Abstract

What happens when a highly regulated educational system - one featuring academic freedom, a national outlook and an input-oriented state-run bureaucracy - attempts to internationalize and introduce management structures that are outcome-oriented, deregulated, and more efficient? The question is relevant in many countries where universities are trying to get out from under the state, and it is critically important in the formerly Communist systems as well as in countries where Prussian traditions have influenced the university model. In the case of Germany, examined in this article, it has long been admitted that change is needed. There is no shortage of exhortation to achieve it, both within and outside government. Yet the German model is an immensely influential one, both in Europe and the United States. Accordingly, a change in German higher education would represent a significant reconfiguration in the academic world. My purpose in this article is to explore the measures currently being taken to modernize and create a market within German universities, and to evaluate the success of these measures. The following questions are addressed:• How are marketizing trends being manifested in governance and law, management, finance, quality assurance, and human resource management? • What are the obstacles to marketizing trends? • How are these trends influencing the model of the German state in its post-war incarnation?