Study On The Market-Oriented Reform Of Higher Education In Germany: At The Turn Of 20th And 21st Century

Germany has a long history of higher education, which earned him high reputation in the world. In the 19th century, Germany became the birthplace of the modern university and its higher education became the learning target of other western capitalist countries. However, the two World Wars damaged its higher education seriously, furthermore, Germany was divided into two countries after the World War II, which led to the total difference of political and economic system and education system, as a result, Germany imbalance in the development of higher education increased. Besides the new challenge and opportunity to the politics and economy, the unification of Germany in 1990 also brought opportunity to the higher education. At the turn of the 20th and 21st century, Germany introduced the operation of the market mechanism into the field of education to stimulate the vitality of higher education itself. At present, there also are some scholars who want to bring the market mechanism into the filed of education to a certain extent to stimulate the vitality of our higher education and enhance its competitiveness. Through this research, we'll have a more profound understanding of introducing the market mechanism into higher education and a new perspective to realize the development of higher education in our country.The main part of this paper is divided into four parts:The first part analyzes the factors of the market-oriented reform in the higher education in Germany. On the basis of the understanding of the development history of higher education in Germany, both from the external and internal factors, we'll get the conclusion that the market-oriented reform of higher education in Germany is imperative.The second part introduces the theory of market-oriented reform of education. Neo-liberalism encouraged and allowed the competition and free choice of individuals. It required to reduce the intervention of the government and to increase the intensity of the market. Some genres' theories later became the theoretical basis of the market-oriented reform of the education. The main content in this part is to introduce the thoughts of Friedman, Hayek and New Public Management.The third part expatiates on the specific measures of the reform in Germany. It introduces the traditional practices in the fields of university fees, academic and university personnel management and wage system, and analyzes the reason of the reform.The fourth part introduces the development of higher education in China and the status quo, pointing out the existing problems, puts forward the viewpoint that China can increase the intensity of the market-oriented reform in higher education after analyzing from both necessity and possibility perspectives, and raises some suitable proposals for China through reform practices and experience in Germany.