The european university as a multiversity

Abstract

Referring to Clark Kerr’s seminal lecture on “The idea of a multiversity”, the American research university of his time had to be conceived as a multiversity, i.e. an inconsistent institution, consisting of several communities, not one. This observation is certainly true for contemporary European universities as well. However, we can observe an opposing trend in the form of the transformation of the university into an organizational actor, i.e. an integrated, goal-oriented, and competitive entity, in which management and leadership play an ever more important role. This overall trend can be observed in different European university systems. By focusing on Germany, related changes concerning the traditional missions, research and teaching, as well as the so-called third academic mission will be discussed. All three have become institutional missions and are no longer conceived solely as decentralized activities in the hands of individual academics and the academic community. However, as this shift is fraught with conflicts, uncertainties, and ambivalence, the whole process of constructing universities’ actorhood is less straightforward than it appears at first sight.