The research sets out to compare how British and German staff and students are changing in response to neoliberal influences in higher education. In the past, these two countries had a reasonably synoptic vision of values in higher education endorsing personal development, collegial community, pursuit of knowledge and academic freedom. Currently, a market forces model based on competition and choice is relativising some of these traditional values, and has penetrated much more deeply in the UK than in Germany. The research investigates whether expectations, academic values, work satisfaction levels and conceptions of human relationships now actually differ across the two systems: it finds, for example, that high study satisfaction on the part of UK students is ‘paid for’ by low job satisfaction on the part of staff. Methodologically, it is based upon surveys and interviews conducted among staff and students in 12 universities in each country. The data reveal participants’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of each system, specifically in relation to Education. It highlights which features of modern-day academic life are accepted or rejected by staff, and what attitudes they take towards market-oriented reform. The UK staff feel over-worked, underpaid and downwardly mobile in terms of status in comparison with their German counterparts, but there is a love of the job that overrides all these negative feelings.

Semi-structured interviews with staff in twelve HE institutions in the UK and twelve in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and during the course of these interviews staff were asked to fill in questionnaires. Students too were given questionnaires, normally distributed during or at the end of class so as to avoid non-response rates. A sample of 90 staff was aimed for in each country; 87 in the UK and 82 in the FRG completed both questionnaires and interviews. 1489 UK students and 986 FRG students completed the questionnaire.