HIGHER EDUCATION FACING POLITICAL CHALLENGES? THE IMPACT OF POPULIST POLICES ON HIGHER EDUCATION

This qualitative study, based on the literature in the fields of education and political science, explores why and how the recent political change taking place in the European context, may affect the European education policy with specific focus on higher education. In more detail, this paper tries to study possible future implications of the increased political power of right-wing populism on higher education in the European Union. Concern for such political change is relevant because political and educational institutions have always been closely related and depend on each other. National governments have throughout times supported the existence of institutions of higher education and guided the development of education policies, while institutions of higher education, have traditionally provided highly educated work force to meet the social and cultural as well as economic and technological needs essential for the development of societies. Such close relationship and support may be challenged due to the increasing right-wing populist influence in Europe. Extant research on populism indicates that right-wing populists oppose state institutions including academia and higher education because such institutions constitute the elite, the adversary, who in accordance with populist thinking, is to be opposed and fought against. Given this, the main assumption of this paper is that right-wing populism may constitute a threat for the future development of the European higher education. To explore whether such assumption is justifiable, this paper analyzes the education policy of the European Union with particular focus on European higher education from the perspective of right-wing populism. The results indicate that the increased political power of European right-wing populism may constitute serious threat not only for the development of European higher education but also for the European Union because if right-wing populist parties fight against, contest and strongly oppose higher education, provision of highly educated experts, knowledge workers, and researchers will be jeopardized giving rise to serious implications for the creation of knowledge and innovation, the prerequisites for the future development of the European Union.