The Expansion of the Universities between 1870 and 1985. An international Comparison

The topic of this investigation is the expansion of universities and their structural changes during the past hundred years. The expansion of universities between 1870 and 1990 will be analyzed for five countries: Germany, Italy, France, USA and Japan. Those countries has gone through the process of industrialization and modernization in the past hundred years and experienced a strong expansion of the University system during that time. Two hypotheses which explain this growth will be tested; theory of human capital and theory of individual social status competition. The analysis is concentrated on the interaction between the educational and the economic system, especially during times of economic crisis. Topics: The matriculation rates at universities serve as an indicator for the expansion of the education system. Data on the national product, unemployment rates, expansion of public service and the growth of capital stock serve as an indicator for fluctuations of the economic system. The waves in the expansion of the education system were adjusted for demographical effects, which mean that only education rates were calculated. The education rate is defined as the proportion of a cohort that goes to university. For the European countries (Germany, Italy, France) the theory of individual social status competition is confirmed (anticyclical relation). In the USA and Japan a pro-cyclical relation between educational and economic system dominates (human capital theory). Time series in HISTAT (topic: education) - Matriculation rates for Germany, Italy and France - Number of diploma after 4 years of standard period of studies in the USA - Japan: matriculation rates within the age groups 20-24 years (after the Second World War the total number of students refers to 4 cohorts)