Review of Gender and the Modern Research University: The Admission of Women to German Higher Education, 1865-1914

Abstract

were top-ranking civil servants who, dissatisfied with the status quo, were eager to change the nature of policy making and administration in higher education.The persuasive tactics that they used succeeded because there was already a changing climate toward the development of a civil society.In the final analysis, there is no single theory that accounts for the Austrian experience.Instead, the successful policy transfer can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the robustness of institutions.The individual chapters in this book are very well written, each providing vivid historical details of the change process it describes.Paradoxically however, this commendable feature detracts from the book's integration and coherence as there is much repetition, particularly across the earlier chapters, in the narration of the historical process of developing the Austrian system.Although the book's stated focus is the accreditation model, this key concept is not defined until mid-way through the book (on page 70), and a full analysis of the policy transfer does not occur until the last two chapters.Despite these shortcomings, the book provides an interesting history of two similar yet different systems of higher education, and the unique ways in which one was inspired by and modelled on the other.It would therefore be of interest to scholars of public policy, as well as to educational administrators and historians. 4?