REFORMING HIGHER EDUCATION IN WEST GERMANY (1960–1980s): LEGAL PRINCIPLES, IMPLEMENTATION, RESULTS

Abstract

The article presents the results of the analysis of the legal, political, and financial principles, results, and shortcomings of the reforming of higher education in Germany during the 1960s–1980s. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientificity, authorial objectivity, verification, and systematicity, as well as on general scientific (analysis, synthesis, classification) and special historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic) methods. The study found that German governments in the 1960s–1980s implemented reforms of higher education in Germany in light of the needs of economic development, the implementation of scientific and technological progress, and socially oriented policies. The need for reforms was also substantiated by leading German intellectuals, in particular Georg Picht, calling for overcoming the «educational catastrophe». In 1969, amendments were made to the Basic Law of Germany, which gave the federal government the right to introduce framework legislative rules in the field of higher education. In the same year, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research was established. It was at this time that a new type of higher education institution was launched – universities of applied sciences. Three regulatory legal acts were key in the reform of higher education in Germany: 1) the law on the «Expansion and New Construction of Scientific Universities» (1969), which provided for state (federal and state) financing of the construction of new and modernization of existing universities; 2) the law on the promotion of education (1971), which established a system of grants for obtaining higher education for students from poor families; 3) the framework law on higher education (1976), which determined the structure of universities, their tasks and responsibilities, management, financing, etc. The results of the reforms were: a) the expansion of the network of higher education institutions: by the mid-1980s, 38 new universities were opened in Germany along with 27 existing ones; b) an increase in the number of students in Germany; c) the involvement of most university and college graduates in the labor market, which contributed to economic growth; d) an increase in the number of university laboratories and scientific research; e) increase in the number of young scientists, teaching staff. Among the shortcomings of the reform were: excessive bureaucratization of higher education; significant state influence on universities, and therefore a certain limitation of their autonomy; politicization of intra-university life; reduction of university funding and social support for students in the 1980s.