A
Anonymous
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A while ago, the German government started a campaign that would award the best universities of the country with the status of an "elite university" (the official title is, of course, different and more elaborate, but the public discussion uses this term for simplicity). The idea was to ignite some competition between the schools, to re-establish the country's reputation of being a stronghold of science, and, basically, to improve the quality of the universities. The title is meant to improve a school's prestige, attracting more scholars, scientists and students, and of course is also combined with a money bonus.
One of the driving forces of the campaign was the shocking revelation that only three German universities got a ranking in the top 100 unis of the world. Germany wants its own Harvards, Yales and Oxfords. Fine with me.
Last week, six universities got promoted to that status (adding to three that already held it), including the one I started studying this semester, the FU Berlin. Great thing, you might say. In fact, several people congratulated me on that. Quite an impressive feat too, given that the university was only founded in 1948, while the other big Berlin university, the Humboldt Uni, which has much historical prestige, has not yet received the status.
It is a bittersweet victory, though. I study at one of the many very small institutes (for which the uni is famous), which used to teach a good number of ancient and modern languages. However, ever since Germany introduced the Bachelor system, the institute was merged with several others and subsequently had to drop most of its languages except two (both of which I have to learn) and a good part of its historical section as well. Now, that doesn't touch me, because I went there to learn the modern languages anyway, but I still think that dropping such sections is a step in the wrong direction. To my knowledge, there are now only two institutes left in the entire country that teach these languages and the other stuff that my institute had to drop. Some people may say I'm overreacting, but I think that is how knowledge is lost. The less people teach it, the less people learn it, and the less people can pass that knowledge on at later times.
Switching to the Bachelor system and the status as an "elite university" are not directly related to each other, but still, you would think that with such a prestige, the school would be interested in keeping everything together, wouldn't you? After all, Göttingen also switched, but the institute still keeps everything it had before.
But hey, I'm studying at one of the nine best universities in the country, so why should I care?
One of the driving forces of the campaign was the shocking revelation that only three German universities got a ranking in the top 100 unis of the world. Germany wants its own Harvards, Yales and Oxfords. Fine with me.
Last week, six universities got promoted to that status (adding to three that already held it), including the one I started studying this semester, the FU Berlin. Great thing, you might say. In fact, several people congratulated me on that. Quite an impressive feat too, given that the university was only founded in 1948, while the other big Berlin university, the Humboldt Uni, which has much historical prestige, has not yet received the status.
It is a bittersweet victory, though. I study at one of the many very small institutes (for which the uni is famous), which used to teach a good number of ancient and modern languages. However, ever since Germany introduced the Bachelor system, the institute was merged with several others and subsequently had to drop most of its languages except two (both of which I have to learn) and a good part of its historical section as well. Now, that doesn't touch me, because I went there to learn the modern languages anyway, but I still think that dropping such sections is a step in the wrong direction. To my knowledge, there are now only two institutes left in the entire country that teach these languages and the other stuff that my institute had to drop. Some people may say I'm overreacting, but I think that is how knowledge is lost. The less people teach it, the less people learn it, and the less people can pass that knowledge on at later times.
Switching to the Bachelor system and the status as an "elite university" are not directly related to each other, but still, you would think that with such a prestige, the school would be interested in keeping everything together, wouldn't you? After all, Göttingen also switched, but the institute still keeps everything it had before.
But hey, I'm studying at one of the nine best universities in the country, so why should I care?
And with yours, Germany and Ireland would take the top 20