4. Promoting Research Excellence
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JIANI ZHU 4. PROMOTING RESEARCH EXCELLENCE The Excellence Initiative in Germany 1 INTRODUCTION Glorious History vs. Mediocre Accomplishments The history of the oldest German universities – the University of Erfurt (founded in 1379), Heidelberg University (1386), the University of Cologne (1388), Leipzig University (1409), Trier University (1454)2 – can be traced back to the middle ages. In the late 19th century, rivalling Great Britain and France, Germany became a centre for science in the world, and home of some of the most prominent researchers in many scientific disciplines (physics, mathematics, chemistry, and engineering, etc.). A considerable number of young people travelled to Germany to pursue the most advanced knowledge there. Nevertheless, when one refers the most prestigious universities of today, one probably may not immediately bring to mind any German universities, alongside the list of “big names” such as Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, or Cambridge. The performance of German universities in the global rankings, such as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), QS World University Rankings, and the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings – the three most influential and widely observed international university rankings – seems to sustain the impression (see Table 1). Table 1. The best performance of German university in the world league table (2008-2013). Rankings 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 ARWU No.55 (6) No.55 (5) No.52 (4) No.47 (6) No.53 (4) No.50 (4) QS No.57 (3) No.55 (4) – No.53 (4) No.53 (4) No.50 (3) THE – – No.43 (3) No.45 (4) No.48 (4) No.55 (6) Note: The number in the parenthesis indicates the total number of German universities listed in the top 100 league table. Source: based on the results of ARWU, QS, and THE World University Rankings. In spite of the different indicators, these three league tables demonstrate similar results. That is, compared to their American and British counterparts, few German universities are included in the top 100 world university rankings. In the last six years, the highest rank that a German university has achieved is 43rd in 2010, while the total number of German universities among the top 100 is six. Y. Cheng et al. (eds.), How World-Class Universities Affect Global Higher Education, 31–46. © 2014 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. JIANI ZHU Staying Egalitarian vs. Pursuing Excellence The Excellence Initiative aims to make the German university landscape differentiated, through breaking the traditional and matter of course in the German university system and building the top universities (Sondermann et al., 2008). In this regard, it is not similar to other research funding initiatives that aim to enhance the attractiveness of doing research in Germany. Unlike in America, there is no “Ivy League” in Germany. The German system, as well as university systems in many other European countries, follows a strong egalitarian tradition: each university is expected to offer research and teaching at the same level. Thus, German universities are only differentiated by their history (long or short) and scale (big or small), but not by their reputation (good or bad). Further, almost all universities are public,3 mainly paid for by taxes. Therefore, theoretically, these institutions are egalitarian: all universities are equal and hence should be treated equally. However, such an egalitarian system with equal funding does not stimulate them to be ambitious or to exert themselves to become more competitive. Consequently, German universities either lack extra financial resources or are less motivated to seek excellence. Furthermore, because of the historic reasons mentioned above, any intention to launch a campaign, to seek any excellence or to choose a path of inequality by funding elites, is often regarded as taboo. Regarding this, when the former Minister of Education and Research, Edelgard Bulmahn, first put forward the idea of such a programme, it stimulated vigorous debate in both scientific and political circles in Germany. Unity of Teaching and Research vs. Under-investment in Research Centring research-oriented teaching and the transfer of knowledge from the spirit of research, Wilhelm Humboldt’s ideal of the coexistence of research and teaching has become a model for universities all over the world. Non-university research institutions, such as those of the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres, the Leibniz Association, and the Fraunhofer Society, have strong traditions of research competency. Nevertheless, compared with other research institutions, the universities have advantages in terms of their multi- disciplinary nature, as well as having a unique function of educating and training new researchers (Huber, 2010). It is crucial, therefore, to strengthen research at universities. Research in any case in Germany is severely underfunded. In terms of expenditure on research and development, Germany is not only behind its Scandinavian competitors, but also Korea and Japan as well (see Figure 1). According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Finland, Sweden, Korea, and Japan invested over 3 percent Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) continuously over the last 10 years (2002-2011), while Germany only invested 2.6 percent on average. Figure 1 indicates that the turning point appeared around 2007, since when Germany has constantly increased its GERD from 2.54 percent to 2.84 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The 32 .