Hans N. Weiler

Welcome to my Homepage!

*** Meine deutsche Homepage finden Sie hier ***.

Information

I am a Professor Emeritus of Education and Political Science at Stanford University, and a Professor Emeritus of Comparative Politics and past Rektor of Viadrina European University at Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.

My three-year term as "Academic Secretary to the University" at Stanford has ended on August 31, 2017. My successor is Thomas Wasow (wasow@stanford.edu).

More biographical information (in .pdf format) is available in the form of a detailed CV or a shorter Biographical Note.

For a list of recent publications, click here.

I can be reached as follows:

Hans N. Weiler
14500 Fruitvale Avenue - Apt 5314
Saratoga, CA 95070 - USA
Phone: +1-408-741-7341
Mobile: +1-650-714-8607
Email: weiler@stanford.edu


We have given up our Berlin address on the Einsteinufer at the end of 2012.

The fastest way to reach me is usually by email.

Recent Writings

Here is a listing of recently completed papers, publications, and presentations (primarily in English), most of which can be downloaded (in .pdf or .ppt format); additional texts in German, including a number of recent presentations in Germany, can be found on my German homepage.

• The end of my recent tenure as Academic Secretary to the University (2014-2017) coincided with the 50th anniversary of the creation of Stanford's Academic Senate; to capture the history of that remarkable institution, I initiated, with the help of Susan Schofield, Peter Stansky, Ethan Ris and the Stanford Historical Society, the project of a "Festschrift" - "The Stanford Senate of the Academic Council: Reflections on Fifty Years of Faculty Governance, 1968-2018". The book is available from the Stanford Bookstore or the Office of the Academic Secretary at Stanford; a .pdf version can be found here. The Senate's anniversary was celebrated at the annual meeting of Stanford's Academic Council in May of 2018, where Nan Keohane (former Senate Chair and former president of Wellesley College and Duke University), Jonathan Jansen (PhD '91 and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State in South Africa) and I shared reflections on the future of academic governance in times of change. The text of my presentation as well as the other two can be found on the Senate's website.
• My recent book (in German and in English) on the genesis of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin "Die Erfindung einer privaten Hochschule für öffentliches Handeln - The Invention of a Private School of Public Policy", which came out in 2014.
• My contribution on "The IIEP in 2023" to a Symposium on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris on December 3, 2013.
• My Commencement Address for the Graduate School of Education of Stanford University on June 16, 2013.
• My Remarks on "Liberal Arts Colleges and Professional Schools: The Normative Dimension of Higher Education" at the 7. US-German Roundtable on Higher Education on May 29, 2013 at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
• The (full) text of the keynote address on "Knowledge and Power: The New Politics of Higher Education" I delivered at the International Higher Education Congress in Istanbul in May of 2011. For a brief summary of the arguments, see the presentation slides . The text is published in the Journal of Educational Planning and Administration in July, 2011.
• The latest version of my analysis of the state of American higher education, a presentation for the Hertie School of Governance and the German Stanford Association in Berlin on "Universities in Trouble: The Current Crisis in American Higher Education" in October of 2010.
• The text of a "Manifesto for Curriculum Reform in Higher Education" which grew out of the deliberations of an international working group at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin in 2009/2010.
• A chapter on "Whose Knowledge Matters? Development and the Politics of Knowledge", which I contributed to a Festschrift for Peter Molt [Theodor Hanf, Hans N. Weiler and Helga Dickow (eds.), Entwicklung als Beruf. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2009, pp. 485-496].
• My assessment of the state of international research on higher education ("International Research on Higher Education: Scholarship Between Policy and Science"), which was published (in English) in the 4/2008 issue of the Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (ZfE).
• An Interview (in German) with the 'Märkische Oderzeitung' on the occasion of the inauguration of President Obama in January of 2009.
• The Distinguished Lecture on "National Unification, Global Competition and Institutional Reform: The Dynamics of Change in Higher Education" that I gave in Johannesburg and Cape Town during my visit to South Africa in September and October of 2008.
• "Notes on Indian Higher Education", a first draft of my current work on the state and perspectives of higher education in India (on which comments are very welcome).
• The text of my Introduction to the first plenary session of the G8-UNESCO World Forum on "Education, Research, and Innovation" at Trieste/Italy on May 10, 2007.
• A seminar presentation at the Stanford School of Education in April on "Professional Schools in Europe: Exporting Solutions or Damaged Goods?" about my efforts to advocate the introduction of professional schools into the structure of higher education in Germany - and some reflections on the American original (powerpoint slides only).
• An invited address on "The Price of Excellence: Comparative Perspectives on Competitive Higher Education" at the University of Technology Mara in Shah Allam/Selangor (Malaysia) in April of 2007 (powerpoint slides).
• A plenary presentation on "Values, Ethics, and Research: Commerce, Politics, Integrity, and Culture" at the 2006 General Conference of the OECD program on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) in Paris on September 11, 2006 (Powerpoint slides).
• A keynote address on recent developments in German research and higher education policy "Exzellenzinitiative, Förderlinien, Vollkostenfinanzierung: Neues Vokabular oder neue Forschungsförderung in Deutschland?" at the annual meeting of the German Scholars Organization (GSO) in San Francisco, March, 2006 (powerpoint slides only).
• "Theorizing the 'American Empire': Life with a Bengal Tiger" (Keynote Lecture at the Third Byblos Autumn School on "International Relations in an Uncertain Hegemonial World System" in Byblos/Lebanon on September 7, 2005; available now are the complete powerpoint slides; the full text of the lecture will be available here shortly).
• "Silicon Valley und die Hochschulen - Kalifornische Erfolgsstory oder Kommerzialisierungsfalle?" (Invited Lecture on the relationship between Silicon Valley and California higher education at the Colloquium Politicum, University of Freiburg on May 23, 2005).
• "Ambivalence: Contradictions in Contemporary Higher Education" (Keynote Lecture for the "University Autonomy Workshop" of the Central European University/Open Society Institute in Budapest on April 21, 2005).
• "Profil - Qualität - Autonomie: Die unternehmerische Universität im Wettbewerb" (Invited Lecture on the challenges of the "entrepreneurial university" at a joint meeting of the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and the Investkredit Bank AG in Vienna on April 14, 2005).
• "Theory and Practice: Dichotomies of Knowledge" (a contribution to an invited panel at the 2005 meetings of the Comparative and International Education Society at Stanford, March 2005).
• "Challenging the Orthodoxies of Knowledge: Epistemological, Structural, and Political Implications for Higher Education" (Invited Paper presented at an international Symposium of the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research, and Knowledge in Paris, December 2004; published in Guy Neave (ed.), Knowledge, Power and Dissent: Critical Perspectives on Higher Education and Research in Knowledge Society. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2006, 61-87).
• "Licht und Schatten im Silicon Valley: Lehren für Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft in Deutschland" (Vortrag im Rahmen des "Erfurter Dialogs" in der Thüringer Staatskanzlei am 22. September 2004).
• "Hochschulen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika – Modell für Deutschland?" (Published in "Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte", June 14, 2004).
• "Ambivalence and the Politics of Knowledge: The Struggle for Change in German Higher Education" (published in "Higher Education", 2005).
• "Berufungspraxis an U.S.-amerikanischen Hochschulen" (Statement at an international hearing of the "Wissenschaftsrat" on the reform of appointment and promotion procedures at German universities, Köln, May 2004).
• "Nicht alles, was glänzt, ist Gold: Pathologies of American Higher Education" (Presentation, in English, at the 2003 Fulbright Educational Experts Seminar, New York, September 22, 2003).
  
  

Earlier Projects

The projects I have been involved in in some prior years include

• Chairing the search committee for a new Dean of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
• Chairing the Selection Committee for a program, sponsored by the (German) Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), to support high-level research in universities in Eastern Germany ("Spitzenforschung in den neuen Bundesländern").
• Chairing a formal quality audit of the University of Freiburg.
• Participating in the Advisory Board of the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE), in the jury for the Germany-wide competition "Excellence in Teaching at Universities" sponsored by the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft and the Conference of State Ministers of Education, and in the preparation of a volume on "Bildung? - Bildung!" (Peter Strohschneider und Andreas Schlüter, eds., Berlin-Verlag 2009; see the text of my contribution on my German homepage).
• Writing up my reflections on higher education in South Africa on the basis of observations and discussions during my visit in the fall of 2008.
• Chairing a commission of experts for a project of the Deutsche Telekom-Stiftung supporting successful programs for the preparation of teachers in mathematics, informatics, natural sciences, and technology (MINT).
• Following up on my initial study in 2007 of the development of India's system of higher education against the background of India's remarkable economic and technological development (see above for a first draft of my findings).
• Preparing and editing for publication various invited presentations given in recent years, including those at the annual meeting of the Emmy Noether Program of the German Research Association (DFG), during a lecture tour in South Africa in 2008, at the opening of a lecture series at the University of Trier, at the opening of the Center for Educational Research and Teacher Education at the University of Paderborn, at the formal re-dedication of the medieval stain-glass windows in St. Mary's church in Frankfurt (Oder) (following their return from St. Petersburg where they had been held since the end of WW II), at a meeting of the German Scholars Organization in San Francisco, at meetings of UNESCO in Paris, a medical congress in Baden-Baden/Germany, the University of Bochum, OECD in Paris, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin, Lufthansa AG in Frankfurt/Main, the University of Technology Mara in Selangor/Malaysia, the Stanford School of Education, the G8-UNESCO World Forum on Education, Research and Innovation in Trieste, the University of Ulm, the Technical University of Munich and the Leadership College of the German Rectors' Conference.
• Advising a number of (public and private) German universities on their development plans and the recruitment of university leadership.
• Assisting the Hertie Foundation in the founding and development of the "Hertie School of Governance" in Berlin, and serving, together with Kurt Biedenkopf, Michael Endres, Fritz Scharpf, and others on the School's Board of Trustees (from which I retired in 2009). For details on the project (in English), click here.
• Serving, until 2018, on the International Advisory Council of the Free University of Berlin and, until 2016, of the WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business - Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien).
• Serving, as the sole U.S. member, on the "Global Scientific Committee" of UNESCO's Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge. The first book resulting from the Forum's work has now been published by UNESCO Press: "Knowledge, Power and Dissent: Critical Perspectives on Higher Education and Research in Knowledge Society" (Guy Neave, ed.), 2006; it includes my essay on "Challenging the Orthodoxies of Knowledge: Epistemological, Structural, and Political Implications for Higher Education".
• Serving as a reviewer for the first and second round of the "Excellence Initiative" in support of outstanding German research universities.
• Advising the Technical University of Munich on the establishment of a Professional School of Education.
• Serving as an advisor to the state government of Baden-Württemberg on the future development of its system of higher education, and to several (public and private) universities in Germany on their development plans.
• Serving, as deputy chair, on the Board ("Kuratorium") of the University of Bielefeld, and on the Board of the University of Erfurt.
• Chairing the advisory board for a project supporting innovative programs of teacher training in Germany (sponsored by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and the Mercator Foundation).
• Participating for two years in a special commission (chaired by Gert G. Wagner) of the German Wissenschaftsrat on "Higher Education and Demographic Change". The Commission's Report and Recommendations are now available (in German).
• Participating in the preparation of a Memorandum on the future of research policy in Germany as part of a group of experts convened under the auspices of the Volkswagen Foundation; the Memorandum, entitled "Eckpunkte eines zukunftsfähigen deutschen Wissenschaftssystems", was made public in May of 2005 (see also above under "recent writings").
• Participating, through a variety of public statements and interviews, in the debate about developing in Germany "elite universities à la Harvard and Stanford"; see above under "recent writings"; other statements have appeared in "Die Zeit", "Die Welt", "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" and "Wirtschaftswoche".
• Organizing and chairing a project on "higher education and labor markets" under the auspices of the Deutsche Bahn AG, together with Norbert Bensel and Gert G. Wagner. Based on an invitational Workshop on this project held in Berlin in February of 2003, we have published a book on "Hochschulen, Studienreform und Arbeitsmärkte: Voraussetzungen erfolgreicher Beschäftigungs- und Hochschulpolitik" (W. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2003; ISBN 3-7639-3168-6). For the table of contents of the book, click here.
• A keynote address for a European Conference on "The New Educational Benefits of ICT in Higher Education" in Rotterdam, September 2-4, 2002. The proceedings of this conference have now been published (click here for the text of my contribution and the reference to the book).
• Developing and offering for several years a new course on "The Puzzle of European Politics: Democracy, Markets, and International Relations" in Stanford's Continuing Studies Program.
• Serving as adviser to the Commission on Higher Education of the Hamburg State Government ("Hochschulübergreifende Strukturkommission, Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg"). (For a report, in German, of the commission's work and further action on it by the government of Hamburg, click here).
• Developing the notion of "professional schools" as a new structural option in European higher education (for the German text of a detailed chapter on the topic, click here.
• Becoming involved in a variety of contexts in the current German debate on the reform and improvement of teacher education (for a copy of my critique [in German] on the current state of educational research in Germany, in general, and research on teacher education, in particular, click here).
• Chairing, for three years, the jury for the "best practice" award of the Center for the Development of Higher Education (CHE) (for more information [in German], click here).
• Organizing a symposium on "How well do reforms travel? U.S. and European higher education and the international traffic of reform ideas" (with Mitchell Ash, Daniel Fallon, Detlef Müller-Böling, and Botho von Kopp) at the annual meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), New Orleans, March 13, 2003 (click here for a copy of the introductory paper).
• Preparing a paper for a North American-European conference under the auspices of SCANCOR on "Universities and the Production of Knowledge" at Stanford University on April 25-26, 2003. For a copy of the paper, click here.
• Delivering the keynote address at the annual University Convocation of the University of Bielefeld on May 23, 2003 on "The Partnership of Higher Education and Business: The Open Secrets of Silicon Valley" (Der deutsche Text des Vortrags in Bielefeld ist verfuegbar hier als .pdf Datei).
• A guest lecture on "The International Politics of Knowledge" at the New Europe College in Bucharest in June of 2003. For the text of the lecture, click here.
• A special international Policy Forum on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris in June. For the text of my contribution on "Diversity and the Politics of Knowledge", click here.
• Giving the keynote address at the 750th anniversary celebration of the city of Frankfurt (Oder) on July 14, 2003. For the text of the address (in German), click here.
• Presenting a paper entitled "Nicht alles, was glänzt, ist Gold: Pathologies of American Higher Education" at the 2003 Fulbright Educational Experts Seminar in New York on September 22, 2003. For the (English) text of the paper, click here.
• The 2003 International Symposium on Higher Education and Personality Development at the University of St. Gallen/Switzerland in November of 2003. For the (German) text of my presentation on "'Kulturelle Kompetenz' oder: Die Analphabeten der Globalisierung", click here.
• The evaluation of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB).
• Membership in a commission on the future of higher education and research in the state of Thuringia (Germany).
• Giving one of the keynote addresses for an international conference on the reform of higher education to mark the 10th anniversary of the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE) in April of 2004. The text of the address (in German) is available above under "Recent Writings". On this occasion, I was honored with an award for special contributions to the reform of German higher education over the past ten years.
• Providing the opening address for a conference organized by the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) on new departures in doctoral training. For the text, see above under "Recent Writings".
• Testifying before a special commission (chaired by Wolfgang Schluchter) of the German Wissenschaftsrat on faculty recruitment (see above under "Recent Writings").