Higher education leaders in Germany are voicing alarm after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) secured a strong result in the Saxony-Anhalt state election. The party finished first with 44.5% of the vote, falling just short of an absolute majority. Although the AfD faces challenges in forming a coalition, the outcome has prompted urgent appeals to protect academic freedom and institutional autonomy within the state’s universities.
Immediately following the vote, Walter Rosenthal and Folker Roland, the presidents of the German Rectors’ Conference and the State Rectors’ Conference, released a joint statement. They emphasized that academic freedom and the autonomy of institutions must not be compromised by political disputes. The statement also highlighted the need to ensure that international students and researchers feel welcome and protected against discrimination in the future.
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) expressed deep concern over the election results. Joybrato Mukherjee, the president of DAAD, pointed out that the region’s universities are attractive destinations for students and researchers from around the world. He argued that the universities must be allowed to maintain their independent status and open-minded approach, warning that the future state government must support these institutions to maintain their role as drivers of innovation and scientific progress.
The Centre for Higher Education (CHE), a think-tank that supports the HRK and the Bertelsmann Foundation, conducted a scenario-based impact assessment of the AfD’s proposed education policies. The report, titled “CHECK – AfD-geprägte Hochschulpolitik in Sachsen-Anhalt – Zurück zur ‘Herrlichkeit der alten deutschen Ordinarienuniversität’,” warns that the AfD seeks a fundamental restructuring of higher education. The analysis indicates a desire to return to a traditional model where power rests solely with chaired professors, removing influence from student councils and non-academic staff.
Beyond governance, the CHE report details the AfD’s rejection of current academic disciplines. The party argues that certain subjects, including gender studies, postcolonial approaches, and parts of sociology, lack scientific validity. It labels these fields as shaped by “a left-liberal to extreme-left hegemony” and claims they turn science into a “whore of politics.” The AfD also advocates for terminating funding for gender studies and replacing areas like Islamic studies with “critical Islamic research.”
Return to traditional degree structures
The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt also seeks to do away with the bachelor and masters degree structures aligned in Europe in the course of the Bologna Reforms. It calls for a return to traditional German degrees like the Diplom and Magister degrees, referring to the Bologna process as a whole as “madness” because, in its view, the process has led to a BA and MA “system which is organised along school lines”, more and more red tape, falling standards and a loss of academic freedom.
The Diplom (for science) and Magister (for humanities and social sciences) were degrees taken over a minimum of four or five years as the first degree but being roughly equivalent in level to today’s masters degree. In contrast, the Bologna system involves a two-tier system taking an undergraduate degree plus a masters degree. According to the AfD, returning to the Diplom and Magister degrees could be performed throughout Germany and thus contribute to restoring what it views as the uniqueness of German higher education. The party maintains that today, European accreditation is one of the factors restricting institutional autonomy.
Call for a democratic government
Matthias Anbuhl, board chairman of the Deutsches Studierendenwerk (DSW), declares that the state of Saxony-Anhalt needs a democratic government which stands up for independent legal authorities, free media, academic freedom and the protection of minorities. The DSW student services centres provide for all students irrespective of their nationality, social status or political, religious or sexual identity, Anbuhl notes.
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