University in Transition: Research Mission, Interdisciplinarity and Governance by Anne MacLachlan, Detlef Müller-Böling, Evelies Mayer, and Jutta Fedrowitz (1998)

The major theme of this book is how the many kinds of changes and reforms which the research university needs to make to respond to conditions today could be made. While overall government support is a major concern in both Germany and the United States, the issues go beyond money to the basic organization of research universities: maintaining the integrity of basic university research while collaborating more with industry, recovering and sustaining the curriculum when research predominates, addressing the unruly development of instructional technology, coping institutionally with interdisciplinarity, managing such institutions cost-effectively and efficiently given the substantial barriers within and without. Above all, every author refers in one way or another to the overwhelming need to secure and preserve university autonomy. For German universities, autonomy is still a goal, with many legal and political barriers preventing realization. For American universities, political intrusions, calls for greater scrutiny and accountability threaten autonomy.