Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

EDUCATION

Germany’s younger universities on the rise

Germany’s youngest universities are rising in international standings, according to The Times Higher Education rankings published on Thursday.

Published: 1 May 2014 08:39 CEST
Germany's younger universities on the rise
Photo: DPA

Six German institutions were included in the annual list of the Times’ top 100 universities under the age of 50, up from four last year.

The University of Ulm was the highest ranked German institution, ahead of Konstanz, Bayreuth, Bielefeld, Ruhr University Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Rankings editor Phil Baty said: “Germany is enjoying really strong results in the Times Higher Education rankings.

"The World Reputation Rankings demonstrate the growing stature of Germany’s traditional universities, while this new analysis of dynamic young institutions shows that its newcomers’ stocks are rising too.”

He told The Local: “There is a whole generation of much younger German universities also competing, so it suggests a healthy economy.”

The rankings use the same 13 performance indicators that underpin the World University Rankings which were released earlier this year.

For the third year in a row, the list was headed by South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology. 

SEE ALSO: Which subjects are German universities best at?

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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. 

SHOW COMMENTS