EAIR – The European Higher Education Society is an international association for higher education researchers, practitioners, students, managers and policymakers in higher education. This volume, part of the EAIR book series, features papers from the EAIR Forum 2025 at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. An open society is necessary for universities to collaborate internationally, to contribute to solving global challenges and to facilitate a fair and equal access to knowledge. However, openness cannot any longer be taken for granted in the changing political and global context. This book explores the role of higher education in maintaining an open society, covering key areas such as governance, teaching and learning, research policy, quality assurance, internationalisation, and digitalisation. Contributors are: Limor Aharonson-Daniel, Tatiana Akuneeva, Dorit Alt, Egor Burda, Maria Teresa Geraldo Carvalho, Janny Chan, Angela Dalrymple, Ilaria Falvo, Julie Hughes, Jenni Jones, Sumasri Kallakuri, Adeline Koh, Jean-Yves Le Corre, Ana I. Melo, Matt O’Leary, Monika Orechova, Katie Power, Verena Régent, Jorge A. Ribeiro-Pereira, Christoph Rosenbusch, Elisabeth Suzen, Jasmine Tan, Li Li Tan, Svitlana Tarasenko, Teresa Tee, Hedwig Unger, Anna Vorontsova, Mark Wan, Victoria Wright and Joe Yang .