From Konstanz to Kiel, from Aachen to Dresden, things are changing in higher education all over Germany – and colleges and universities are boldly taking up the challenge of reform. Professors’ pay is becoming more strongly performance-oriented, universities are being transformed into independent foundations, courses are being made more international and in some Länder students are now paying – relatively moderate – tuition fees. Furthermore, Germany’s 383 institutions of higher education have been immersed in a new competitive spirit signalling a mood of change and renewal. More than ever before, students and professors are discussing excellence and performance. Buzzwords like “institutional strategies”, “clusters” and “graduate schools” are being heard throughout the country’s 103 universities. What prompted this change? A unique competition within German higher education – the Initiative for Excellence. Established by the Federal Government and the Länder, it aims to promote top university research and to create beacons of scholarship in Germany that will also radiate abroad. A total of 1.9 billion euros is being allocated between 2006 and 2011 to achieve this goal. This money is being distributed through the competition in three categories: graduate schools, excellence clusters and institutional strategies.
Graduate schools are considered one of the special strengths of German higher education institutions. They offer PhD students a well-structured training oriented towards the latest state of research. They only recently evolved in their current internationally innovative form within the framework of the Initiative for Excellence. Whether the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology or the Graduate School of Computer Science at Universität des Saarlandes, the 39 graduate schools distinguished by the Initiative for Excellence, which are receiving some one million euros of financial support a year, offer young academics ideal conditions for launching a career in research. The same goal is being served by the talent initiative organized by universities and the Max Planck Society that has already established 49 International Max Planck Research Schools. Helmholtz Graduate Schools are also offering PhD programmes of the highest quality.
In the case of excellence clusters, support is being awarded to internationally oriented research centres at German universities that collaborate with extra-university research institutes, universities of applied sciences and industry. Some 6.5 million euros a year are going to 37 excellence clusters. For example, climate research is the central focus of work by natural scientists, economists, social scientists and humanities researchers at Universität Hamburg who are cooperating with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the German Weather Service (DWD). The third and final category of the Initiative for Excellence brings the most prestige: institutional strategies are intended to strengthen the research profile of German universities. The precondition for support is that a university has at least one excellence cluster, one graduate school and a convincing overall strategy. Institutions that meet all three criteria are considered outstanding and receive the sought-after title “elite university”. A panel of international researchers from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science Council made the selection.
In the first two rounds, in autumn 2006 and 2007, the panel selected nine outstanding universities in Aachen, Berlin, Freiburg, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Konstanz and Munich. Elite status gives a university an additional 21 million euros a year for research – and a priceless boost to its prestige. More enquiries from international universities and companies about research partnerships, increased interest from abroad in PhD posts and a significant rise in the demand for undergraduate places are the initial results registered by Professor Horst Hippler, Rector of the elite university in Karlsruhe.
Germany is preparing itself for the international competition for the best minds. Already, with some 250,000 foreign students, Germany is the world’s favourite study destination after the United States and Great Britain. The Initiative for Excellence is only one of a number of strategies for a more attractive higher education landscape, which is becoming more international through the introduction of new Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in place of German Diplom and Magister qualifications. The Higher Education Pact 2020, an initiative of the Federal Government and the Länder, is supporting the expansion of teaching capacities in higher education. The research landscape is also receiving an additional boost: up to 2010, within the framework of the Higher Education Pact 2020, some 700 million euros will be spent on promoting university research in Germany, which is already one of the world’s great research nations with a total of 250,000 scientists and scholars. The Pact for Research and Innovation, another Federal Government-Länder initiative, will ensure that the largest extra-university research establishments receive an annual budget increase of at least 3% until 2010. The Federal Government will be providing a total of 15 billion euros for advanced technologies until 2009. In 2008, for the first time, Germany will be honouring leading international researchers with the Research in Germany Award. This award of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is endowed with prize money of up to five million euros. The prizewinners have to conduct pioneering research at German universities for five years.
Taking Germany forward using ingenuity and creativity is also the aim of the high-tech strategy agreed in 2006. This initiative intends to set a signal for increased innovation and the closer integration of industry and science. The potential in 17 forward-looking sectors, such as energy technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology or medical technology, is to be better utilized to put new products on the market faster. The initial assessment is also positive: more investment is flowing into research and development. The goal of the strategy is to make Germany one of the world’s most innovation- and research-friendly countries.
