Research at Universities in Germany

Abstract

In Germany, all universities have the task to carry out both research and teaching. However, due to a lack of differentiation and competition combined with chronic underfunding, research quality and attractiveness of the research environment at most universities did not keep up with public research institutes in Germany and lost ground at the global scale. This article discusses reasons for the state of university research in Germany and assesses the strategies that have been applied to improve research at German universities recently, in particular the Excellence Initiative.