State Interventionism and Institutional Autonomy: university development and state interference in England and West Germany

Abstract

This article is concerned with recent developments in the university systems in Britain and West Germany. In particular it attempts to analyse how financial restrictions and conservative policies have affected the quality and the functioning of the two systems and how the institutional dependency on the state has increased or is being enlarged through changes in the politics of higher education. The article reviews the recent history of the two systems of higher education, describes their structural and functional transformation and gives an account of the present organisational and political problems facing them. With regard to Britain, it concludes that the radical process of personnel reduction, imposed by the government, seriously endangers fundamental functions of the universities. In Germany, on the other hand, the civil service status of the professors seems to offer a better protection against state intervention than tenure in Britain.