Within a decade a paradigm shift in the funding of German universities has taken place: autonomy, competition and performance criteria now take center stage. Steering efforts of governments shifted from regulatory interventions to financial incentive systems. Nevertheless, the German funding model is not independent from its context – on the contrary, it is determined by certain factors that are described. This article also introduces major funding instruments for federal and state governments and shows how public funding instruments in Germany try to balance three major purposes. Furthermore, it points out that these tools have a common ground and offers an overview on the three typical pillars of funding models (basic, performance-oriented and innovation-/profile-oriented). They can be combined in different ways. To conclude, the articles highlights several lessons learnt.

This report provides an overview of relevant policy information and stakeholders’ views on quality-related funding, performance agreements and profiling in a number of selected countries. The study is conducted for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. It is envisaged to feed into the Dutch higher education debate around profiling and the potential instruments that can stimulate a more diversified higher education system. The report particularly focuses on instruments in the domain of teaching, but cannot escape from describing some major issues that address research as well. The countries selected for this study have in one way or another recently gone through a process to stimulate quality, diversity, profiling or performance agreements.1 The countries provide a variety of perspectives and insights about policies, objectives, trade-offs and the struggle to achieve the desired effects. Where possible the opinions and expectations from stakeholders are reflected.

Midwives, members of allied health professionals and nurses make up 64 % of the personnel in the Austrian health sector. These occupational groups are now being educated at the tertiary level – at universities of applied sciences. Due to this academisation, health professionals have to meet the challenge of conducting research on their own or in collaboration with others. While some European countries are already experienced in doing research, Austria is just beginning to do so. This article focuses on the demands placed upon universities of applied sciences and collaborations that could potentially strenghten their research capabilities. It also highlights the critical aspects of conducting research within these young academic disciplines and describes research strategies for performing this research.

What importance does competition assume in state models for performance-based funding in German higher education? This is the guiding question of this presentation. With a view to answering it the presentation commences by introducing shortly into the relevant characteristics of the German higher education system. After that, an approach on how to operationalise incentives for competitive performance in formula-based funding is presented. Moreover, indicators used in formula funding models are presented. The presentation moves on to give an overview of the current level of dissemination of both target agreements and internal allocation procedures in different German Länder. It turns out that in 2007, 86% of universities used indicator-based models and that a further 12% were planning to introduce them. In addition, 29% of universities used target agreements and a further 28% intended to introduce them.

The grants of the European Research Council (ERC) aim to support »frontier research«. In other words, they encourage the pursuit of questions at or beyond the frontiers of knowledge, without regard for established disciplinary boundaries. ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe. Thereby, the sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence. In this presentation, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker explains the ERC funding instruments and exemplifies their mode of operation citing a number of selected projects in Germany.

Public funding of European higher education represents approximately 1% of GDP. In contrast, private funding represents only 0.1% of GDP. As many OECD countries are even reducing their contributions to higher education funding, private means of financing loom large in the discussion about how to finance students’ education in the long run. Most notably, the chances created by introducing tuition fees are stressed. However, as Tim Rogers points out, the introduction of tuition fees may have unexpected side effects. Ironically, an increase in tuition fees is often followed by an intensified demand, as high fees raise service level expectations. Secondly, the influx of students' money is just a first step towards securing long-term financing. In this respect, the challenge is to use the new resources effectively. How to tackle these challenges? According to Rogers, a number of pricing tactics can help to set a price that enables to control students’ expectations and an institutions capacity to absorb additional resources.

Whatever you would like to know about the doctoral education at the The International Max Planck Research School, Erwin Neher and Steffen Burkhardt will be able to tell you. At the HRK conference on doctoral training in Europe and North America they presented the School’s twin PhD programmes in molecular biology and neurosciences. Not only do they present the School’s mission goals, governance structures and its network of collaboration institutions; also, they explain the curricula of the PhD programmes and list a number of funding opportunities for students. An interesting add-on are the statistics they provide about student applications, application-admission ratios as well as career pathways of former students.