The essay narrates and analyzes Eugen Dühring’s remotion, i.e. the taking away of his status as Privatdozent , and thereby of his right to teach at a university, by the Prussian Minister of Culture in 1877. After sketching out the background of the University of Berlin, the institution of...

This is an article about the possible lessons for academic freedom that Dühring’s expulsion from the University of Berlin might have for us today. It begins with a brief discussion of his strange fate in the English language literature in contrast with his high position in the history of...

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the determinants of taking out government‐funded student loans for university study in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an ordered probit model to quantify the influence of the various factors which affect students' decisions...

Discusses the current system of higher education funding in the UK, and proposals for its reform. Possible reforms include methods whereby the direct burden of paying for tuition is shifted from government and towards students, which raises the question of how much of the total burden should be...

Friedrich Althoff (1839‐1908), who created the “Althoff system”, has had a singularly important influence on shaping academic institutions in Germany for almost a generation. As a close collaborator of leading German scholars his influence lasted almost throughout the second empire...

Discusses the factors relating to the success of Friedrich Althoff as an innovator (or entrepreneur), within the nineteenth century bureaucratic Prussian public administration, that enabled him to be the driving force in the building of the university system. These include acquiring control over...

Argues that the autonomy of the Althoff administration was based on the “personal regime” of Friedrich Althoff. The public choice approach of bureaucratic behaviour reveals the basis for this autonomy: professionalism and continuity. Manageable span of control and entrepreneurship...

Discusses the defensiveness of professions, the confusion of professional status and expertise with superior human qualities, the “democratization” of learning, and the nature of scientific endeavour. Notes that the bulk of professional scientists are not doing anything significant in the...