How do evaluators of higher education go about their work? How are groups of evaluators put together? How do they reach consensus on the criteria of quality in the discipline or degree programme under examination? What problems do evaluators encounter and how do they resolve them? Susan Harris-Huemmert investigates these questions in this detailed case study of an evaluation commission that inspected education departments in the German state of Baden-Württemberg (universities and teacher-training colleges) during 2003/2004. This work takes up not only topics germane to evaluators of higher education, but also illustrates the politics and contextual issues surrounding the discipline of education in Germany during the first decade of the 21st century.

This book brings together the work of established researcher Professor David Phillips, in one authoritative volume. Including key chapters on education in Germany from the last three decades, topics range from historical studies of universities and schools, to detailed research on the role of the British in reconstructing education in Germany after 1945, and education in post-unification Germany. Together, the body of work draws from a multitude of primary sources and constitutes a comprehensive analysis of educational provision in Germany over a long historical period. In addition to 16 chapters spanning Phillips’ research from 1981 to 2012, the book includes a new introduction, bringing his ideas together and demonstrating their continuing relevance to the field. Investigating Education in Germany will be invaluable reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of international and comparative education, German studies, history of education and sociology.

Otto Hüther and Georg Krücken analyze the developments of the last 20 years in their new book on German higher education. The foreign observer of German higher education, even the informed foreign observer, struggles to find denominators, not to mention common denominators of a bewildering array of approaches. Otto Hüther and Georg Krücken, in this book, do an absolutely splendid job of offering theoretical perspectives, qualitative and quantitative data, and comparative assessments This book discusses the main higher education structures in Germany, both conceptually and with a particular emphasis on recent developments like, e.g., the growth and differentiation of the system, governance reforms, and the Excellence Initiative. It analyses recent developments from an international perspective, as the German system is clearly embedded in broader, transnational trends. As such, the book provides a comprehensive and detailed account of both new dynamics and stable paths in the German higher education system. This book will be of interest to scholars and students dealing with higher education or Germany as an object of study (e.g. in education research, science studies, organization studies, sociology, psychology, political science), and to higher education managers, leaders, and policymakers who are interested in recent trends in German higher education