DFG research group "multiple competition in higher education"

Researchers at nine universities form the DFG-funded research group "multiple competition in higher education - internationalization and international comparison". They come from the fields of sociology, economics and business administration and are working on nine sub-projects. The research group started in 2021 under the title "multiple competition in higher education" (funding phase I) and added the focus of "Internationalization and International Comparison" with the beginning of funding phase II in 2024.

Universities involved

We mourn the loss of Professor Georg Krücken, spokesperson for the research group from its beginning to 2024

News

01/20/2026 | DFG-Projekt | Publikationen

Fresh from the press! "Multiple Competition? An Analysis of Thematic Research Clusters on Competition and Higher Education" appeared in "Higher Education Quarterly"

@INCHER

The new article by Goetze; Kosmuetzky; Kruecken; Seidenschnur, and Vogel analyzes the largely unexplored intellectual structure of the international scientific debate on competition in higher education based on a combination of bibliometric coupling and qualitative content analysis using a database of 2,136 articles.

Götze, Nicolai; Kosmützky, Anna; Krücken, Georg; Seidenschnur, Tim; Vogel, Rick (2026): Multiple Competition? An Analysis of Thematic Research Clusters on Competition and Higher Education. In: Higher Education Quarterly 80 (1), Artikel e70105. DOI: 10.1111/hequ.70105

The authors find evidence for a heterarchical intellectual structure dominated by six thematic clusters: ‘global organizational status competition’, ‘innovation and university-industry linkages’, ‘academics' resources in competition’, ‘management of organizational service quality’, ‘social inequalities and organizational status’ and ‘diffusion of student-related financial policies’. Each cluster highlights a different way of framing competition. We find that these framings are loosely coupled and that the interdependency between different competitions is under-analysed. Additionally, we provide an exemplary examination of country-specific patterns of competition discourse and uncover local variants of global competition imaginaries. By means of the concept of multiple competition, we emphasise this interrelatedness and outline propositions to guide further research.

The article is an outcome of the research unit ‘Multiple Competition in Higher Education’ (DFG FOR 5234), particularly the project ‘Multiple Competition in Research and Teaching’, and the project ‘Competitive Positioning of Universities and Their Members’.

Funded by the German
Science Foundation
DFG

Spokesperson is Professor Guido Bünstorf

DFG research group "multiple competition in higher education" funding phase I (2021-2024)

Using sociological and economic approaches, the research group contributes to a comprehensive understanding of multiple competition in the German higher education system. Multiple competition means that individual and collective actors in the higher education system are simultaneously involved in several nested and interdependent competitions. The interaction of the individual competitions creates a complex network of requirements to which the players are exposed. Their uncoordinated competitive strategies are increasingly shaping the development of higher education and science and often to unintended consequences.

more about the 1st phase: Projects, Participants

Research group "Multiple Competition in Higher Education - Internationalization and International Comparison" (funding phase II: 2024-2027)

The objectives of the first funding phase - a broad empirical investigation of multiple competition, interdisciplinary theory development, relevance of the results for the investigation of multiple competition in other areas of society, relevance for higher education policy and science funding - are also central to the second phase.
In addition, questions relating to the internationalization of the German system and international comparison in connection with the topic of "multiple competition" will come into focus.
With regard to internationalization, there are developments at all relevant stakeholder levels that go beyond the national framework. In terms of multiple competition, all three levels - individuals, organizations and the state - are interlinked and influence each other. The aim is to analyze the developments at these levels and their links in the analysis of the German system.
Firstly, by contrasting similarities and differences with other national systems, international comparisons should enable the specifics of the German case and questions of generalizability to be better understood than before. Secondly, the role of the state in multiple competition is to be analyzed in more detail by means of international comparison. Thirdly, a type formation at the organizational level is aimed at, which allows universities to be compared with each other in their positions and embeddings across national systems.

Structure, projects, participants, 2nd phase