Open letter from Movement for a Free Academia Norway
“I can’t write my story to you, since I’m still in the final stages of my doctorate after all these years, and I can’t end the process now. This shows how difficult it is for doctoral students to get help, because I’m afraid of further bullying.”
This is one of around 30 anonymous stories collected last autumn through the #safetospeak campaign, accounts of lost authorship, supervisors who block independent research, PhD candidates who left academia not because their work lacked value, but because they became targets of power abuse.
The hardest part wasn’t collecting the stories. It was how many people reached out and then chose not to share, afraid of losing their position or degree, or of being labelled “difficult.” Silence isn’t neutral. It shifts the burden from the system onto the individual.
We’re publishing an open letter to everyone in Norwegian academia, alongside six full testimonies from people who agreed to share their experiences. The campaign is led by Ingvild Bergom Lunde, co-founder of the Movement for a Free Academia and former president of SiN, continuing this work to push for a more compassionate academic culture.
The letter asks something simple of every reader, PhD candidate, supervisor, leader, or administrator: you have more power than you think to break the silence. Ask a question when a colleague is alone in a conflict. Support someone publicly, not just in private.
Learn more about the campaign and to download the full open letter and testimonies (PDF) (In Norwegian) (In English)
