ABSTRACT
Following the Second World War, the prevailing concept of university study in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands was still rooted in a tradition from the nineteenth century. In its most ideological sense, this tradition has been referred to by both scholars and the popular media in all three countries as the “neo-humanistic” or “Humboldtian Idea” of the University.1 Based on the concept of Bildung and Wissenschaft which espoused an exclusive commitment to individual freedom in the systematic pursuit of knowledge, this classical ideal of study has provided a resilient ideological frame of reference which has shaped the re-conceptualization of the structure and function of university study in all three countries since the 1950s.2 Referring to the reform debate in Germany over the role of the university, Ulrich Schreiterer observes that
despite the diverse criticism of its factual contents, its social implications and theoretical foundations, despite well-known anachronisms and historically determined weaknesses, the neo-humanistic university concept…has always constructed the most important reference point for thematic conceptualization of the university, its self-evident truths, its work processes, and its production.3
