Introduction: looking back: higher education reform in Germany.
German Policy Studies › Vol. 2 Nbr. 3, July 2002
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Introduction: looking back: higher education reform in Germany.
The history of higher education reform in Germany is rooted in the beginning of the 19th century. The victory earned by Napoleon over the Prussian army in 1806 led to comprehensive restructuring of the institutions of the Prussian State, including far-reaching reforms of the universities. These reforms created the persuasive academic basis for the modern Research University with the construction of the University of Berlin between 1808 and 1810. Wilhelm von Humboldt's contribution has been essential as the main principles underlying "his university", i.e. academic freedom and unity of research and teaching, have served as a model of reference throughout the history of German higher education (Humboldt reprinted in 1968).
The Prussian university system, which became a model type, not only for Germany, relied on the productive tension between the academic and the administrative spheres. Faculty members were controlling academic issues, whereas state bureaucrats were taking care of decisions concerning personnel and budgets. Thus while power within universities was mainly held by full professors, the famous so-called mandarins, a university's autonomy was restricted by administrators, who carefully guarded the entrance to civil service positions when considering new appointments (Katzenstein, 1987, p 298). In Humboldt's conception he had created a system, in which wise ministers nurtured a fiercely independent academic resource, the university, which, in turn, provided even wiser ministers to successive governments. In the Imperial era (1870-1914), the rise of the modern system of specialised and large-scale research and the parallel growth of an expert society which demanded academically trained, but no...See the full content of this document
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