The Far Right & The Academy: Are universities becoming new hotbeds for far-right radicalisation?

Current scholarship on the far right elucidates its mainstreaming but fails to explain its diversification and expansion of support beyond primarily uneducated voters. It is a common misconception that support for the far right stems exclusively from economically ‘left-behind’, marginalised and uneducated voters. This categorisation disguises the fact that far-right ideas also often resonate with segments belonging to the educated middle-class. Indeed, the ideology of the far right is increasingly embodied and promoted by intellectuals, which has contributed to the legitimation and normalisation of the far right. Some successful far-right parties, including the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) were founded by academics. Similarly, the new Dutch far-right party Forum voor Democratie (FvD) was set up by Thierry Baudet, who holds a PhD in Law from the University of Leiden. At the same time, however, the far right tends to be highly critical of universities and academics. In his victory speech in the wake of the 2019 Dutch regional elections, for instance, Thierry Baudet warned about a supposed ‘left-wing bias’ in higher education and subsequently set up a hotline for reporting ‘indoctrination’ at schools and universities. This is not an isolated case. In other European countries, far-right parties have unleashed frontal attacks on universities and proceeded to develop their own educational policies. Recent years have also seen the emergence of far-right think-tanks, summer schools, educational foundations, publishing houses and journals dedicated to the creation of a ‘counterhegemonic’ intellectual culture. This paper seeks to shed light on the far right’s relationship with higher education. Specifically, by analysing the far-right’s engagement with universities in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the paper asks why far-right ideas increasingly resonate with segments of the educated middle-class. As the rise of the far right is considered a phenomenon in need of an educational solution, it is crucial to gain insight into this development.