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A new law on higher education came into effect in North Rhine-Westphalia on 1 April 2000, setting a new direction, based in law, that should and will lay the foundations for a revamping of higher education in this state. Since the 1990s, the critical debates that are part of the general German discussion on higher education have shown a more emphatic turn toward business. This has altered permanently and decisively the traditional notion of the university. The traditional autonomy of the university is reinterpreted to embrace an "orientation to the client and to demand," but it is also reinforced structurally by legislation giving a broader range of action in "pedagogical work, more freedom in matters of financing, administration and staffing, and more cooperation with partners close to ... colleges and universities, as well as more competition among the latter themselves". The quality of research and teaching is situated, as part and parcel of internationalization and globalization, in the context of Europewide and indeed worldwide competition. In this article, the author discusses the opportunities and risks of competition in higher education. [This report was translated by Stephen D. Naron.]

In this article, the author discusses the incentive system in German higher education. He states that the underdeveloped incentive and management mechanisms in German higher education result in mistaken allocations in the higher education system in general and in some individual institutions in particular. He believes that the only way to optimize processes or resource utilization is to adopt more elements of competition in the higher education system, through predominantly positive sanctions of services. In science, incentive systems should be nonmaterial, not just financial, that is, they should operate via improvements in working conditions. Financial inputs concentrate on financing higher education itself and paying employee salaries. Transparent, scientifically sound procedures for allocating funds to higher education can have an incentive effect. The days of watering-can funding or funding on the basis of some incidental, historically evolved "need" are over, henceforth, funding should be governed by universally agreed guidelines oriented to the compass and quality of a university's performance. [This report was translated by Stephen Naron.]

Discusses the difficulties of educational reform in what was formerly East Germany. Describes the educational system in East Germany as uniform and military in nature. Criticizes the one-sidedness of socialist education and its politicalization. Compares classroom atmospheres before and after the Germanies were united. (DK)

Discusses European attempts to standardize academic and vocational qualifications. Expresses concern that the internal market threatens the cultural sovereignty of states. Describes the consequences of teacher mobility for the German education system. Concludes that more openness is necessary for the European Community's educational policymaking to overcome the mistrust of state education ministers. (DK)

Increasingly, faculty members are rewarded financially for prestige-maximizing publications. As a result, the balance between publishing and other activities such as teaching or public service may collapse, as argued by Leisyte, Enders, and de Boer (2009). In our paper, we focus on career-related rewards and study their impact on publication productivity to see whether economic incentives do indeed affect faculty behavior, as measured empirically. We compare economic incentives resulting from two different career systems, namely those within the German and the U.S. university systems. We derive three hypotheses regarding expected publication patterns and test them by comparing the lifetime publication patterns of German and U.S. business and economics faculty members. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure and 28 notes.)

Globalization steers modern society and contributes significantly to the internationalization of higher education. New means of transport and communication expand educational and research opportunities worldwide and higher education is becoming a blossoming global industry. It is also seen as a vital part of national policy and the national economy because in today's fiercely competitive world knowledge adds real value. In this environment, countries face a tough competition to be a magnet for world-class academics and the brightest students. In other words, they must make themselves academically attractive. Therefore this article tries to answer the question of what constitutes a country's "academic attraction." We will conceptualize the phenomenon of academic attraction and identify different measures of capturing it. Finally, the paper will identify the best available indicators to assess academic attraction and apply them to selected European Union countries (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands). (Contains 3 figures, 3 tables, and 11 notes.)

In the early 1990s, the number of Europeans studying in the United States for the first time exceeded the number of Americans studying in Europe (Haug 2000, p. 27). This evolution was regarded as a very serious threat in European capitals. Public authorities in large countries requested their intellectuals to explain to them why European universities were becoming less attractive in the eyes of international students and to suggest corrective measures. Their proposals eventually paved the way for the Bologna process, which came as a defensive response from European countries. The Bologna process then became very successful because it enabled signatory countries not only to strengthen the attractiveness of their universities but also to help resolve strictly national problems that they had not addressed effectively. This paper first presents the national and international stakes for the four signatory countries of the Sorbonne declaration in 1998. It then discusses the effects of the Bologna process on the mobility of international students and the institutional reactions it now arouses in the United States. (Contains 1 table and 17 notes.)

This article presents an analysis of an increasingly political nature of the rationales behind the memberships of the UK and Germany in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This analysis is guided by rational-choice neo-institutionalism and is based on expert interviews with key stakeholders in both countries as well as their relevant official communications. This article serves as an important stepping-stone to the investigation of the link between EHEA memberships and its signatories' external politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, faculty members are rewarded financially for prestige-maximizing publications. As a result, the balance between publishing and other activities such as teaching or public service may collapse, as argued by Leisyte, Enders, and de Boer (2009). In our paper, we focus on career-related rewards and study their impact on publication productivity to see whether economic incentives do indeed affect faculty behavior, as measured empirically. We compare economic incentives resulting from two different career systems, namely those within the German and the U.S. university systems. We derive three hypotheses regarding expected publication patterns and test them by comparing the lifetime publication patterns of German and U.S. business and economics faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global spread of degree courses taught in English as a Medium of Instruction raises questions about the identity or "branding" of English-taught degree programs in non-Anglophone countries and whether they differ from their equivalents in the national languages. To answer this question, we have examined a sample of master's degree programs in the same domain, International Relations, across Italy, France and Germany from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. Our findings suggest that they present a similar branding strategy in line with the standardization process of EU higher education, also reflecting the global trend toward the "entrepreneurial university." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exclusive boarding schools in social environments where the meritocratic norm is prevalent are faced with a tension between parents' desire to give their children a head start in the competition for educational qualifications, social prestige and jobs on the one hand and the powerful social norm of advancement by merit under conditions of "equal opportunity" on the other. This article looks at how two exclusive boarding schools, Eton College in England and Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, deal with this double challenge in presenting themselves to their environment, attempting to preserve social legitimacy while staying attractive to their clientele. The article shows that the ways in which the schools deal with these conflicting demands depends strongly on the differing systems contexts they find themselves in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the close of 2015, roughly 890,000 new refugees had arrived in Germany, more than half fleeing the ongoing Syrian Civil War. While Germany had been accustomed to heavy migration streams since the end of the Second World War, the speed of the refugee influx was unexpected. Federal, state, and municipal governments and German civil society, including educational institutions, were largely unprepared and scrambled to respond. This article critically examines the efforts of three universities in Berlin to address the “refugee crisis,” with additional data from higher education experts at ministries, foundations, and institutes in Berlin and Bonn, Germany. The Campus Crisis Management framework developed by Zdziarski, Dunkel, and Rollo is used to critically investigate their response and its implications for Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the study of German universities. Conditions of the mass university; Crisis in profiling and orientation; Reorientation in 1991; Period of `educational euphoria'; Higher education reform; Objectives of educational policy.

Focuses on changes in Germany's higher education and the teaching of socialist ideas. Prospects for students trained to defend the socialist state; Discussion of changes in East Berlin's Humboldt University and the formation of the Free University in West Berlin.