This paper presents a comparative analysis of responses to the several and mutually-reinforcing challenges facing European higher education (HE) systems. In a context of ‘polycrisis’, defined by European Commission President Juncker (2016) as involving economic, financial, social, and security challenges across different policy domains, HE responses have been varied, reflecting the peculiarities of national contexts. We focus on two case study examples (Sweden and England) that reveal major shifts in discourses and/or practices in their HE systems. These result, respectively, from the departure of the UK from the European Union and the renewed neoliberalisation of UK academic institutions; and the response of the Swedish state to perceived geopolitical security threats. Both these have generated policies with distinct effects on universities, and on individual academics. In this article we do two things: First, we present a critical analysis of the crisis context across European HE policy, and especially in the two national HE contexts of Sweden and England. Second, we discuss the consequences of these crises for academic identities in universities in the two countries, with a particular focus on academic mobility. Our article contributes to knowledge about the experiences of individual academics who develop careers in often difficult circumstances, and we highlight the need to integrate our understanding of individual experiences and perceptions with knowledge of HE-wide policies and discourses.

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