About HRK

The German Rectors' Conference/Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK) is the voluntary association of state and state-recognised universities and other higher education institutions in Germany. It currently has 258 member institutions at which more than 96 per cent of all students in Germany are registered.

The HRK is the political and public voice of the universities and other higher education institutions and is the forum for the higher education institutions' joint opinion-forming process. The HRK addresses all topics relating to the responsibilities of higher education institutions: Research, teaching, studies, advanced continuing education and training, knowledge and technology transfer, international cooperation, and self-administration issues.

The work of the HRK involves

providing member institutions with information,
formulating and representing the joint higher education policy positions of the member institutions,
keeping the general public informed,
advising Federal and Länder political and administrative bodies.
promoting quality assurance in teaching and studies as well as student mobility, cooperation with other organisations and associations, promoting international higher education cooperation,
collecting and documenting relevant literature and records.

The HRK was first established in 1949 as the Westdeutsche Rektorenkonferenz (WRK). Following the unification of the two German states in 1990, the first higher education institutions from the new Länder (former East Germany) were accepted as members on 5 November 1990 and the WRK became the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK). (More on the history of the HRK ).

The financial and legal sponsor of the HRK is the Stiftung zur Förderung der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (a foundation to promote the HRK).

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