Bio


Hans N. Weiler

Professor Emeritus of Education and Political Science, and Academic Secretary, Emeritus, Stanford University
Professor of Comparative Politics and Rektor, Emeritus, Viadrina European University, Frankfurt (Oder)

Having been trained as a political scientist in Frankfurt/Main, Freiburg, and London,
Hans N. Weiler has been a professor of education and political science at Stanford
University since 1965, where he was instrumental in developing Stanford’s program
in international development education (SIDEC). He was director of UNESCO’s
International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris (IIEP) in the 1970s and has
served as a consultant to a number of international organizations (including the
World Bank and the African Development Bank), foundations and national
governments in Europe, Africa, and South East Asia. At Stanford, he served as
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, as a University Fellow, and as Director of the
Center for European Studies. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in
the Behavioral Sciences, and has been awarded research fellowships and grants
by, among others, the British Council, the Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science, the Spencer Foundation, the Thyssen Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation, and the Deutsche Bank Foundation. In 1993, he was appointed a
professor of comparative politics and elected the first Rektor (president) of Viadrina
European University at Frankfurt (Oder), a position from which he retired in the fall
of 1999. He chaired the Commission on Higher Education of the State of Saxony
(1999-2002) and was instrumental in the founding and development of the Hertie
School of Governance in Berlin from 2002 to 2009. He has served in a variety of
advisory and consulting roles in German and European higher education between
1999 and 2014. From 2014 to 2017, he served as Stanford’s Academic Secretary to
the University.

He has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the (private) Hertie School
of Governance in Berlin, of the international boards of the Free University of Berlin
and the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, of the Advisory Board of the Center for Higher
Education Development (CHE) in Germany, and of the Global Scientific Committee
for UNESCO’s Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge. His service
as an evaluator includes the “Excellence Initiative” in German higher education, the
Berlin Social Science Research Center (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin), the
University of Freiburg, and various award competitions on research, teaching
quality, and teacher education. His recent speaking engagements have included
invited addresses in New York, Paris, Vienna, Budapest, San Francisco,
Heidelberg, Berlin, Frankfurt/Main, Kuala Lumpur, Trieste, Johannesburg, Cape
Town, Munich, Istanbul, and Stanford. He has been awarded the Order of Merit of
the Republic of Poland (Commander’s Cross), of the Federal Republic of Germany
(Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Kl.), and of the State of Brandenburg, as well as an
honorary doctorate by Viadrina University, and honorary citizenship by the city of
Frankfurt (Oder). His publications deal with the politics of educational change, the
international politics of knowledge production, and the dynamics of reform and nonreform
in higher education.

Further information, including a list of publications and a
more detailed CV, is available at www.stanford.edu/people/weiler.

August, 2018

Academic Appointments


Research Interests


  • Educational Policy
  • International and Comparative Education
  • Philosophy

2023-24 Courses


All Publications


  • Education and Neoliberal Globalization (Book Review) COMPARATIVE EDUCATION REVIEW Book Review Authored by: Weiler, H. N. 2009; 53 (3): 465–67
  • Keyword: International Research on Higher Education Scholarship Between Policy and Science ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ERZIEHUNGSWISSENSCHAFT Weiler, H. N. 2008; 11 (4): 516-541
  • Ambivalence and the politics of knowledge: The struggle for change in German higher education HIGHER EDUCATION Weiler, H. N. 2005; 49 (1-2): 177-195
  • THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EDUCATIONAL-POLICY AND PRACTICE - THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE COLLEGE-PREPARATORY GYMNASIUM IN EAST-GERMANY HARVARD EDUCATIONAL REVIEW MINTROP, H., WEILER, H. N. 1994; 64 (3): 247-277
  • CURRICULUM REFORM AND THE LEGITIMATION OF EDUCATIONAL-OBJECTIVES - THE CASE OF THE FEDERAL-REPUBLIC-OF-GERMANY 1989 ANNUAL MEETING OF THE COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SOCIETY WEILER, H. N. CARFAX PUBL CO. 1990: 15–27
  • WHY REFORMS FAIL - THE POLITICS OF EDUCATION IN FRANCE AND THE FEDERAL-REPUBLIC-OF-GERMANY JOURNAL OF CURRICULUM STUDIES WEILER, H. N. 1989; 21 (4): 291-305
  • EDUCATION AND POWER - THE POLITICS OF EDUCATIONAL DECENTRALIZATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE EDUCATIONAL POLICY WEILER, H. N. 1989; 3 (1): 31-43
  • INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN-RESOURCES AND EDUCATIONAL-PLANNING PROSPECTS CHINAPAH, V., LOFSTEDT, J. I., Weiler, H. 1989; 19 (1): 11-32
  • THE POLITICS OF REFORM AND NONREFORM IN FRENCH EDUCATION COMPARATIVE EDUCATION REVIEW WEILER, H. N. 1988; 32 (3): 251-265
  • EQUAL-PROTECTION, LEGITIMACY, AND THE LEGALIZATION OF EDUCATION - THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL COURT IN WEST-GERMANY REVIEW OF POLITICS WEILER, H. N. 1985; 47 (1): 66-91
  • THE POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS WEILER, H. N. 1984; 14 (4): 467-477
  • THE POLITICAL DILEMMAS OF FOREIGN STUDY COMPARATIVE EDUCATION REVIEW WEILER, H. N. 1984; 28 (2): 168-179
  • EDUCATION, PUBLIC CONFIDENCE AND THE LEGITIMACY OF THE MODERN STATE - IS THERE A CRISIS SOMEWHERE JOURNAL OF CURRICULUM STUDIES WEILER, H. N. 1983; 15 (2): 125-142
  • LEGALIZATION, EXPERTISE, AND PARTICIPATION - STRATEGIES OF COMPENSATORY LEGITIMATION IN EDUCATIONAL-POLICY COMPARATIVE EDUCATION REVIEW WEILER, H. N. 1983; 27 (2): 259-277
  • EDUCATION, PUBLIC CONFIDENCE, AND THE LEGITIMACY OF THE MODERN STATE - DO WE HAVE A CRISIS PHI DELTA KAPPAN WEILER, H. N. 1982; 64 (1): 9-14
  • THE USES OF EDUCATIONAL-PLANNING - SOME FURTHER THOUGHTS PROSPECTS WEILER, H. N. 1981; 11 (2): 149-153
  • EDUCATION AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH WEILER, H. N. 1968; 38 (3): 231-242