Higher education

CHE - Center for Higher Education Development

Through its joint projects with universities and government ministries, the CHE Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE Center for Higher Education Development) offers support at a variety of levels for putting new educational models and structures into practice. CHE helps foster a critical dialogue between decision makers from the realms of higher education and government by carrying out specialized analysis and international, cross-cultural comparisons. The goal is the "university unbound"-autonomous and academically renowned, competitive and cost-effective, international and open to the use of new media.

CHE was founded in 1994 by the German Rectors' Conference and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. An interim assessment of the CHE 10 years into the reform process: The changes in higher education are in full swing, but success is not guaranteed. Only the actual introduction of general tuition fees, for example, will show whether they will have a positive or negative impact. Over the years CHE has developed numerous models and proposals in support of this reform. Their key features are: ensuring that the fees flow directly into the institutions' coffers, that institutions have some leeway in setting their fees in order to spur competition, and that tuition remains at a socially acceptable level. CHE advocates introducing student loans with a post-graduation repayment schedule based upon income, so that no one will be deterred from getting a degree.