Interim balance 1994 – today
Despite Witten/Herdecke University’s successful role as a pioneer in what had become a diverse landscape of private schools, Reinhard Mohn came to realize that Germany’s higher education system could only be reformed in close cooperation with its public colleges and universities. This realization was preceded by an intensive dialogue with the Executive Board of the German Rectors’ Conference under the leadership of Hans-Uwe Erichsen. To achieve their shared goal, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Foundation of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Foundation of the German Rectors’ Conference established the nonprofit CHE Centre for Higher Education in 1994.
The original concept behind CHE was of the “university unbound” – an institution that is autonomous, scholarly, recognized, competitive, efficient, international and capable of realizing its full potential. Since then, CHE has been committed to creating a higher education system that is effective and fair. It develops practical solutions for the challenges that universities and researchers face – which include social change, in that most secondary students in Germany now go on to study at a college or university. It supports higher education institutions in using and further defining their autonomy, developing and realizing various areas of specialization, and assuming social responsibility. As a nonprofit organization, CHE provides a wide range of freely accessible information and services for students, along with recommended action plans for universities and strategies for policy makers. In addition, it offers numerous training courses for decision makers and executives at higher education institutions.
As a neutral organization in the higher education system, CHE decides for itself which areas its work will focus on. Transparency plays a key role here, since all the relevant information must be freely available if comparisons are to be drawn between educational institutions. This has been the point of departure for a wide range of projects, such as the CHE University Ranking, the Teacher Training Monitor and the CHE Student Loan Test. A key aspect of all these services is that the data do not remain unchanged, but must be collected again each year, an undertaking that requires considerable time and effort.
The goal of each project is to develop practical solutions and analyses. This is just as true for CHE’s events and coaching services for institutions in Germany and abroad as it is for the studies CHE publishes, which always include concrete recommendations for taking action.
Between 2008 and 2017 alone, more than 6,000 people attended CHE’s training courses and events. Five years ago, a leadership training course was introduced for vice-presidents at higher education institutions. Of the past participants, seven women have now been appointed to serve as a university president or rector, the highest positions at higher education institutions in Germany.
At the beginning of the 1990s, only one-third of young adults in Germany were eligible to go to university; now more than half are. Academic education is booming. As of 2018, colleges and universities in Germany offered more than 19,000 programs for first-time students and individuals already holding a degree. Yet not only are there more students, they are also becoming more diverse.
Germany’s higher education institutions are now much more autonomous. Almost all the country’s states have given them the freedom to spend their allotted budgets as they see fit; they can also decide for themselves how to deploy personnel and how to structure themselves organizationally. They can develop their own strategies and determine the goals they want to pursue. Not only have students become more diverse, the universities themselves have developed individual strengths and specializations. Moreover, the entire system of higher education has grown: More than half of all college and university campuses have been established since 1991. That means tertiary education is available almost everywhere in the country.
With that, studying at college or university has become a standard educational option in Germany. Higher education administrators and the country’s policy makers must put a framework in place which increases the chances that the time students spend at university will be a success. CHE offers the ideas and solutions that can help achieve this goal. It also offers the transparency and information prospective students need to find the college or university that is right for them.
Prospective students can only make informed decisions if the information they use to compare institutions is based on current data. The CHE team assembles the data for the rankings year-round using a system developed over decades.
The CHE ranking team has made a comprehensive methodology wiki available documenting the process it uses. The system of calculations and rankings is clearly presented in layman’s terms. The members of the ranking team discuss their methodology at international conferences on an ongoing basis. In 2014, the CHE University Ranking was deemed “IREG approved” by the International Ranking Expert Group. The group uses its quality seal to recognize university rankings whose transparency, methodology and reliability meet the highest standards.
The ranking is always being improved; the process is never complete and reflects the ongoing evolution of the higher education system. External advisory bodies meet at regular intervals to discuss the current process, provide valuable ideas and suggestions, and protect the ranking from operational blind spots.
The CHE ranking team takes a constructive approach to criticism and works closely with professional organizations and higher education institutions as it calculates and finalizes the rankings. This open dialogue has proven effective: Germany’s political-science associations and theSociety of German Chemists have now officially ended their temporary moratorium on participating in the ranking.
The CHE ranking offers assistance to students looking for the right college or university. It does not, however, provide simplified “Top 10” lists, but takes a more multifaceted approach instead. This makes it possible to accurately portray the different nature of each educational institution and to meet students’ highly diverse needs. For years, the CHE ranking has been an integral part of the ZEIT Students’ Guide which, with an annual print run of 100,000, helps prospective students decide what to study and where.
For 10 years, the German Academic Exchange Service has been translating the ranking results into English in order to help foreign students choose the right institution of higher education.
Vocational and academic education are equally important, and they often open doors to comparable career opportunities. Our goal is to achieve a sustainable balance between vocational and academic education. All this is only possible if everyone works together constructively – federal and state authorities, policy makers and academics, schools, universities and businesses. CHE is making a valuable contribution here, one that has become indispensable for the shaping and development of our system of higher education and research. It sheds light on current needs, identifies weaknesses, highlights possibilities for successful development processes. Through numerous studies and skillful communication and advisory services, CHE has been introducing innovations into our system of higher education and research for over 20 years.
