The Future of universities-academic freedom – autonomy and competition revisited

GK Challenges, Chapters and other contributions, Financial Resources

Over the last 50 years, universities and tertiary education have experienced a remarkable, unprecedented expansion. Europe, the continent with the oldest universities, provides a case in point: Before- World War II, only around 150,000 students were enrolled altogether in the U.K., France and Germany (Hobsbawm, 2013, p. 2). Nowadays, the …

Research Intensive Universities in a Globalized World

GK Chapters and other contributions, Missions & Responsibilities, Research & Innovation

As president of a German university and chairman of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), it is my special interest to discuss the role of research intensive universities and their impact on global sustainability from a European point of view. One may wonder why the perspectives of European universities …

The German Excellence Initiative: Changes, Challenges and Chances

GK Challenges, Chapters and other contributions, Governance and leadership, Missions & Responsibilities

For more than 200 years, the German university system has followed the ideas of Wilhelm von  Humboldt — the unity of research and teaching, the freedom of teaching being the most important of Humboldt’s principles. These ideas have been followed until today, even though the external conditions that universities have …