In many countries university expansion in recent decades has led to a
process of institutional differentiation between mass and elite univer
sities, between state and private universities, and between long- and
short-term courses. Selection into these different types of higher edu
cation is practised not only by the university itself, since the stude
nts subject themselves to a certain self-selection. The effect of both
forms of selection is to reproduce the institutional differentiation
of the level of the university in a social differentiation at the leve
l of the student body. The data analysed here are from a survey conduc
ted during the winter semester 1989-1990 among university beginners at
three German universities with the following results: (1) Students en
rolling in various subjects differ substantially from one another in t
erms of motives, expectations regarding future career, and cognitive a
bilities. As the survey was carried out among those just beginning the
ir studies, the differences observed cannot be attributed to subject-s
pecific socialisation processes (professionalisation) but must be due
to the factor of selection alone. (2) Students do not distinguish them
selves from one another across universities. Controlling for the overa
ll set of subjects taught at the particular universities, differences
in the characteristics of those enrolled in different universities are
not statistically significant. This finding confirms the homogeneity
of German universities. (3) The values and norms instilled in the cont
ext of family and school socialisation provide the best explanation fo
r the choice of subject and the selection process at the university.