Growing in a Niche : Dual Study Programs Contribute to Change in Germany's Higher Education

The German educational model is characterized by a historically evolved strong institutional divide between the vocational education and training system and the higher education system. Yet, the contemporary development of dual study programs implies the systematic combination of institutional elements from both subsystems. The rapid expansion of these programs is based on the hybridization of organizational structures - outside of traditional structures - at the nexus of traditional organizational fields of vocational training and higher education.