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RESEARCH

Germany’s best minds leave the country

Germany is being left behind in the global race to keep its brightest minds, according to a study which will be presented to Chancellor Angela Merkel this week.

Published: 24 February 2014 08:50 CET
Germany's best minds leave the country
Photo: DPA

The government Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI) found that the best German-trained researchers, academics and scientists were leaving the country, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Monday.

“Germany is losing many of its best scientists through emigration,” the study said.

It added that although Germany did attract bright minds from other countries, the quality of scientists who came to Germany was of a lower standard than of those leaving.

“The German research system does not seem to be attractive enough for the best,” it said.

The research found that 4,000 more scientists left Germany between 1996 and 2011 than came into the country.

Other European countries such as Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium had a net gain rather than a loss.

More than half of the German scientists who leave head to Switzerland and the US.

SEE ALSO: Industry boss claims too many students harm economy

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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Published: 18 April 2024 16:09 CEST
Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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