Research in the University Enterprise (October 6, 2004)

        [The following article is taken from Humboldt Kosmos, No. 83 (July 2004), p. 46.  Author: NN]

    How do I convince the leadership of my university that the employment of a foreign post-doc contributes to the increase of the "company's" return? This and other questions were discussed by about 100 Humboldtians from New Zealand and Australia at the colloquium of the Humboldt Foundation held in Auckland, New Zealand, from February 20 -22, 2004. Headed by its president, Professor Wolfgang Frühwald, the delegation subsequently travelled on to Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, and Perth.

The commercialisation of the universities in the region has markedly changed the basic conditions for international exchange. As Australian universities have now come to be required to finance themselves to over 50 percent via tuition fees, and as a substantial part of these are paid by students from abroad (roughly 20 percent), the purely economic aspect of exchange programs is often predominant for the universities. The distinction between those who are purely "buyers" of education, and those who make a substantial contribution to the universities' research, is often only partly achieved, sometimes not at all. Concurrently, the tendency of Australian and New Zealand students at undergraduate and PhD levels to spend a study year abroad has been markedly on the decline, which is largely explicable in terms of financial considerations in the wake of several tuition fee increases over the last few years alone.
 

Against the background of the current discussion about reforms of the German universities, in which the introduction of tuition fees and the enhancement of the competitiveness of German universities in the international arena play a central role, the diverse experiences of the Humboldtians of these countries with their university reforms of the last 10 to 15 years were of particular interest to the German university teachers in the group. The "look behind the scenes" was therefore very worthwhile indeed.

Translation Christian Rau, ANU Canberra