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Discusses the reorganization of universities of the former East Germany as they try to evolve from Communist institutions to western-style centers of higher learning. Percentage of schools in eastern Germany that have been reformed; Enrollment increases; Faculty and staff changes and dismissals; Vast number of scholars unemployed; Salary inequities between professors from eastern and western Germany; Humboldt University's revitalization.

Provides information on the Berlin's Institute for Advanced Study in Grunewald, Germany. Formal obligations of top scholars in the institute; Three core groups at the institute; Brief history of the institute; Allocations of the institute's awards; Areas of research at the institute.

The article reports that an international group of educators, higher-education experts, and publishers that met in Berlin, Germany, last month has come up with a set of principles for ranking colleges and universities known as "Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions." These principles are a response to the explosion of college rankings in many countries since "U.S. News" and "World Report" published the first such listings in 1983. College rankings, or league tables, as they are known in Great Britain, were at first widely dismissed in academe, but they appear to be popular with students and their parents. The Berlin principles are meant to serve as voluntary guidelines for groups that produce rankings. In a statement accompanying the list of principles, the group wrote that the purpose of the guidelines was to ensure that "those producing rankings and league tables hold themselves accountable for quality in their own data collection, methodology, and dissemination."

Profiles Laurenz Demps, professor of history at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. His authority on Berlin's socio-architectural history; His career background; Comments about the Berlin Wall.

Reports on Humboldt University rector Heinrich Fink's efforts to fight the notion that East German faculty members must be politically acceptable to keep their jobs in a unified Germany. Possibility that evaluations of East German faculty members' academic qualifications will be used instead of political tests; Proposed bill to require new elections for top administrative posts at the university.

Reports on the financial status of three universities in Berlin, Germany. How the East-West rivalry aided institutions when the city was still divided; Cuts in funding to Humboldt University and the Technical and Free Universities of Berlin; History of the schools; Comments from university leaders and Kerstin Schneider, spokeswoman for Berlin's Ministry of Culture, Science, and Research.

Notes the request of learning institutions in Berlin, Germany for the government not to cut their budgets any further than announced in 1996. Reasons for the cuts.

Recounts the radical reformation of the highly acclaimed history department at Humboldt University in eastern Germany. Disbandment of department in 1990; Entrenched approaches to teaching and historical interpretation in old department; Historians hardest hit by the collapse of Communism, and many unemployed; New professors in department, including Michael Borgolte.