Germany today is a country with two societies-West and East-divided by a virtual wall. Though a higher education system and society are never completely congruent, the distribution of staff and students reveals significant patterns. Only one-third of the highest-ranking professorships (C4) in East Germany are now held by East Germans, and an East German professor in a West German university is an uncommon occurance. The proportion of West German students in East Germany and the proportion of East German students in West Germany are mirror images of one another. Only 2 percent of students who were born in West Germany study at East German universities, but 14 percent of students who grew up in East Germany study in West Germany.

Apart from these factors, East German higher education institutions are characterized by both advantages and problems. First of all, the equipment at East German universities is more modern than that in many West German universities, having been almost completely updated in the last few years. The staff-to-student ratio is very favorable in many disciplines. East German academic staff are more highly motivated to teach and advise students than are their West German colleagues. These are the main advantages.

First among the important problems is the aftereffect of the changes in the university system over the last ten years. Exhaustion can be noted due to the turmoil of institutional transformation. For this reason, East German universities are not very open to further reforms. This contradicts the widespread impression of the positive experience of institutional reforms and their enthusiastic continuation. The reform fatigue is also working against the efforts of some university leaders-for example, in Dresden (Saxony), Rostock (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), and East Berlin. Perhaps more relevant is the fact that the academic environment in East Germany is characterized by a conservative institutional culture. It is very formal, hierarchical, preferring frontal instruction in teaching. In short, while entrepreneurial universities are not unthinkable in East Germany, they are improbable.

A special problem caused by the transformation of the system concerns the status of middle-aged East German scientists who are now employed at universities in part-time jobs. In 1989, they were between 35 and 45 years old and had to change their focus frequently while hopping from one research project to the next. They proved to be flexible and mobile: 60 percent of all scientists had to leave their original fields and go into another professional area or take early retirement. But now these same scientists are between 45 and 55 years old; they do not, of course, hold professorships (in Germany almost the only opportunity to have a tenured academic job) because to become a professor in Germany is only possible when the aspirant is integrated into the relevant network. But since 1989, the networks are all West German, and for a traditional academic career in West Germany the middle-aged East German scientists are now too old.

Such problems are amplified by another special situation. A lot of young East Germans prefer not to attend university after secondary school. In West Germany, approximately 30 percent of the relevant age cohort takes up studying at the university level, whereas in East Germany only about 20 percent do so. Therefore, the East German universities are not enrolling enough students (except in law, economics and medicine), and the politicians conclude there are too many academic staff. The weaker East German economy results in lower tax revenues for the East German states, and this in turn creates pressure to reduce the budget of higher education institutions. Apart from the change in structures and contents, the newly instituted academic freedom, and the opportunities for international communication, most East German academics experienced the transformation of the universities as a major cutback in jobs in higher education. Moreover, the transformation is not yet complete, inasmuch as the next round of cutbacks in jobs has already been announced.