sborník

Gunter Weiss
should show an own scientific profile and wants get the status of an “Elite
University”. In a situation of educational and economical competition
between Universities ranking lists pretend objectivity, but they often
compare ‘apples with pears’. Such ranking procedures put hard pressure
onto us teachers and we are daily forced to justify our existence:
• Effective duration of studies should not exceed standard duration;
• the number of beginners should not differ to much from that of graduates;
• we should produce publications with high impact factor;
• and first of all, we should be successful fund risers.
The big press often leads to improper reactions, as we have to cope
somehow with “the system” and to compete with other colleagues instead of
cooperate with them. I suppose that the loud calls for a re-organization of
Universities and their studies just mask the shortage of financial resource
and help to hide cutbacks in staff.
While PISA and Bologna, together with bad economy of the states, take
effects from ‘outside’ to our universities, our way to cope with those effects
also has ‘inner’ changes as consequences. Thus it might be useful to analyze
the following question:
2 What happens within our educational/research
system
I see competition between European Universities, within limits, not at all as
only a bad thing. There are the limits it will depend on! Universities of
bigger countries are indeed very different, often due to long scientific
traditions, special profile, contacts to industry. But they all are governed and
ruled by the same national laws. To escape from this, some Universities try
to become the status of privatised institutions, like foundations. Such a
structural change has many consequences. Some of the consequences are, to
my experience,
– Reduction of teaching staff: As the faculties are ranked according to
their fund rising abilities, Mathematics and Didactics/Pedagogic usually
have the last position.
– Downgrading of teaching jobs: If a person retires, the replacement – if at
all possible – has to be at cheapest conditions. In Jena, Dresden,
Karlsruhe I know of examples, where full-professor jobs at Mathematics
departments are replaced by jobs at assistant level. Especially Geometry
falls victim to this downgrading, which will have negative consequences
for Geometry as a mathematical science.
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