The German Higher Education System

Although the ongoing reforms stemming from the Bologna Declaration aimed primarily
at establishing internationally accepted degrees, enhancing the quality of study courses, and
increasing employability are in the process of doing away with stark contrasts that have
existed between education systems of the European countries that have adopted it, certain
distinctive features of individual systems are bound to remain in place. The German Federal
Government, federal states, and higher education institutions are, within the Bologna
Process context, undertaking the largest higher education reform in decades; theres a lot
to the German higher education system however, that is time-proven to produce excellent
results and should stay in place.
The German higher education system is widely regarded as being one of the best in the
world; it is fairly diverse, with a variety of institutions that cover a wide range of academic
profiles and confer different types of degrees.
As a general rule, German universities are recognized and held in high esteem worldwide
they perform very well in the international university rankings (usually right below the most
prestigious American and British universities). One reason why German universities under-
perform in rankings, relative to some of their famous American and British counterparts,
may be the fact that some of the most famous independent research institutes such as Max
Planck, Leibniz, and Fraunhofer, which although embedded within university clusters, are
seldom if ever included as integral parts during university rankings.
Competences over Education
In Germany, it is the 16 individual federal states (Lnder) that are given the competences by
the German Constitution and Higher Education Act, to decide on all matters pertaining to
education. Respective higher education laws of individual states determine the
organizational structure and specify the responsibilities of higher education institutions.
Federal states also fund the majority of higher education institutions, and therefore have
regulatory control over them. There are however, institutions of higher education that are
not under direct state control: Catholic and Protestant Church run higher education
institutions as well as state-accredited private institutions (the majority of the latter are the
so-called universities of applied sciences).
The General Division
Institutions of higher education in Germany are they state (public) or state-accredited, are
generally divided into:

Universities;
Universities of Applied Sciences (a.k.a. Fachhochschulen);
Colleges of Art and Music;
Cooperative State University of Baden-Wuerttemberg (essentially a university of
education, where training is provided for different teaching degrees);
The entire system in Germany totals nearly 400 higher education institutions, with roughly
120 universities (or their equivalents), 189 Fachhochschulen (including universities of public
administrative sciences), and over 50 art colleges.
The Dual Education System
An important guiding principle of the German education system as a whole, and one in
accordance with which individual higher education institutions regulate activities taking
place within them, is the principle of The Unity of Learning and Research, which is at the
core of, what is referred to as the the dual education system.
The combining of the theoretical and practical educations (with a strong emphasis on
apprenticeship), makes German higher education institutions into settings where teaching
and research not only cohabitate, but prop each other up and act synergistically.