Changed Academic Relationship Between Professors and Students at Uni Potsdam: Impact of Bologna 2011-2012

Abstract

The University of Potsdam (Uni Potsdam), a research-intensive university situated in former East Germany, is no stranger to the major German and European policy reforms that have transformed the German higher education system over the past decade and a half. Uni Potsdam’s rich regional past, young institutional history, and low state funding present a remarkable context of reform. This case study analyzes the perceptions of 25 professors amid Bologna and national reforms and found significant changes to the structure of faculty work, teaching and learning, and interaction between professors and students. This paper focuses on one thread of these findings: the ways in which the Bologna Process has changed the academic relationships between students and professors at Uni Potsdam 2011-12.