The World Economic Forum recently published its Global Competitiveness Index (pdf) and it makes for interesting reading. Once again, the United States ranks first among all countries in terms of global competitiveness, notwithstanding its current economic crisis. One of the reasons cited by the researchers is America's excellent university system which collaborates strongly with business on R&D. Germany slipped to 7th place overall for competitiveness despite having the top-ranked transportation and telephony infrastructure. One of the issues cited is Germany's mediocre institutions of higher education. Germany's elite students often find better study opportunities at top-rated colleges and universities in the US.
Private universities in Germany were established as an alternative to Germany's overcrowded and moribund public institutions. In recent years, a number of private colleges and university were created, sometimes in partnership with American schools. Students at these private universities pay tuition, often as much as 10,000 Euros per semester, and in return get much more individualized instruction, more interaction with faculty, smaller class size, etc. – all of the advantages of private liberal arts education in the US. The students receive their degrees at much younger age: typically at 23 rather than the average of 27 at the state universities. The private universities are funded by a combination of tuition, donations by wealthy benefactors and state subsidies.
Now the economic crisis has put the state subsidies for private colleges and universities in jeopardy. Germany's oldest private uiversity – Universität Witten/Herdecke – is facing a financial crisis and may be forced to shut its doors for good:
mitgeteilt, dass er Deutschlands ältester und größter Privatuniversität
für das Jahr 2008 zugesagte Landesmittel in Höhe von 4,5 Millionen Euro
nicht auszahlen werde. Als Begründung gab er an, sie habe keine
ordnungsgemäße Geschäftsführung nachweisen und weder für 2009 noch für
die darauffolgenden beiden Jahre einen verlässlichen Wirtschaftsplan
vorlegen können. Außerdem fordert das Land für das Jahr 2007 bereits
ausgezahlte Gelder in Höhe von 3 Millionen Euro zurück. (The science minister for North-Rhine Westphailia, Andreas Pinwart, announced on Wednesday that he would not pay out the approved 2008 state subsidy in the amount of 4.5 million Euros to Germany's oldest and largest private university. The reason cited was that the instutition did not present a suitable management structure and could not produce a credible business plan for 2009 and subsequent years. Furthermore he demanded that the university return the 3 million Euros that were already paid out in 2007.)
Not too many observers in Germany are shedding tears for the collapse of the University Witten/Herdecke. It was seen as a school for the wealthy and the elite – let them go to Harvard or to Stanford. An exception is Thomas Schmid in Die Welt, who sees the demise of the university as a "crying shame" (Jammerschade):
besichtigen, dass private Universitäten ein gutes Gegengewicht zu
staatlichen Universitäten sein können. Und gerade der Welt der
Ausbildung täte es gut, wenn tausend Blumen blühten und auch ein paar
nicht staatliche darunter wären. Der hohe Mut, der die Gründung von
Witten/Herdecke getragen hat, gehört zum besten Erbe der alten
Bundesrepublik in ihren späten Jahren, in denen sie ein bisschen
experimentierfreudig zu werden schien. Es wäre jammerschade, wenn sie
unterginge. (There is no cause for celebration here. We see in other countries that private universities can provide a good balance to state institutions. And especially in education it would be good if a thousand flowers could blossom and a few non-state schools were around. The audacity and courage that led to the creation of Witten/Herdecke are part of the legacy of the old Federal Republic in its later years when it dared to experiment with new ideas. It would be a crying shame if it were to collapse.)
Mathias Siems has a good list of requirements for successful private universities on his blog. It not clear to me how many of these criteria are missing at the Universität Witten-Herdecke:
high quality research (pure teaching institutions less respected); (4)
commitment to high quality teaching (e.g. small classes, teaching
evaluation); (5) flexible but competitive student admissions (vs.
bureaucratic procedures at public universities); (6) appealing website
(not just “ok” – there are millions of other websites); (7)
international profile; (8) innovative curriculum (challenges
traditional universities); (9) reasonable tuition fees (demand taken
into account); (10) stable ownership of university.
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What exactly is this “competitiveness” thats being judged by an industrial lobby?
Having .1% snotty elites and the rest poor, uneducated sadfaces is the historical road to ruin. Playing in your TV now.
Universities in Germany are the weakest link in their educational system. There is no accountability to the students or to the public at large. That has to change.
I wish that the emphasis could be on improving these institutions so that they serve everyone. Creating fancy private colleges that are too expensive for most risks turning higher education into a privilege for the few, as is more and more the tendency in the U.S today.
Business interests see higher education as a realm to be dominated with their money. That is what happens when colleges and universities need their funds for the fancy buildings and equipment and “name professors” and so on. Money runs the show in the U.S., from the Board rooms to the White House. It would be a pity for Germany to choose this path toward inequality.