ABSTRACT
Universities, distinctive by offering education in a large variety of both theoretically and practically oriented disciplines and professions, tend to crystallize clear notions about the quality and quantity of scholars and students it takes to claim a university title. Prior to 1945 the Japanese system could be considered a single cluster galaxy, rather similar to the Swiss one. But since then the vast upgrading and addition of new institutions led to the emergence of a number of more distinct clusters, and thus to a higher education galaxy that is much more internally differentiated. The aftereffects of a particular change of regime on higher-education landscapes can be examined by comparing higher-education developments in East Germany after 1989 with trends in both West Germany and Switzerland. Up to that time, the central European educational landscape had shown rather unexpected patterns of similarity.
