The world has witnessed a democratic decline in 29 countries worldwide during the last decade in the context of rising nationalism and right-wing populism. Political transformations of this scale can reshape the higher education field because governments have legislative power, financial tools, and control over political and economic environments. My research investigates the effect of democratic backsliding on the university autonomy in countries with worsening democratic conditions. This study employs the comparative case study method of Turkey, Hungary, and Poland. The friction between external political pressure and university autonomy offers a unique opportunity to observe how the universities change owing to slow and steady political transformations and represents an essential field for current and future research. This study contributes to the emerging literature of crisis and precarity in higher education by offering interdisciplinary analysis of institutional change and resistance.