This paper takes interest in the relationship between the politics of HE access pertaining to longstanding practices of patrimonial authoritarian politics and between the narration of collective trauma. Building on an empirical study of Syrian HE during war, we suggest that a narrative disjuncture within HEIs has a damaging impact not only upon the educational process, HE reconstruction and reform but also upon the very possibility of social reconciliation. This is especially true when access to education and post-graduation opportunities are directly linked with patrimonial favouritism; widespread social inequalities in access and retention; a violent turn in the purging of oppositional academics; a severely exacerbated brain drain linked to political views; and significantly sparser employment opportunities. Building on the study findings we show how these challenges are linked to ethico-political positioning vis-à-vis the mass movement of 2011 and related cultural trauma narratives. In closing we suggest that understanding the relationship between HE access and cultural trauma, and the mechanisms of power and narrative reproduction resultant from the politicisation of HE access in such contexts, can inform decision-making on HE reconstruction and future reform, as well as further research on HE under dictatorship and conflict, in important ways.