Resistance to Change or No Need for Change? The Survival of German Higher Education in the 1990s

Abstract

1.5 million students, representing 21.5% of the 19 to 26 year old age-group (1989) (Statistisches Bundesamt, 1990); 243 institutions, 68 of which are universities, and 122 are the more vocational and less research-oriented so-called Fachhochschulen (residuum: arts colleges, teacher training colleges, theological colleges) (BBW, 1989, p. 146); 11 states (Lander) in the Federal Republic of Germany, financing and governing higher education within their respective borders; the federal government, with the Federal Minister of Education and Science, financing 50% of the investments in higher education, being responsible for student aid, having framework competencies in German higher education; the Science Council (Wissenschaftstrat), an advisory 'buffer body' in German higher education, consisting of both state and higher education members, delivering recommendations on the most pressing problems in German higher education; the Conference of Rectors and Presidents ( Westdeutsche Rektorenkonferenz: WRK), representing the common concerns of German higher education institutions to the public, the politicians and the governments. Apart from these actors and figures there is another frame of reference to be taken into account when talking of German higher education: the attempt to interpret the traditions and the heritage of German higher education: (i) German higher education is publicly financed within a federal system. It is free