Elite universities: Could they make Germany more attractive as a site for research and investment?

The plan of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to provide special support for up to ten top universities to enhance scientific research in Germany science is assessed quite sceptically by Prof. Gerd Groezinger, University of Flensburg. He considers it more important to re-introduce more research to the universities, which have been "degraded to teaching institutions", via a promotion of more intensive co-operation between non-university research institutions. "The simplest solution would be to take the projected quarter billion euros annually and give it to the DFG with minor conditions. One idea would be for university members to "buy out" of teaching for a limited time and to work on a project at a Max Planck institute, for example... Specialists from the institute could also work for a limited time at the universities, up-dating the students on current research. For Prof. Oliver Fable, University of Constance, and Prof. Dominique Demougin, Humboldt University, Berlin, the greatest problem is "the inefficient organisation of the German scientific system in which too much is invested in general areas and too little in specific human capital. What is necessary, instead, is a clear increase in professorships in order to implement the advantages of greater specialisation. This would require reorganising German universities to a departmental structure in place of the present concentration on professorial chairs. Prof. Matthias Kräkel, University of Bonn, argues for combining top disciplines into research networks that would receive targeted funding: "A clear affirmative for the promotion of top research at German universities, however, in the form of a specifically funding research networks to forego the danger that tax money transferred to 'elite universities', using the principle of 'equal shares for all', may be inefficiently utilised."