Springer Governance and Performance in the German Public Research Sector: Disciplinary Differences: 32 (Higher Education Dynamics, 32)

This book outlines evidence of the effects of ‘new public management reforms’ in the German university and public research sector, covering interplay between levels of governance from the research group through the organization to the state and national level. Review The Governance of universities and the effects of new public management are important topics that have given rise to a rich body of work. This book has two unique features. It mobilises the German situation to show how productive the notion of “governance pattern” can be to account for the architecture of the various external and internal, old and new governance mechanisms at play. This enables to focus on the central argument of the book, that is “the evidence of huge differences among disciplinary fields with respect to their conditions and requirements for knowledge production”. The book takes different disciplines to study how these are affected differently by ‘on size fits all’ institutional changes. They initiate a rich path both for science policy studies and for university-focused organisational research. Philippe Laredo Université Paris-Est and University of Manchester This well-timed, informative and interesting book enriches the current discussions on the governance of research in and out of Germany. It belongs into the hands of those who are in positions of responsibility in universities, research institutions and research policy. The book does not mark the end of the discussions but shows the state of the art of the governance research in Germany in an encouraging way. Moreover, it marks an important reference point for how to continue this discussion also internationally. Reinhard Grunwald Former Secretary General of the German Research Foundation Executive Managing Director of the Center for Science & Research Management From the Back Cover Today, higher education and research institutions are confronted with variable and sometimes contradictory demands from state, industry and society. They have to face growing volatility in education policy, and a research paradigm that sees an accelerating rate of knowledge growth as well as the internationalization of the knowledge process itself. It is vital that academics and policymakers stay abreast of the impact that policy changes have on education and research in tertiary institutions. Based on a sector-specific theory model for the governance of research organizations, this book outlines evidence of the effects of the so-called ‘new public management reforms’ in the German university and public research sector. The volume aims to shed some light on the differences between the disciplines in input, throughput, profiles of output and the typical conditions of knowledge production, disparities that are currently little understood and are thus not reflected in government policy as ministers implement new governance forms in the research system. It analyzes in detail these new forms, and demonstrates how they affect knowledge production and research performance from the level of research group up to that of the system itself. The authors focus on a set of disciplines that represent the breadth of research divisions in major universities: natural science fields oriented to basic research (astrophysics), two application-oriented fields from the natural sciences (nanoscience and biotechnology), a social science field (economics) and a humanity field (medieval history).