'Marcel Herbst has produced a penetrating and thorough analysis of the current enthusiasm in many countries for employing performance funding as a tool for increasing the accountability and quality of their higher education systems. His work is based on an impressive coverage of the literature on this topic and, particularly important, places the interest in performance funding within the context of the changing and conflicting views of governmental steering and reform of higher education. It is the most insightful and comprehensive examination of this topic available. This book is a must read for both governmental policy makers concerned with higher education and college and university leaders.'
Frank A. Schmidtlein, Associate Professor of Higher Education (Emeritus), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Herbst is widely knowledgeable across national higher education systems and his analysis of the weaknesses of European university scene is penetrating and challenging. Many of his solutions make uncomfortable reading but, if the European higher education area wants to keep up with world competition, they will have to be acted upon.
Professor Michael Shattock, Institute of Education, University of London
The author of this book is a former university administrator that finally became a researcher. This non usual background provides the author a special understanding of the university management but also, as a privileged observer, a profound insight on the university life.
This book is a consequence of his double perspective. The author makes a deep analysis of performance funding, but in fact, the book is something else: it is a general and excellent overview of how universities work around the world. Surprisingly to some extent, bearing in mind his managerial background, the author is wisely in favour of taking cautiously the increasing managerial trends in the university world.
Marcel Herbst' book is a basic tool for understanding universities in a period of reforms and transformations.
Jose-Gines Mora, Technical University of Valencia, President of the EAIR
In his book Preparing for the Twenty-First Century (Fontana Press,1994) Paul Kennedy wrote: If my analysis is roughly correct, the forces for change facing the world could be so far-reaching, complex and interactive that they call for nothing less than the reeducation of humankind.
If we look today, in the first decade of the 21st century, at our troubled world menaced by serious problems but also full of opportunities, it becomes obvious that education and knowledge are playing a key role indeed. The university is of paramount importance to bring about the necessary changes in our respective societies. However, in order to fulfill this objective, the university will have to change itself. Perhaps the most important forces which affect higher education are the needs of the citizenry, the demands of a growing knowledge society, and the scarcity of available resources. Together, they lead to the request for higher productivity and meaningful new activities in research and education. But before the university can creatively respond to societal requests, it will have to learn to fight its own complacence and inertia.
The present compendium by Marcel Herbst is of great help for all those who are involved in reflecting about and shaping the future of higher education and research. The reader will find an abundance of information and many comparisons of existing systems as well as suggestions for future developments. The author offers the reader not only a description of the actual situation. The reader will also find a wealth of challenging personal views which may help his or her own process of reflection.
Jakob Nuesch, President emeritus, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich)
