News 19.12.2007
Boom in the number of first year students in Germany: New study by the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development foresees great demand beyond 2020
With its latest study "Die Zukunft vor den Toren" („The Future in Sight“), CHE Consult presents an updated calculation for growth in the number of first year students up until 2020. According to the study, the number of German first year students will markedly increase, reach a high point in 2013 and will remain at a high level beyond 2020

News 09.11.2007
How to manage quality
All European higher education institutions (HEIs) are faced with the question of whether and how research and teaching quality can be managed sustainably. Possible answers were discussed by a panel of the European Forum of Quality Assurance that took place in Rome from the 15th to the 17th of November and was organised by the CHE (Centre for Higher Education Development) in cooperation with the Bavarian State Institute for Higher Education Research and Planning (IHF)

News 24.10.2007
Benchmarking in European Higher Education
First gathering of university leaders, experts and practitioners on Benchmarking in European Higher Education in Brussels on 8 November 2007

News 22.10.2007
What Germany can learn from China
The German higher education system is facing similar challenges as the Chinese one is facing, albeit on a different scale. For this reason, the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development - has carried out a study on the Chinese education system which reveals what we can learn from China

News 12.10.2007
CHE ExcellenceRanking: Ranking of Excellent European Graduate Programmes in Natural Sciences
The Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) is working to develop a Ranking of Excellent European Graduate Programmes in Natural Sciences which is intended as an orientation guide for undergraduates, helping them find their way around European Higher Education while at the same time helping them to choose a suitable university for their graduate studies: Master’s and PhD.

News 10.10.2007
Students assess their libraries
University libraries have for a long time been offering more than just books and magazines to read and borrow. They have become more like information centres, equipped with a range of new digital or electronic services. In “Indicator in focus: Libraries” (“Indikator im Blickpunkt: Bibliotheken”) students give high marks for online services while they are clearly less satisfied with the specialised literature offer at some universities

News 21.09.2007
Success factors for quality management systems in higher education institutions (HEIs)
Great interest at the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development forum in Kassel, Germany, yesterday where the first comprehensive study about institutional quality managements systems was presented. The discussion by the participants confirmed a crucial result of the study: there is no standard model for HEIs. Institutions opt for different approaches depending on the type of HEI and on the disciplines they focus on.

News 19.09.2007
Findings of the CHE Ranking pilot project in Flanders/Netherlands revealed
The possibility of a European ranking will be discussed at the closing meeting of the project to be held on the 11th October in Brussels. Registration now possible.

News 17.09.2007
Family-friendly higher education institutions in Germany wanted
The Robert Bosch Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs and the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development are launching a competition called “Family in Higher Education Environments”. Higher education institutions (HEIs) from all over Germany are being asked to suggest projects that practise and develop family-friendly policies in HEIs.

News 05.09.2007
Research into the factors that influence the choice of study programme reveals five types of decision-maker
Choosing a study programme is an individual decision but there is also a lot of common ground. The findings from a range of interviews with pupils carried out by the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development in cooperation with the online-magazine EINSTIEG has uncovered five types showing consistent decision-making characteristics.

News 10.08.2007
Pilot project in Saxony: higher education policy inspired by demographic change
For many years, Saxony has been addressing, concertedly and continuously, the consequences that the demographic change will have for several policy areas. As far as the core topic of “higher education” is concerned, the Land is now co-operating with the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development. A comprehensive strategy will be set out in a pilot project. The objectives drawn up will be harmonised with the current higher education steering mechanisms.

News 09.08.2007
CHE UniversityRanking updated – the number of page views have shown a marked increase
The CHE UniversityRanking has been offered in English since 2003. The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst - DAAD) presents the English version of the information on German higher education institutions. The updated version of the ranking is now online.

News 31.07.2007
Bologna reforms taking hold
A comparative study on curriculum change in 32 European countries shows that Teacher Training, Law, Medical and Engineering education are also jumping on the reform bandwagon

News 30.07.2007
European higher education institutions lack autonomy
On behalf of the European Commission, 32 European countries have been examined in terms of how higher education governance has changed between 1995 and 2005. A clear and general trend emerges, characterised by more competition, restructuring of higher education institutions (HEIs) to become division-of-labour organisations with strong top management, a governmental focus on strategic steering hand in hand with increasing operational freedom of HEIs, conversion to performance-based distribution of funds and an increasing importance of quality assurance as steering mechanism. Implementing these reform elements causes considerable difficulties, however.

News 18.07.2007
OECD paper recommends CHE ranking methodology
The authors of the paper criticise the strong reduction of complexity in many international rankings. In contrast the multidimensional CHE-Ranking is said to leave it to the user to give weight to the information according to his or her personal preferences

News 17.07.2007
CHE report on foreign study funding systems
The CHE has launched a report on tuition fees and student funding systems in 26 countries within and outside of Europe. How do you finance a full-time study programme abroad? What conditions do higher education institutions (HEIs) that want to send students to countries that may charge tuition fees have to observe? These questions are becoming increasingly important as more and more students want to spend semesters abroad during their study programme

News 02.07.2007
Set of indicators to manage internationalisation processes
In a cooperation project, the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) has defined 186 indicators and performance figures as a way of presenting performance in the field of internationalisation. Higher education institutions may compile their own sets of indicators from the CHE list according to their individual situation and needs.The indicators comprise input and output factors for higher education studies and teaching as well as research but they also cover more general aspects. The paper is now available in English

News 23.05.2007
Junior professors satisfied with their overall situation
The CHE presents the current state of play; interviewed: higher education institutions and junior professors. More than two thirds of the junior professors are quite or very satisfied with their situation; 71 percent of all interviewees would again opt for a junior professorship

News 14.05.2007
Transition to two-cycle degree structures: Impulses for more flexible capacity planning
In 2001, CHE put forward proposals for overcoming the rigidities and over-complexities of traditional German capacity law (“Kapazitätsverordnung”), which regulates the planning of study places in Germany. A new CHE study shows: In the meantime, quite a lot has happened. First moves into the right direction were taken.

News 11.05.2007
The CHE University Ranking becomes ever more international
Since 1998, the CHE - Centre for Higher Education Development has been publishing the much-used University Ranking for Germany with Austrian and Swiss universities included since 2004 and 2005 respectively. Assessments are now also being carried out for universities in Holland and Flanders that are keen on taking part in the international competition

News 08.05.2007
Findings from the latest CHE University Ranking published
The quality of higher education institutions has once again been assessed. The CHE has tested more than 250 universities and Fachhochschulen in the most comprehensive University Ranking for German-speaking countries, including – in addition to the German institutions - higher education institutions from Switzerland and Austria.

News 04.04.2007
Students give top marks to university facilities in the East of Germany
A special evaluation of student views on rooms, laboratories and libraries – extracted from the CHE University Ranking – puts the higher education institutions of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Mecklenburg West-Pomerania and Saxony among the top institutions in the top group. The study takes into account the views of approximately 75.000 students

News 20.03.2007
Models for promoting studies abroad
The CHE working paper “Funding models for studying abroad” aims to improve the framework conditions for a study year or a full degree study programme abroad. Funding examples from Norway and the Netherlands have been examined. The study also presents the state of discussion regarding studies abroad within the European context

Interview 24.02.2007
“To level out universities’ weaknesses”
“Higher education institutions can co-operate and still be in competition,” says CHE project manager Yorck Hener in an interview with taz NRW (North-Rhine Westphalia)

News 21.02.2007
No improper use of tuition fees at higher education institutions
In the German Länder of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, the first semester in which tuition fees will be charged is about to begin. The focus of public interest now moves to how the money is being used. In a study the CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development has examined how the collected fees are being used in North Rhine-Westphalia.

News 15.02.2007
Successful co-operation of higher education institutions requires clear target-setting
Co-operation between higher education institutions or their sub-units can deliver quantitative and qualitative improvements with respect to teaching, research, administration or higher education development. But a CHE study shows: there is no universal solution.

News 13.02.2007
“The glass is one quarter full”
It is a fact that there will be 30 per cent more secondary school leavers over the coming years. At the CHE symposium entitled “record student numbers … university collapse?” which took place on in Berlin, Germany, politicians and higher education experts discussed ways of tackling the problem of how to make them university graduates. (photo: Aldrik in `t Hout from the from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science during his speech).

News 15.01.2007
CHE symposium: record student numbers …university collapse? Higher education institutions facing demographic chance
Mobility, flexibility and studying without frontiers are essential factors when exploring solutions for dealing with the record number of students over the next 10 years. The CHE will be presenting challenges and chances at a symposium on the 12th-13th of February in Berlin