Host Alex Usher speaks with Jan-Martin Wiarda, one of Germany’s leading education journalists and bloggers, about the rise of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and what its growing political influence could mean for German higher education.
They discuss the AfD’s origins and political agenda, its views on universities, science and academic freedom, and the reasons for its growing support across Germany. The conversation also explores how the country’s federal system could affect higher education policy, including the ability of state governments to influence universities through funding and the potential for political pressure to lead to institutional self-censorship.
Wiarda also considers how German universities might respond if the AfD gains further power at the state level, and whether the country’s consensus-based higher education system can adapt to a political force that rejects consensus.
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