Neue Leitungsstrukturen an den Hochschulen – Eine Zwischenbilanz

Profound changes have occurred in the relationship between science and politics. Excellence initiative, autonomy of the universities and the deregulation of state supervision have had an effect on the organizational and institutional structures within the whole German academic system. The result is a change in managerial and decision making structures on German universities. At the same time, there is a form of scientification taking place in society as a whole that represents an enormous challenge to the universities. One of the answers to the socialization of science lies in the amendment of internal structure of the universities. On the level in which science radiates into society, there must be protagonists in the fields of business, politics, culture and the media who cause a reverberation on the universities. This process of promulgation is supported by the political realization that the universities must be given more freedom. The external management which has hitherto been in existence is changing more and more into internal control by the organizations. Not everything functions smoothly within these new managerial structures. On the one hand there is an acceleration of the decision making process as well as greater flexibility in financial, personnel, and organizational decisions. On the other hand the incomplete repression of ministerial control shifts to concepts of cost accounting and target agreements based thereon, resulting in detailed management which causes the deregulation strived for to be superimposed by a new form of bureaucracy.