"A partial retreat is not a real solution"

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Science must confidently navigate and manage its own boundaries, write Benedikt Fecher and Prof. Dr. Ali Aslan Gümüsay in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

In their discussion piece, “A Partial Retreat Is Not a Real Solution,” the authors respond to Klaus Ferdinand Gärditz, who argued on February 12, 2026, for a “courageous partial retreat into the ivory tower.”

The debate addresses a genuine tension: scientific knowledge production, institutional autonomy, and public credibility are vulnerable to political instrumentalization. Ignoring this vulnerability would be naïve.

However, withdrawal is not the answer. Resilience does not emerge from isolation, but from deliberately designed openness — including stable interfaces between academia and practice, robust quality assurance, and the confident shaping of communication spaces.

A partial retreat into the ivory tower would not safeguard academic freedom; it would undermine the societal function of science and weaken public trust. Such a move would not be courageous, but a surrender — and it is doubtful whether ground once abandoned can later be reclaimed.