Witten Behind Me – Westminster Ahead
UW/H graduate Paulina Unfried looks back on her political experience in the German Bundestag and is now starting a Master's in Public Policy at King's College London.
A failed coalition government, new elections in Germany, Trump's re-election as President of the United States - what has happened in the past ten months reads like a political thriller. As a public relations officer for the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, UW/H graduate Paulina Unfried has been following these politically turbulent times closely. "It was really cool for me to experience political Berlin straight after my bachelor's degree," she says. She studied PPÖ - Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Witten/Herdecke University. In the Bundestag, she applied her knowledge in practice, familiarised herself with processes and took a look behind the scenes. In addition to current events, her job was ideally linked to her final thesis, in which she dealt with the climate dictatorship and the question of how the climate transformation can succeed.
Now it's time for the next step: out of the Bundestag and into a Master's programme at King's College London. After her Bachelor's degree, the path into politics was just right for Paulina. "But now I really want to study again. I want to get what I still need in terms of content in the Master's programme."
"The university encouraged me to think big."
It wasn't clear from the outset that a Master's degree would follow her Bachelor's degree - but the 26-year-old wanted to keep the option open. So she looked around early on and exchanged ideas with fellow students. "What I loved about studying in Witten was that I was surrounded by people who had dreams and who also allowed themselves to dream. That's not a given and it encouraged me to think big. I don't think I would have ever thought of doing a Master's in London otherwise. But I started thinking about it early on and considered how I could manage what I needed."
The application phase began in October 2024 and Paulina applied to several universities abroad, including the London School of Economics and Politics (LSE) and Lund University. Acceptances came from all of them. In the end, she opted for the one-year Master's in Public Policy at King's College because it includes two specialisations that perfectly combine Paulina's interests: Climate and media policy. These are topics that she had already studied during her degree at UW/H and that she can now deepen her knowledge of.
From Pottpost to Congress for Family Businesses
Paulina came to Witten for her Bachelor's degree because she is "a very political person". For her, being political means striving for justice, searching for truth and getting as close to reality as possible. It means remaining curious, asking questions, pursuing issues without being biased. "I chose PPÖ because I had the feeling that it brings together exactly what I need and want to do."
This feeling was confirmed during her time at university. In addition to the subject content, it was all about volunteering, working in student initiatives and her own projects. Paulina founded a newspaper, the Pottpost, an independent medium for students. "At some point, we were invited to the Executive Board to present our newspaper and talk about it. Of course, that was the ultimate success for us. Some of our texts were very critical of the university, but they were accepted quite openly. That was great, of course."
The year in which she and four fellow students organised the Witten Congress for Family Businesses, one of the largest events of its kind in Europe, was also formative for her. "I had the feeling that I was being given more and more responsibility and there were lots of incentives to get involved. That strengthens your own self-confidence. I didn't leave university with the feeling that I couldn't do anything and had 'only' studied - I went out and was totally ready to go to the Bundestag and do a good job. I got a lot more out of it than simply working towards a 1.0 and starting my Master's straight afterwards."
She also feels more willing to take a risk: "Just deciding in favour of Witten was a small risk, because I am financing my studies with an Income Share Agreement (ISA) and am only paying my tuition fees now, after my studies. But I always thought: now I've taken this risk, I want to take everything with me, utilise everything."
Taking trust with you and passing it on
For Paulina, taking everything on board also meant making the degree programme her own. It was never about simply absorbing prepared content, but about working things out for yourself, demanding them, setting your own focus and bringing it to bear. Asking yourself questions - and developing new ones. For Paulina, the best moments were when fellow students, professors or other people at the university put their trust in her and believed in her. Paulina: "That happens very, very often in Witten. I think that's exactly what young people need, it unlocks a whole new level of potential. I surpassed myself during my studies and the university believed in us - even when it came to things we didn't know we could do ourselves. I take this confidence with me and carry it forward."
She is excited about her time in London, looking forward to starting afresh and not yet knowing what will happen. She knows this feeling not only from her internship at ZEIT in Hamburg, but also from her semester abroad, which she spent at a partner university of UW/H in Seoul, South Korea, during her Bachelor's degree programme. "I'm keen to immerse myself really deeply in the topics and discover a new city." She can imagine working in the Bundestag again after her Master's degree. Or helping to shape politics at another level, for example in the EU. She could also consider a career in journalism. Paulina is grateful that she doesn't have to commit herself yet and can see what awaits her next.