Higher Education Institutions : Germany

The Federal Republic’s oldest higher education institution, the University of Heidelberg, was founded in 1386. Several other universities have had 500-year jubilees, including Leipzig (founded in 1409) and Rostock (founded in 1419). But alongside these venerable institutions there are very young universities, more than 20 of which have been founded since 1960.

In the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th, the educational ideal of German universities was the one pursued by Wilhelm von Humboldt at the Berlin University founded in 1810. The Humboldt type of university was conceived for a relatively small number of students. It was to be a place of pure science where research was done for research’s sake and students were not taught primarily with a view to their future professions.

This ideal clashed increasingly with the requirements of a modern industrial society. Alongside the traditional universities there emerged technical universities, colleges of education and Fachhochschulen, the latter especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Education policy also changed. The demand for the best possible educational opportunities for all young people found general recognition.

Whereas in 1960 only eight percent of each age group took up academic studies, nowadays nearly one in three seeks a place at a higher education institution. The number of students in the Federal Republic of Germany dropped slightly to about 1.83 million in the 1996/97 winter semester. In the year 1996, more than 222,000 students began a course of study; this number represented a slight increase over the figure for the previous year and thus a reversal of the downward trend of the past several years.

The state tried to meet the growth in demand that began in the 1960s by expanding existing higher education institutions and building new ones, as well as by increasing teaching staff and funding for higher education. New courses of study were focused more on professional requirements. Expansion could not keep pace with the growth of the student community, however, so the situation has deteriorated in recent years. Moreover, the average length of time students spend at a higher education institution in Germany is too long. The federal and state governments are therefore working on a structural reform program to improve the efficiency of higher education. In addition to their function of imparting knowledge, the higher education institutions are the bedrock of research in the Federal Republic. Through their work in the area of basic research they help to maintain the high standards and productivity of Germany’s research sector.