About INCHER - Kassel
The International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER) Kassel is an interdisciplinary research unit at the University of Kassel (Germany) established in 1978. Today, about 30 scholars of different ranks and funded by different national and international sources are active in research.
The profile of the Centre in Kassel might be described as
- combining a broad range of themes (e.g. curricular, socialization, labour market, work issues) and disciplines in addressing the relationships between higher education and the world of work,
- embarking on a broad range of issues of higher education beyond their specific area of specialization,
- addressing international issues, undertaking comparative research and being closely embedded in the international academic community of higher education experts,
- being more active than other institutions in stimulating communication among higher education researchers in Germany, notably through conferences and publications on the state of research. Research Activities, Cooperation and Dissemination
Recent studies, for example, addressed university graduates, cost and funding of study as well as academic careers in various European countries. Various projects compare different national systems of higher education and were conducted in co-operation with international partners.
About 2,000 publications, published by INCHER-members prove the productivity of the research of the INCHER.
The Centre was awarded substantial grants over the years for projects from the European Commission, the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology, German Science Foundation (DFG) and Volkswagen Foundation. Various projects were undertaken in direct cooperation with other agencies, e.g. the German Academic Exchange Service, the Rectors' Conference, the CRE - European Association of Universities, with research institutes in other countries, e.g. the European Institute of Education and Social Policy and the Japan Institute of Labour, and through the establishment of teams of cooperating researchers both in Germany and across various countries. The Kassel Centre is happy to regularly welcome guest researchers from other countries.
In the area higher education and work, graduate studies are carried out at INCHER since 1982. Renowned studies are:
• the Graduate Survey at the University of Kassel (1982 - 1995; panel),
• European Graduate Surveys (CHEERS: 40.000 respondents from 12 countries; REFLEX: ~36.000 respondents),
• the German Graduate Survey Network established in 2006,
• the German Cooperation Graduate Project among 48 universities (2007 - 2009)
• the Austrian Graduate Study (census of graduation years 2003 - 2007; 25.000 respondents)
• 2009-2012: Cooperation with higher education institutions in Oman, Indonesia, Romania towards establishing national systems on graduate studies
• worldwide cooperation in research and training with further higher education institutions and research centers.
The INCHER members involved in the Romanian Tracer Study are:
Harald Schomburg
Harald Schomburg has been a senior researcher at INCHER-Kassel since 1982. Mr. Schomburg specializes in research on university graduates. He was involved in and leads various projects on graduate employment and work as well as on survey methods. Besides the Romanian tracer study, he is currently coordinating the German Graduate Survey "Study Conditions and Professional Success" (KOAB), Austrian Higher Education Graduates' Careers (ARUFA), Careers after Higher Education: a European Research Study (CHEERS II), Network for Development of Higher Education Management Systems (DEHEMS).
Contact: schomburg@incher.uni-kassel.de
Lutz Heidemann
Lutz Heidemann is working as a researcher since 2000 in several graduate surveys. Since 2007 he is involved in the German tracer study "Study Conditions and Professional Success" (KOAB). Previously he coordinated the Graduate Survey at the Technical University in Dresden.
Contact: heidemann@incher.uni-kassel.de
Rene Kooij
René Kooij is working as a researcher in the German tracer study "Study Conditions and Professional Success" (KOAB). His main responsibilities are in the area of data analysis and interpretation, questionnaire development and the technical implementation of questionnaires.
René studied social geography and urban planning at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). He studied at the University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), while writing his thesis about the Hungarian minority in Romania. During this period he wrote a chapter in the book "Issues of Democratic Consolidation in Romania". Currently he writes his dissertation at the University of Turku (Finland) about "Political Trust in Romania".
Contact: kooij@incher.uni-kassel.de
Martin Guist
Since 2006, Martin Guist, is working at INCHER-Kassel in the project „ONLINE_QTAFI2“. In this project he is developing a tool for development and administration of online surveys, which is based on the former programme, developed by Martin Guist as well. He is supervising therefore all online surveys that are conducted by INCHER-Kassel.
Contact: guist@incher.uni-kassel.de
Carmen Muresan
Carmen Muresan is working since 2007 as a research assistant in the German tracer study "Study Conditions and Professional Success" (KOAB). During this time she was studying in the International Master Programme Higher Education Research and Development (MAHE), is a tutor for international students and coordinates an e-Learning platform on Higher Education (
www.e-mahe.com). Recently she got involved in a research project on the Romanian students association landscape (
http://cros.ro/despre-ongs/mediul-asociativ-studentesc-in-2010/), and works in the area of development and accreditation of master programmes at the University of Kassel.
Carmen studied educational sciences at the University Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and activated during her studies in several local, national and European student NGO's.
Contact:
carmen.muresan@incher.uni-kassel.de