Devisch: Wrong Moment for UGent Cofnas Remarks
A prominent Ghent University (UGent) professor has criticized the timing of a graduation-ceremony speech that reopened the university’s deeply divisive dispute over suspended researcher Nathan Cofnas, arguing that a festive proclamation was the wrong venue for a polarizing debate even if the underlying questions about academic freedom are legitimate.
Ignaas Devisch, professor of philosophy and ethics at UGent, told VRT NWS that he was saddened to see the opening of the academic year overshadowed once again by the Cofnas affair. “It’s not even about the content, but about the timing. There are other moments,” he said in an interview with Radio 1’s De Ochtend.
What Happened
During the proclamation ceremony of UGent’s Faculty of Arts and Philosophy on 16 September, emeritus professor and former vice-rector Freddy Mortier delivered a speech defending the principle of academic freedom in relation to Cofnas. Dozens of students, along with some professors and guests, walked out in protest and loud jeering was heard, according to VRT NWS.
Mortier argued that the claim of genetic differences in intelligence between population groups, while in his view probably false, remains a “conceivable and meaningful hypothesis within a scientific debate” that “must be able to be investigated.” He stressed that his remarks concerned principle rather than support for Cofnas: “I have no sympathy for that man. It’s about the principle.”
After the walkout, Dean Gita Deneckere apologized to students, drawing loud applause. “There are limits to tolerance, but also to what is said at a ceremony like this,” she said, calling it “completely inappropriate” to use a proclamation to take a position on the matter. Mortier left the hall and did not return; the ceremony resumed afterward.
Devisch Separates Content From Timing
Devisch’s intervention is notable for drawing a sharp line between the substance of the debate and the setting in which it was raised. He compared Mortier’s choice to airing relationship problems at a wedding.
“It’s a celebration for the efforts of students who have graduated and are heading out into the wider world. Always a very beautiful moment,” Devisch said. “And then I don’t think you should raise something like this, because we have all already seen and heard how sensitive it is.”
Had Mortier made the same arguments at a debate evening rather than a graduation ceremony, Devisch said he would have had no problem with it. “A university should be a free space where propositions go back and forth and where arguments are supplied, and where science ultimately rises to the surface when we find evidence for a particular proposition,” he said.
On Academic Freedom and Responsibility
On the substance, Devisch said the Cofnas case raises interesting and legitimate questions about academic freedom and where its limits lie. But he distinguished that freedom from mere freedom of expression.
“Academic freedom comes with a certain responsibility,” he said, pointing to judges and journalists who cannot claim just anything in the exercise of their profession. “If you hold a particular profession, you cannot go around asserting just anything, because that profession demands that you do it in a particular way.”
He acknowledged there are grey zones between science and pseudoscience, but argued these can only be clarified through professional responsibility.
Defending the Students
Devisch also pushed back sharply against Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir, who described the students’ walkout as “rude, cowardly and dumb” (“onbeschoft, laf en dom”) in a social-media post, as HLN reported. Demir — an N-VA minister — urged students to engage with uncomfortable ideas, recalling her own youth and saying she learned to listen to the reasoning behind such arguments rather than avoid them.
Devisch called Demir’s characterization “a very heavy insult to the students.” He argued that students had no other means at that moment of registering resistance than to make some noise or leave the room.
“We should actually be glad that they show resistance,” he said. “There is so often complaining that they lack resilience. Then they show it, and they get an extra reprimand on top of it.”
He added that universities should enable students to build a worldview and be confronted with ideas, and that “students may well offer some resistance to what we tell them.” He also disputed Mortier’s suggestion that he had been “cancelled.” “But nobody has been cancelled here,” Devisch said. “Someone took the floor and there was a reaction to it. I don’t think that’s a problem at all.”
Acknowledgment From Mortier
Mortier has since acknowledged that he may have misjudged the timing, telling the newspaper De Morgen that he “underestimated how sensitive it is” and that “had I known, I would never have started about it.” Devisch welcomed that reflection, saying he was glad Mortier recognized the choice may have been a poor one.
A Flashpoint in a Wider Debate
The incident is the latest flashpoint in a dispute that has gripped UGent since Cofnas, an American philosopher who describes himself as a “race realist,” was hired as a postdoctoral researcher in March 2026. VRT NWS reported that Cofnas argues there are biologically grounded differences in intelligence between population groups — a view that many experts label pseudoscience, noting broad scientific consensus that IQ gaps are explained by environmental factors such as socioeconomic status, education, nutrition and healthcare.
UGent placed Cofnas on preventive suspension in August 2026 after his recent statements about Jason Arday, a Cambridge professor whom Cofnas had accused of plagiarism and who resigned and was later found dead. Cofnas is now subject to a disciplinary investigation and an order barring him from campus and teaching, with research restricted to his appointed project.
The case has drawn unusual international attention. A US ambassador has weighed in, hundreds of academics have signed an open letter defending Cofnas’s academic freedom, and the university’s own Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences formally opposed the appointment. Supporters frame the disciplinary action as a threat to free inquiry; critics argue Cofnas’s statements cross ethical and legal lines.
What’s Next
Devisch said the renewed controversy cuts deep. “It cuts into everything I try to stand for,” he said. “I really hope this is the last time we have to have a conversation about this, and that we can move on to positive matters again.”
With Cofnas’s disciplinary case still unresolved and the political temperature around the affair high — pitting Education Minister Demir against UGent rector Petra De Sutter — further friction appears likely. For now, Devisch’s intervention adds a prominent, measured voice arguing that the fight over academic freedom, however important, belongs somewhere other than a graduation stage.