Is the university model an organizational necessity? Scale and agglomeration effects in science

In this paper we argue that the emergence of the dominant model of university organization, which is characterized by a large agglomeration of many (often loosely affiliated) small research groups, might have an economic explanation that relates to the features of the scientific production process. In particular, we argue that there are decreasing returns to scale on the level of the individual research groups, which prevent them from becoming to large, while we argue for positive agglomeration effects on the supra-research-group-level inside the university. As a consequence an efficient university organization would precisely consist of tying together many small individual research groups without merging them. Basing our empirical analysis on a multilevel dataset for German research institutes from four disciplines we are able to find strong support for the presence of these effects. This suggests that the emergence of the dominant model of university organization may also be the result of these particular features of the production process, where the least we can say is that this model is under the given circumstances highly efficient

Is there a European university model? New evidence on national path dependence and structural convergence

The issue of diversity and differentiation in higher education has been repeatedly debated in the literature (Meek et al., 1996; Huisman et al., 2007). Based on a large dataset that contains the full census of European higher education institutions, this chapter offers a fresh perspective on the debate using a quantitative approach, allowing a dedicatedly empirical assessment of diversity and differentiation in higher education institutions. For our analysis we use model-based clustering techniques in order to determine the main activity profiles of higher education institutions in Europe. Our main findings suggest that there is a functional divide into higher education institutions (HEIs) in which research and teaching coexist and younger (usually small) education-only organizations. From this perspective, looking at the observable behaviour rather than at the governance structures, the European higher education system seems much less fragmented than often argued. A further important result is that we do not find any empirical support for the existence of other commonly applied and seemingly intuitive classifications, such as the research university. Despite some basic similarities in the European HEI landscape, however, we also find national differences and diversity

Mapping the European higher education landscape: new insights from the EUMIDA project

The European higher education landscape is characterized by a high degree of diversity with respect to structure, mission and profile. This chapter contributes to the current debate on mapping the European higher education landscape by providing a complete census of all higher education institutions in the European Research Area as well as their characterization based on a number of descriptors and statistical data. This is made possible by a research project called EUMIDA, which was carried out for the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, in cooperation with DG EAC and Eurostat. Going beyond the core of research-intensive universities as covered by most university rankings it is critical to understand the overall structure of higher education systems, the division of tasks between higher education subsectors and the spread of the research and educational mission. This work significantly extends previous work by some of the authors in the AQUAMETH project for the coverage of the database and the level of standardization of the collected data (Bonaccorsi and Daraio, 2007, 2009; Bonaccorsi et al., 2007; Daraio et al., 2011). The EUMIDA higher education census covers 2457 institutions in 27 European countries including all EU countries except France, plus Norway and Switzerland and covers approximately 90 per cent of the total number of students in tertiary education (ISCED levels 5 and 6)

STUDY OF INTERMITTENCY IN ELECTRON - POSITRON ANNIHILATION INTO HADRONS

Intermittency effects have been studied directly for the first time in e+e- annihilation, using 37 509 hadronic events at an average CM energy of 〈√s〉=35 GeV. The factorial moments F2, F3 and F4 are given for the rapidity distribution and for the two-dimensional distributions in rapidity and azimuthal angle. The effects of cuts in sphericity and particle momentum are large. Comparison with several fragmentation models are made; some models like the Lund model with O(αs2) matrix element give a qualitative description of the phenomena. The importance of detector effects is demonstrated. The results are discussed in terms of various suggested interpretations of this effect. © 1989

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE ORIENTATION OF THREE JET EVENTS IN e+ e- ANNIHILATION AT PETRA

The full TASSO data have been used to study the orientation of three-jet events ine+e− annihilation. The polar angle distributions of the normal to the three-jet plane as well as the polar angle distribution of the most energetic jet have been measured as a function of the thrust cut-off used to select the three-jet sample. The data corrected for radiation and detector effects are compared to QCD predictions and fair agreement is found. As a consistency check we also present measurements of the azimuthal correlations between the lepton and hadron planes. A significant azimuthal dependence is found, consistent again with the QCD predictions

Experimental study of the orientation of three-jet events in e+e−e^+ e^- annihilation at PETRA

The full TASSO data have been used to study the orientation of three-jet events ine+e− annihilation. The polar angle distributions of the normal to the three-jet plane as well as the polar angle distribution of the most energetic jet have been measured as a function of the thrust cut-off used to select the three-jet sample. The data corrected for radiation and detector effects are compared to QCD predictions and fair agreement is found. As a consistency check we also present measurements of the azimuthal correlations between the lepton and hadron planes. A significant azimuthal dependence is found, consistent again with the QCD predictions