Scholarships In Germany

Higher education in Germany is changing fast - after numerous reforms and the Initiative for Excellence. The quality of research and education benefit from this - and so are the students.

From Konstanz to Kiel, from Aachen to Dresden, things change in higher education throughout Germany - and colleges and universities are committed to the challenge of reform. remuneration of teachers is becoming more strongly performance-oriented universities have been transformed into independent foundations, courses are made more international and in some states students are now paying - relatively moderate - tuition. In addition, Germany 383 higher education institutions have been plunged into a new competitive spirit that indicates a mood of change and renewal. More than ever, students and teachers discuss excellence and performance. Buzzwords like "institutional strategies", "clusters" and "colleges" are heard throughout the 103 universities in the country.

But what is causing this change? A unique competition in German higher education - the Initiative for Excellence. Created by the federal government and the La¤nder, it aims to promote research and postgraduate create tags scholarship in Germany, which will also be beamed abroad. A total of 1.9 billion is allocated between 2006 and 2011 to reach this goal. This money is distributed through the competition in three categories: high schools, centers of excellence and institutional strategies.

Graduate schools are considered one of the special forces of the German institutions of higher education. They offer doctoral students a structured training program geared towards the latest state of research. They recently moved into their present form at international level in the Innovative Initiative for Excellence. If the Graduate School of Bielefeld in history and sociology in the Graduate School of Computer Science, Universita¤t des Saarlandes, the 39 colleges distinguished by the Initiative for Excellence - which receive about one million euros to support financial one year - offer young academics ideal conditions for launching a career in research. The same goal is served by the talent initiative organized by the universities and the Max Planck Society, which has already established 49 International Max Planck Research Schools. Helmholtz Graduate Schools also offer doctoral programs of the highest quality.

In the case of centers of excellence, support is given to research directed at German universities that collaborate with research institutions outside universities, universities of applied sciences and industry. Some 6.5 million per year range at 37 centers of excellence. For example, climate research is the focus of the work of natural scientists, economists, sociologists and researchers in the humanities at the University of Hamburg who cooperate with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the German Weather Service (DWD).

The third and last category of the Initiative for Excellence brings prestige: Most institutional strategies aimed at strengthening the research profile of German universities. The precondition for support is that the university has at least one center of excellence, one graduate school and a convincing overall strategy. Facilities that meet all three criteria are considered outstanding and receive the sought-after title "elite university". A group of international scientists from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science Council has made the selection.

In the first two rounds, in autumn 2006 and 2007, the jury selected nine outstanding universities in Aachen, Berlin, Freiburg, Ga¶ttingen, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Konstanz.