INFORMAZIONI UNIVERSITARIE

In Germany the two main problems of the science system currently are underfunding of universities and the overall lack of permanent positions in science, a development triggered by the present employment laws. In Germany, there are two kinds of research institutions: universities and non-universitarian research institutions (e.g. Max-Planck institutes or Helmholtz institutes). Within the so-called „pact for research and innovation“, the federal government has been increasing the funding for the non-universitarian researchers institutions over the last years. There has also been an initiative to temporarily allocate more federal funding also to universities („initiative of excellence“). However, according to the German constitution only the federal states are responsible for the universities, also financially: The federal government is not allowed to continuously fund universities. Due to e.g. budgetary constraints of the federal states, universities tend to be „underfunded“ and rely strongly on third party funding, with all its problems and the overhead they induce. Furthermore, in some states s.a. Saxony the universities suffer from continuous and ongoing cuts of their state funding, which have reached of even crossed a critical level. Despite of the financial efforts, the law on fixed-term contracts in science has led to a dramatic deterioration of the scientific job market in Germany, including the non-universitarian institutions. The market is now totally dominated by fixed-term contracts which spread a feeling of personal insecurity. Sometimes the contracts run for a few months only, and to many scientist a permanent position rather seems like an unreachable Fata Morgana.
(Fonte: http://tinyurl.com/pj6w233 28-09-2014)