Germany Debates How to Strengthen Universities

摘要

Germany's recent push to boost a handful of its universities to the world's top ranks got a yellow light this week. A prominent advisory council recommended taking a break from the national competition to find, and fund, Germany's top schools. Funding should focus on strengthening a broad base of research-and teaching-at the country's universities, according to a 15 July report from the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat). A relatively robust economy has allowed the government to increase funding for the country's major nonuniversity research organizations by 5% per year since 2011. But many university-based scientists see little of the money because the constitution prohibits the federal government from funding universities directly.