From the Guardian, a report on the SPD's attempts to reform Germany's universities: "We want to change the structure of the German university in order to establish first-class universities and research centres" that can "compete with international top-league schools like Harvard and Stanford," said the SPD's draft. The idea delivered by education minister Bulmahn is to identify 4-6 elite universities (I still haven't located the determining factors for this), which will then receive an additional 250 Million Euros above normal federal funding over five years; the competition would be repeated at the end of that period.
The major problem with this plan, and the reason it's getting flak from the Greens (and in fact from SPD members too) is that it doesn't solve the problem of lack of funds in the great majority of Germany's universities. Last Friday, Humboldt students staged a nude protest to keep the public's attention on their strike for funding. I like the image at the SZ of the woman with "Bildung im Arsch" painted on her back, a big arrow pointing to...well, duh.
Update: About the 250 million: "Millionen" in a specific numerical sense means billion, right? "Milliarden" means million. Anyway, I don't know that they have the money, whether it be millions or billions.
Also: news from the Economist about the UK's similar uni funding woes, a comparison of things on both sides of the channel, and a mention of this program in Bremen, started by Uni-Bremen and Rice U., which is essentially a small private college. Something similar in Berlin, the European College of Liberal Arts. Both of these programs charge tuition (€15,000 and €5,000 a year, respectively--the latter seems to include room and board) and can be selective about their students, something implied, if not stated, by the SPD Elite proposal. The cost, also, means smaller classes, which is a foreign concept in Germany's overfilled university system. There's just this small problem of charging for higher education...
Comments
"an additional 250 Billion Euros" Billion? With a B? Where in the world will they get that money? What's the current level of funding for Unis in Germany?
Posted by: andrew at January 26, 2004 01:59 PM