Globalization, Competition and the Transformation of German Universities since the 1970s

Abstract

Abstract Responding to the perceived challenges of globalization, German politicians have sought to transform German universities into competitive ‘entrepreneurial universities’. Based on archival material from six German universities, this article shows how reforms of university governance and new modes of funding have changed power relations within universities as well as within the German scientific community. Even though the breakthrough of ‘New Public Management’ must be situated in the 1990s, some causes of these transformations can be traced back to the 1970s, when the end of the postwar boom, educational expansion and discontent with the democratization of universities gave rise to new visions of the university’s role in society. Even though neoliberal ideas did play a part in the transformation of German universities, this process was more complex than the often-used label ‘neoliberal university’ suggests. International comparisons are applied to assess the scope of change and to highlight some of the peculiarities of the German developments.