---

A Careful Examination of “Mechanisms of Elite Education”

Ute Olbertz

The research group FOR 1612 will soon begin studying the “Mechanisms of Elite Education in the German Education System” after a decision was reached by the senate of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in July 2011. There are six projects in all – four at Martin Luther University, one at the Institute for Higher Education Research in Wittenberg and one at the University of Freiburg. Prof. Dr. Heinz-Hermann Krüger (MLU) is spokesman for the research group, while Prof. Dr. Werner Helsper (MLU) is deputy spokesman. The financing for the initial three funding years will amount to 2.2 million euros - 1.7 million euros alone will go to the projects in Halle.

“The research group will investigate the processes of the design and creation of excellence in educational institutions and education centres in Germany from preschool on up to university,” explains Heinz-Hermann Krüger. “We will also carefully examine its significance for those receiving the education and for professionals. We are expecting new findings on mechanisms of elite education that are developed based on systematic and wide-ranging empirical research.” The following aspects of mechanisms of elite education will be looked at: the discussion of excellence in educational policy, the interaction between family and institutions in elementary education and primary schools, the exclusive grammar school segment, universities with an elite entitlement and social separation in peer worlds, taking comparison cases into consideration as well.

Up