Organisational profile
The Higher Education Information System (HIS) enables German institutions of higher education (universities and universities of applied sciences), their administrations, and higher education policy-makers to work and function more effectively. Our focus areas include:
- software development for higher education administrations
- higher education research through empirical studies and other forms of expertise
- higher education development in terms of higher education organisation, construction, and building
HIS was founded in 1969 by the Volkswagen Foundation as a non-profit organisation. In 1975, it was taken over by Germany's Federal and state governments (Länder). Today, the former holds one-third and the latter two-thirds of the organisation's capital stock.
HIS is an integral part of the German higher education system. This ensures a long-term not-for-profit performance profile that is best suited to meeting the needs of the higher education sector.
HIS has been offering IT-support to higher education administrations for over forty years. Its store of knowledge regarding decision-making, work and organisational structures within the German higher education system is truly unique. As a result, HIS is able to complement its high-performance higher education management software with support and consultancy around the optimisation of administration processes and organisational structures. This expertise is also leveraged by HIS to continually update and develop its own software, which is used by over 220 higher education institutions in Germany.
As higher education research institute with a large volume of relevant data - e.g. on the educational behaviour of potential students, students and graduates - coupled with high-level analytical competencies, HIS can provide planning agencies at both state-level and the level of individual higher education institutions with sound and flexible planning and steering information.
In 1986, HIS took over the tasks of the disbanded central archive for higher education construction. Since then, works on construction and resource planning for higher education have become part of HIS' core performance profile.
