We propose an alternative model for university governance reform; namely, the professional partnership. To this end, we provide a theoretical foundation to support the propositions that the profession, as institution, and the partnership, as organizational form, have unique governance characteristics that are more effective for knowledge-intensive organizations, such as universities, than the corporate model of governance, on which the New-Public-Management-inspired governance model for German public universities, the so-called Neues Steuerungsmodell, is based.