[RAM2026] “Should I stay or should I go?” Debate on leaving the Academia

Is academia in need of major revisions—or are things generally fine, with only a few minor corrections required? In this public debate, we subject our dear institution for the pursuit of truth and intellectual progress to some intensive peer review. Do we still have the freedom, time, and creative atmosphere to ask the big questions? Or are we becoming manufactured, degree-wielding pawns in a sociopolitically entangled, red-tape-bandaged mummy of the Enlightenment? And amid the pressures of academic life—the career bottlenecks, precarity, publishing demands, administration, and constant competition—is any of it still worth it? Join us as we debate academia as both a workplace and a culture, from the mundane frustrations of everyday academic life to the fundamental question of what universities are for.

This debate is hosted by OIST’s Debate Club and will feature two teams, one arguing in favour of the motion and one arguing against. A moderator will guide the discussion. After both sides introduce their main arguments, there will be a short back-and-forth between the teams, followed by an open floor for audience questions and engagement.