1. German-British Cooperation post-Brexit Some Facts and Opinions
Martin Bickl
DAIA 2017 Annual Conference
Berlin
2 March 2017

2. UK and German Higher Education Same but different?
Germany UK
Population
82m
65m
Universities (degree-awarding)
381
151
Students
2,6 m
2,3 m
People aged with a tertiary qualification
28 %
48 %
International students (Berlin / London)
11 (13)
18 (26)
Staff (academic staff)
620,000 (337,000)
275,000 (127,000)
HE spending as % of GDP (public:private)
1.3% (1.1%:0.2%)
1.2% (0.9%:0.3%)
Total R&D as % of GDP (public spending)
3% (0.9%)
1.7% (0.5%)
Top 10 universities (THE / Shanghai)
0 / 0
3 /2
Tuition fees p.a.
Up to EUR 11,000 for British/EU students
Nach Hillman (2015, aktualisiert)
DAIA-Tagung 2017

3. Largest bone of contention: tuition fees
“We have created a system where everybody feels like they
are getting a bad deal. This is not sustainable.”
The Higher Education Commission on Britain‘s high fees, high debt and relatively high non-repayment rates of student loans
“ […] Germany says higher education is important, but its government is
neither willing to put in the required funds nor allowing
universities to charge tuition. The government ends up compromising
quality and restricting access, with the effect that all workers
end up paying for the university education of the rich parents’
children.“
The OECD‘s Andreas Schleicher on Germany‘s low per-capita investment in higher education
DAIA-Tagung 2017

4. Success
Britain and Germany – Europe‘s research powerhouse and a leading example of the added value two countries can produce collaboratively Hochschulkompass.de lists collaborative projects between D and UK German and UK researchers co-author more papers with each other than with any other country apart from the US In most EU-financed funding programmes, German and British HE institutions occupy the two top spots. Together, Germany and took one third of the recently completed FP7’s 50 million Euro budget and are performing just as well with Horizon 2020 UK is one of the most popular destinations for German students studying abroad (not quite so the other way around)
DAIA-Tagung 2017

5. Challenges
Severe imbalance in exchange of students and early-career scholars ( Finding the right formats for exchange for UG students) Changes to Europe‘s excellence-based research funding mechanisms (quotas?) Rise of competitors in Asia Brexit!?
DAIA-Tagung 2017

6. Sources
DAAD (2015), German-British Seminar on HE Research Co-operation, a seminar at DAAD London Office, 21-22/09/2015 Hillmann, N. (2015), Keeping up with the Germans. A comparison of student funding, internationalisation and research in UK and German universities. Higher Education Policy Institute Report WEB.pdf Higher Education Commission (2014), Too Good to Fail: The Financial Sustainability of Higher Education in England Royal Society (2016), UK research and the European Union. The role of the EU in international research collaboration and researcher mobility, Royal Society Working Paper Schleicher, Andreas (2015), The sustainability of the UK’s higher education system, 6 January 2015 ( the-sustainability-of-uks-higher.html)
DAIA-Tagung 2017