Gerhard Casper

Gerhard Casper is one of the most knowledgeable insiders in the German and American university systems. He grew up in Hamburg, and studied law in Hamburg and Freiburg, where he completed his Ph.D. In 1964 he began his academic career in the United States, first at the University of California in Berkeley, and then in Chicago. After serving for three years as provost at the University of Chicago, he was president of Stanford University from 1992 to 2000.

Gerhard Casper is a prolific and committed professor, author and journalist in law and the social sciences. In 1997 he published Cares of the University, a book about his management role at Stanford University. He is a member of a number of institutions of academic life and transatlantic exchange, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy in Berlin – making him an expert of university systems. He is in a unique position to comment on university reform, a subject which is highly topical in the German education system today. His views as both an insider and an outsider, an emeritus president and an active scholar, are particularly valuable in the light of Germany’s endeavours towards improved university education.