TY - JOUR

T1 - Reforms in German higher education

T2 - Implementing and adapting Anglo-American organizational and management structures at German universities

AU - Liefner, Ingo

AU - Schätzl, Ludwig

AU - Schröder, Thomas

N1 - Funding Information: This paper is based on the findings of an investigation into funding, resource allocation and incentives within higher education systems, carried out by the Department of Economic Geography, University of Hannover, Germany, and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project compared different higher education systems with respect to funding sources and budget allocation methods. The countries included the Anglo-American higher education system (USA, UK), the continental European higher education system (Germany, Switzerland), and the Dutch higher education system, which combines features of both the Anglo-American system and the continental European system. The project examined how funding arrangements and incentives differ between different higher education systems and how they affect teaching and research. Closely tied to this was the question: To what extent the German university system may be modernized by introducing funding mechanisms and incentives that have proven successful in other. Furthermore, a resource allocation model was implemented in 2002, designed to redistribute a part of the departments’ budgets. Funds were allocated out of the so-called research and teaching budget, about 5% of the whole expenditure of the University of Hannover and for about 6% of direct state funding from the state of Lower Saxony.

PY - 2004/3/8

Y1 - 2004/3/8

N2 - Currently, the German higher education system is undergoing drastic reform. Competitive structures and funding mechanisms are being introduced that are already successfully used in other countries. However, critics state that cultural differences prevent the effective application, in German universities, of funding mechanisms and incentives developed elsewhere. The authors analyzed how funding arrangements and incentives vary between different higher education systems; how they affect the work of academics and whether acceptance by academics depends on specific national university cultures. Altogether 171 in-depth interviews were conducted within the US-American, British, Dutch, Swiss, and German higher education systems as part of a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The study shows that the use and acceptance of funding models differs internationally; however, acceptance of competitive elements increases when the knowledge about these mechanisms and their effects is enhanced.

AB - Currently, the German higher education system is undergoing drastic reform. Competitive structures and funding mechanisms are being introduced that are already successfully used in other countries. However, critics state that cultural differences prevent the effective application, in German universities, of funding mechanisms and incentives developed elsewhere. The authors analyzed how funding arrangements and incentives vary between different higher education systems; how they affect the work of academics and whether acceptance by academics depends on specific national university cultures. Altogether 171 in-depth interviews were conducted within the US-American, British, Dutch, Swiss, and German higher education systems as part of a research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The study shows that the use and acceptance of funding models differs internationally; however, acceptance of competitive elements increases when the knowledge about these mechanisms and their effects is enhanced.

KW - Germany

KW - International comparison

KW - Organizational change

KW - Performance-based funding

KW - Resources allocation

KW - Universities

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=11144356841&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300039

DO - 10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300039

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:11144356841

VL - 17

SP - 23

EP - 38

JO - Higher education policy

JF - Higher education policy

SN - 0952-8733

IS - 1

ER -