A panel of experts has unveiled its short-list of ten universities that are eligible to be named "elite" as part of a plan to make the German university system more competitive.
In differentiating between schools, policymakers hope to eventually create schools with international name recognition rivaling those of the Ivy League schools in the United States and the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Under the plan, up to ten top universities will receive annual grants averaging 25 million Eur ($31 million), while so-called "centers of excellence," or elite departments at other colleges, stand to receive additional funding amounting to 8 million Eur ($10 million) a year.
The short-listed schools include RWTH Aachen, the Universities of Bremen, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe (TH), Tübingen, Wuerzburg, the Free University of Berlin, the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Technical University of Munich.
The short-listed "centers of excellence" include departments at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Technical University of Berlin, the Medical College of Hanover as well as the universities of Darmstadt, Goettingen, Hamburg, Kiel.
All together, 27 universities entered the competition, which was launched by then-Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn in 2004.
The idea of promoting "elite" institutions has sparked fears of a two-speed system of higher education in a country proud of its post-war tradition of egalitarianism, Students faces challenges such as overcrowded lectures halls.
but most Germans agree that something needs to be done to remedy complaints of overcrowded lecture halls and shrinking budgets at the country's universities.
Universities and research centers that failed to make the two shortlists in the first round were invited to resubmit their applications in advance of a decision that will be made on October 13.
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/publications/week/2004/040109/politics5.html
In differentiating between schools, policymakers hope to eventually create schools with international name recognition rivaling those of the Ivy League schools in the United States and the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Under the plan, up to ten top universities will receive annual grants averaging 25 million Eur ($31 million), while so-called "centers of excellence," or elite departments at other colleges, stand to receive additional funding amounting to 8 million Eur ($10 million) a year.
The short-listed schools include RWTH Aachen, the Universities of Bremen, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe (TH), Tübingen, Wuerzburg, the Free University of Berlin, the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Technical University of Munich.
The short-listed "centers of excellence" include departments at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Technical University of Berlin, the Medical College of Hanover as well as the universities of Darmstadt, Goettingen, Hamburg, Kiel.
All together, 27 universities entered the competition, which was launched by then-Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn in 2004.
The idea of promoting "elite" institutions has sparked fears of a two-speed system of higher education in a country proud of its post-war tradition of egalitarianism, Students faces challenges such as overcrowded lectures halls.
but most Germans agree that something needs to be done to remedy complaints of overcrowded lecture halls and shrinking budgets at the country's universities.
Universities and research centers that failed to make the two shortlists in the first round were invited to resubmit their applications in advance of a decision that will be made on October 13.
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/info/publications/week/2004/040109/politics5.html