of our university suggests that “it would be good to engage with the intentions of USR to clarify how (our) university, as a site not only of research and education but also ethical standards, can reflect on its role as a global actor.”

The European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation in a letter dated 28 March 2022 urged recipients of European Horizon grants to support refugee researchers from Ukraine in their ongoing projects, citing an agreement (signed in October 2021 but currently on hold due to the war) to associate Ukrainian researchers with existing European programmes. A similar call sent out by the European Research Council (ERC) has resulted in an extensive database of positions available.

The Dutch Government, through the NWO, has made available €1 million in emergency funding, stating that it “wants Ukrainian researchers to know that, when feeling forced to leave their homeland, they find a safe working environment”. The joint statement of the Dutch universities about the war in Ukraine ends with the promise that “the joint universities will examine the options available to help academics in Ukraine: ‘It is our responsibility as universities to contribute to a better world through research and education and to work for peace, respect and (academic ) freedom’.”

Forced to flee

On the other hand, the UAF student refugee organisation, stated by the NWO as a possible channel “to support researchers, teachers and students who were forced to flee, so that they can continue their research and/or study at a Dutch research unit”, in its own statement calls on “the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, together with higher education institutions, [to] make a provision.”

Leiden has set up a Task Force Ukraine, which maintains a website where initiatives to help those affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine are listed. Most of these initiatives are individual-level, private initiatives to collect donations of money and goods. Currently, the only institutional-level initiative taking place within our university aims to help students from Ukraine and Russia who are already enrolled here. Meanwhile, the war is into its second month.

Safe passage

Universities around the world have announced schemes to provide short-term emergency funds to help scholars who are at risk because of the current conflict. Since late February, universities in Austria, Finland, Israel, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, and Taiwan, among others, have earmarked funds especially for Ukrainian academics, staff and students, who are fleeing conflict. A regularly updated document by the University of New Europe initiative currently exceeding 100 pages lists such initiatives. Examples of support offered include 3 to 6 months stipend to continue their studies or research, and in some cases reimbursement of travel costs and housing. The fact that emergency fund recipients will not be employed by the hosting university is sometimes explicitly mentioned. Such emergency funds are available immediately. Some applications closed already in March, others are ongoing. Proof of Ukrainian university status is often required as part of the application. These are not national but institutional-level initiatives by individual universities aiming to offer a safe passage to scholars at risk in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

In light of the official declarations by European and Dutch organizations and the example set by our peer institutions abroad, we are left wondering: what concrete steps is our university taking to carry its share of social responsibility? What institutional initiatives at university, faculty, or institute level are contemplated? What is the timeline for their implementation?

Almost ninety years after Albert Einstein’s letter, can we do better than Prime Minister Inönü’s initial response?

Ivo Smits (LIAS, Humanities),
Marina Terkourafi (LUCL, Humanities),
Hilde De Weerdt (LIAS, Humanities),
Jorrit Rijpma (Law) and
Giles Scott Smith (History, Humanities)