Dr. Nicolai Götze

Dr. Nicolai Götze is a senior researcher, responsible for the research area „Innovation and Transfer“ at INCHER, University Kassel since April 2025. Simultaneously, he is working on the DFG project "Multiple Competition in Research and Teaching: The US and South Korea as International Comparative Cases" at the Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS). This project is part of the interdisciplinary DFG research group, "Multiple Competition in the Higher Education System". Dr. Götze was also a research associate in the initial stage of the project, "Multiple Competition in Research and Teaching: Organizational Competitions and Their Consequences for the Excellence Initiative and the Quality Pact for Teaching." 

Since 2016, Götze has been a member of the international consortium of the project “Academic Profession in Knowledge-Based Societies (APIKS)”, which is planning a new international survey titled "Future of the Academic Profession (Future-AP)". He coordinates the Survey Design Group Knowledge and Technology Transfer and Governance in Future-AP. From June 2016 to August 2021, he worked as research associate for the BMBF-funded German study of the APIKS-Project. From 2020 to 2022, he also worked on the Austrian APIKS study.

His research focuses on the theoretization and empirical analysis of topics such as the reform of higher education systems, competition and stratification in higher education, evaluation practices and quantification in science and higher education, and the evolving relationship between science and society in a changing global political economy. His central focus is on the complex interplay of arenas of action and strategies of actors in a multilevel arrangement spanning individual actors, organizations, federal states, nation states, and the world polity. In line with his field-theoretical perspective, the complex historical and institutional context of these arenas and strategies is always at the forefront.

Thematically, his focus is at the intersection of higher education and science studies, organizational sociology, the sociology of competition and valuation studies. He engages in both methodologically and theoretically guided research on topics such as the status competition between higher education organization, the quantification of science, the relationship between the organization and the individual, and the relationship between science and society in a changing global political economy.

Methodologically, his work is comparative, i.e. it focuses in particular on comparisons between organizations and countries. He works with multi-method empirical approaches. His studies use both quantitative (survey research and bibliometrics) and qualitative approaches to empirical social research (interviews, case studies).

Nicolai Götze is a reviewer for leading international journals in higher education research, such as "Higher Education", "Studies in Higher Education" and "Higher Education Policy".

Memberships: Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), Consortium of Higher Education Researchers (CHER), Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hochschulforschung (GFHF).

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0519-0232

Götze, Nicolai (2025):  IV.2.1 Nexus Forschung und Lehre. In: Peer Pasternack, Gabi Reinmann und Christian Schneijderberg (eds.): Hochschulforschung. Forschung über Hochschule und Wissenschaft. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp  639-648.

Götze, Nicolai; Schneijderberg, Christian (2025): III.2.2 Wissen- und Technologietransfer. In: Peer Pasternack, Gabi Reinmann und Christian Schneijderberg (eds.): Hochschulforschung. Forschung über Hochschule und Wissenschaft. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp 521–532.

Krücken, Georg; Götze, Nicolai; Seidenschnur, Tim (2025): Lions, Game Players and Niche Providers: Universities' Positioning in Funding Competitions in Germany. Higher Education Quarterly 79(1).

Götze, Nicolai (2024): Institutionelle Filter: Das deutsche Hochschulwesen zwischen Persistenz und Reform. Dissertation Universität Kassel. https://kobra.uni-kassel.de/handle/123456789/16046#

Seidenschnur, Tim; Götze, Nicolai; Krücken, Georg (2024): Multiple roles of the state – federal states and their roles in how universities compete in Germany. Studies in Higher Education, 1–10 (online first).doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2392660

Götze, Nicolai; Krücken, Georg & Seidenschnur, Tim (2024): Multipler Wettbewerb – multiple Wettbewerbsakteure? Der staatliche Wettbewerb im Hochschulbereich und die Transformation von Bundesländern in Wettbewerbsakteure. In: Webler, Wolff-Dietrich (ed.): Überzogener und überhitzter Wettbewerb in der Wissenschaft I. Wissenschaftsförderung und ihre Irrwege. Bielefeld : UVW UniversitätsVerlagWebler (Hochschulwesen: Wissenschaft und Praxis; N. F. 43), pp. 41 - 68. https://doi.org/10.25656/01:30633

Mauermeister, Sylvi; Brose, Julia, Langfeldt, Bettina; Steinhardt, Isabell; Götze, Nicolai (2024): Evaluieren und Publizieren? Eine Untersuchung deutschsprachiger Publikationen zum Qualitätsmanagement in Studium und Lehre von Mitarbeitenden in hochschulischen QM-Abteilungen von 1996 bis 2021. In: Schmidt, Sarah; Koppenborg, Markus; Abele, Christine (Hrsg.): Evaluation an Hochschulen im Spannungsfeld zwischen Wissenschaftlichkeit und Pragmatismus. Berlin: DUZ Medienhaus.  https://www.duz-open.de/media/e1457f56a67a9f338c70e87ca8a4f2cf9da0ddce/f575b32f90a32b0cd866a47845aa350fb1ace900/864faa5f7dbb33de09ff38e408a2533dd5969d65/b44aed367988ad9eee53f1b2ecbb10a238424b88.pdf

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai (2024): Professors’ opportunity hoarding and ‘hamster wheels’ in the German academic labour market. In: Strachan, Glenda (Eds.): Research Handbook on Academic Labour Markets. Cheltenham, UK: Edward  Elgar Publishing, pp. 321–333.

Götze, Nicolai (2023): Temporale Komplexität von Ausschreibungswettbewerben – Die Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen in Exzellenzinitiative und dem Qualitätspakt Lehre, Das Hochschulwesen 71 (3), 85 - 93

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai; Steinhardt, Isabel; Schindler, Janosch (2022): (Be)Werten im organisationsabhängigen Interaktionssystem: das Beispiel Peer Review in Akkreditierungsverfahren von Hochschulen und Studiengängen. Zeitschrift für Evaluation, 21(2), 217–244. DOI: 10.31244/zfe.2022.02.03

Götze, Nicolai; Schneijderberg, Christian (2022): Metrical Valorization of Performance (MeVoP): The Funding-Induced Vertical Stratification and the Construction of Post-Humboldtian Research-Teaching Nexus in German Higher Education Institutions. In: Futao Huang, Timo Aarrevaara und Ulrich Teichler (eds.): Teaching and Research in the Knowledge-based Society. (vol. 23). Cham: Springer (The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective), pp. 53–76.

Götze, Nicolai; Krücken, Georg; Seidenschnur, Tim (2022): Reflexionspfade von Ausschreibungswettbewerben. Die Exzellenzinitiative und der Qualitätspakt Lehre im Vergleich. Das Hochschulwesen 1+2, 49–59.

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai & Müller, Lars (2022): A study of 25 years of publication outputs in the German academic profession. Scientometrics 127, 1–28 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04216-2

Schneijderberg, Christian.,  Götze, Nicolai (2022): Publishing as Epistemic Governance of Academics: The Cognitive and Social Frontier of University-industry Linkages and Commercial Indicators. S. 64-87 in: Sarrico, C., Carvalho, T., & Joao, M. (eds.): Research Handbook on Academic Careers and Managing Academics. Elgar.

Götze, Nicolai (2021): Higher Education and the Knowledge Economy: Economic Higher Education Policies and the Persistence of the German Research and Development System. In: Jisun Jung, Glen A. Jones, Martin Finkelstein und Timo Aarrevaara (eds.): Universities in the Knowledge Society: The Nexus of National Systems of Innovation and Higher Education, vol. 22. Cham: Springer (The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective), pp. 237–255.

Götze, Nicolai; Carvalho, Teresa; Aarrevaara, Timo (2021): Academics’ Societal Engagement in Diverse European Binary Higher Education Systems: A Cross-Country Comparative Analysis. Higher Education Policy 34 (1), 88–109. DOI: 10.1057/s41307-020-00222-w

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai (2021): Academics’ Societal Engagement in Cross-country Perspective. Large-n in Small-n Comparative Case Studies. Higher Education Policy 3(4), S. 1–17. DOI: 10.1057/s41307-021-00227-z

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai; Jones, Glen A.; Bilyalov, Darkhan; Panova, Anna; Stephenson, Grace Karram; Yudkevich, Maria (2021): Does Vertical University Stratification Foster or Hinder Academics’ Societal Engagement? Findings from Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Russia. In: Higher Education Policy 34 (1), S. 66–87. DOI: 10.1057/s41307-020-00219-5

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai; Müller, Lars (2021): Academic Profession in Knowledge Societies (APIKS). In: GESIS Datenarchiv, Köln. ZA6709 Datenfile Version 1.0.0. https://doi.org/10.4232/1.13843. (Open Access)

Schneijderberg, Christian; Götze, Nicolai (2020): Organisierte, metrifizierte und exzellente Wissenschaftler*innen. Veränderungen der Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen an Fachhochschulen und Universitäten von 1992 über 2007 bis 2018, INCHER Working Paper 13, International Center for Higher Education Research (INCHER), Universität Kassel. Volltext (PDF)

Schneijderberg, Christian; Müller, Lars; Götze, Nicolai (2020): Is the German Academic Profession on Metrification Autopilot? A Study of 25 Years of Publication Outputs, SocArXiv. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/mcs3g

Steinhardt, Isabel, Schneijderberg, Christian, Götze, Nicolai, Baumann, Janosch, Krücken, Georg (2016). Mapping the quality assurance of teaching and learning in higher education: the emergence of a specialty?  Higher Education. doi:10.1007/s10734-016-0045-5