The State of Belarusian Academia 2025
The State of the Belarusian Academy 2025 is part of the advocacy work of ZBS aimed at highlighting the situation in the Belarusian academic sphere.
The document covers various trends in the Belarusian higher education landscape, including political repression against students and academic staff for participating in protests, criticizing the authorities, and other forms of civic engagement, as well as repression against independent educational initiatives. It also examines the ideologization and militarization of higher education, the use of students for political purposes during presidential elections, and the situation of Belarusian students abroad, with a focus on students in Lithuania and Poland.
In 2025, the Belarusian regime continued to use the academic sphere as a space for promoting its narratives and ideological indoctrination. Students were forced to participate in events supporting the cult of personality surrounding A. Lukashenka, as well as meetings with propagandists and representatives of the security services.
Show trials, lectures on “extremism,” and screenings of propaganda films continue to take place within university walls. University administrations invite pro-Russian activists and military propagandists to some of these ideologically charged events.
At the same time, the militarization of academia and pressure on young people planning to study abroad are intensifying. Belarusian authorities are making it more difficult to obtain documents required for admission to foreign universities and continue to maintain strict mechanisms of compulsory job placement for graduates within the country.
Belarusian students abroad also face a variety of challenges. Students in Lithuania are threatened with political persecution following the designation of the European Humanities University as an “extremist organization.” Students in Poland face bureaucratic difficulties due to legislative changes affecting university admissions. Problems related to the impossibility of renewing Belarusian passports — and the resulting need to obtain alternative documents in European countries — also remain unresolved.
At the beginning of the document, readers can find a brief summary, while the final section contains recommendations for foreign organizations, universities, and other institutions.
