Dozens of security measures for academics
Between November 2022 and December 2023, 45 one-off and 14 structural security measures were taken for academics or university staff. This is what it says in the External Intimidation, Hatred and Threats against Academics Monitor published by the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
Academics’ safety has been under threat for some time and the UNL, NWO and KNAW launched the SafeScience (WetenschapVeilig) platform in November 2022. Staff who have received threats can contact SafeScience to be referred to the right person within their institution.
The Monitor (in Dutch), produced by Technopolis, provides insight into the extent to which university staff face external hatred, intimidation and threats. Several dozen reports have been made to WetenschapVeilig since its launch. These are just some of the total number of threats and hatred because many recipients report this directly to universities, for example to managers, HR staff or security advisers. The monitor shows that women and young researchers are particularly vulnerable and are more frequently the recipient of intimidation, hate and threats.
Examples of the 59 security measures taken include taking people’s contact information offline and moving staff elsewhere. In some instances universities also hired extra security and helped staff file a police report.
WetenschapVeilig now plans to identify effective measures and share them with the participating institutions. The Monitor shows that staff also feel a need for this. The UNL handbook ‘Addressing Threats to and Intimidation of Academics’ (in Dutch) already provides guidance on this.
Read the full report on the Universities of the Netherlands website (in Dutch).