Education System?
Germany had a total of 415 state-maintained and state-recognised institutions of higher education, which are of the following types:
• Universities and equivalent institutions.
• of higher education.
• Technische Hochschulen/Technische Universitäten, Pädagogische Hochschulen, theological colleges et all.
• Colleges of art and music.
• Fachhochschulen (Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften/Hochschulen für angewandte Forschung).
In addition, Germany's tertiary sector also includes either state-run or state-recognised Berufsakademien in some Länder. The Fachschulen and the Fachakademien in Bayern are also part of the tertiary sector. Universities and equivalent institutions of higher education In addition to the traditional universities, the Technische Hochschulen or Technische Universitäten, that specialise in natural and engineering sciences also enjoy university status.
Also equivalent to universities are establishments that only offer a limited range of courses of study, such as theological colleges and Pädagogische Hochschulen. The latter, which still exist only in Baden-Württemberg, have been incorporated into universities in the other Länder or expanded into institutions offering a wider range of courses.
What these institutions have in common, as a rule, is the right to award the Doktorgrad (Promotionsrecht). Academic and scientific research - particularly basic research - and the training of the next generation of academics are also distinctive features of universities and equivalent institutions of higher education.
Colleges of art and music Colleges of art and music offer courses of studies in the visual, design and performing arts as well as in the area of film, television and media, and in various music subjects; both, in some cases, also teach the appertaining theoretical disciplines (fine arts, art history and art pedagogy, musicology, history and teaching of music, media and communication studies as well as, more recently, the area of the new media). Some colleges teach the entire gamut of artistic subjects, others only certain branches of study.