Although the
ongoing reforms stemming from the ‘Bologna Declaration’ – aimed primarily at
establishing internationally accepted degrees, enhancing the quality of study
courses, and increasing employability – are in the process of doing away with
stark contrasts that have existed between education systems of the European
countries that have adopted it, certain distinctive features of individual
systems are bound to remain in place. The German Federal Government, federal states,
and higher education institutions are, within the ‘Bologna Process’ context,
undertaking the largest higher education reform in decades; there’s a lot to
the German higher education system however, that is time-proven to produce
excellent results and should stay in place.
The German
higher education system is widely regarded as being one of the best in the
world; it is fairly diverse, with a variety of institutions that cover a wide
range of academic profiles and confer different types of degrees.
As a general
rule, German universities are recognized and held in high esteem worldwide –
they perform very well in the international university rankings (usually right
below the most prestigious American and British universities). One reason why
German universities under-perform in rankings, relative to some of their famous
American and British counterparts, may be the fact that some of the most famous
independent research institutes such as ‘Max Planck,’ ‘Leibniz,’ and
‘Fraunhofer,’ which although embedded within university clusters, are seldom if
ever included as integral parts during university rankings.
Competences over Education
In Germany,
it is the 16 individual federal states (Länder) that are given the competences
by the German Constitution and Higher Education Act, to decide on all matters
pertaining to education. Respective higher education laws of individual states
determine the organizational structure and specify the responsibilities of
higher education institutions.
Federal
states also fund the majority of higher education institutions, and therefore
have regulatory control over them. There are however, institutions of higher
education that are not under direct state control: Catholic and Protestant
Church run higher education institutions as well as state-accredited private
institutions (the majority of the latter are the so-called universities of
‘applied sciences’).
The General Division
Institutions
of higher education in Germany are they state (public) or state-accredited, are
generally divided into:
·
Universities;
·
Universities
of ‘Applied Sciences’ (a.k.a. “Fachhochschulen”);
·
Colleges
of Art and Music;
·
Cooperative
State University of Baden-Wuerttemberg (essentially a university of education,
where training is provided for different teaching degrees);
The entire
system in Germany totals nearly 400 higher education institutions, with roughly
120 universities (or their equivalents), 189 Fachhochschulen (including
universities of public administrative sciences), and over 50 art colleges.
The Dual Education
System
An important
guiding principle of the German education system as a whole, and one in
accordance with which individual higher education institutions regulate
activities taking place within them, is the principle of ‘The Unity of Learning
and Research,’ which is at the core of, what is referred to as the “the dual
education system.”
The
combining of the theoretical and practical educations (with a strong emphasis
on apprenticeship), makes German higher education institutions into settings
where teaching and research not only cohabitate, but prop each other up and act
synergistically.
