According to a recent op-ed by Professor Mikael J. K. Petitjean in La Libre, a troubling shift is occurring within Belgian universities. The act of awarding honorary doctorates, traditionally a celebration of academic excellence, is increasingly being used as a tool for institutional “position-taking” on sensitive geopolitical issues. Petitjean highlights the recent decision by several major universities (UAntwerpen, VUB, and UGent) to honor UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese as a symptom of this trend, where the university speaks with a single moral voice on behalf of a diverse community.

The report argues that this “selective indignation” creates an intellectual hierarchy of causes. While certain conflicts spark intense institutional mobilization, others, such as state violence in Iran, receive far less attention. This asymmetry suggests that universities are moving away from evidence-based inquiry toward a “binary theater” of activism, where complex realities are distilled into a narrative of common enemies and systemic power structures.

Our Take

Petitjean’s analysis is both accurate and timely. Our framework identifies the university as a Critical Institution whose core mission is to generate and transmit knowledge, which requires robust viewpoint diversity and a culture of disagreement. By speaking “on behalf of all,” universities risk marginalizing scholars and students who seek to remain objective or hold dissenting views.

This erodes the “internal firewall” that protects academic research from external agendas. For the 451 Institute, the goal is not to silence individual expression, but to ensure that the institution itself remains a neutral ground where arguments are tested rather than slogans honored. Protecting the legitimacy of the decision-making process in our universities is essential to ensuring they remain credible, inclusive, and resilient against the rising tide of social fragmentation.