Characteristics of the Networking Interaction among the Universities of Germany

The article presents a system of evaluation criteria for university networking activities. The proposed approach to evaluation of the networking interaction among "elite" universities included into the "Excellence Initiative" program is anchored into analysis of official websites of higher education institutions and other open sources. This issue is highly relevant, since Germany is one of the European leaders in the spheres of higher academic education and scientific research. The first group of criteria deals with the composition of actors in partnership networking communities by drawing on the "pentaspiral" concept. By applying these criteria to Germany’s scientific landscape, we can identify a dense network composed of 400 actors, such as universities, world-famous non-university research institutes, powerful scientific production clusters, political structures, and civil society institutions. The second group of criteria determines the characteristics of the interaction process in the selected partnership networking communities. The presented analysis of interactions among the universities accounts of them as both educational institutions and scientific centers. The third group of criteria reveals the prospects of transformation of the role and further development of the networking interaction among the universities that include active presence of educational services on the international market, “export” of educational programs, and provision of assistance in organizing institutions of higher education based on the German model abroad. The obtained data can be used in optimizing universities’ strategies for joining international networking communities.