Die Anforderungen der Wissenschaftsfreiheit an eine leistungsorientierte Mittelvergabe im Hochschulbereich

Worldwide, the public funding of universities is increasingly dependent on the results achieved. In Germany output oriented funding is mandatory since 1998. The changed funding system is an important part of the university reforms. Financial resources are a major factor in many decisions within universities. Research and teaching are therefore influenced by the manner of allocation of funds. Today output oriented funding is established on all levels – between state and universities as well as within universities. Nevertheless there are no specific legal requirements, such as output oriented funding is to be structured. The academic freedom, which is guaranteed by article 5 paragraph 3 of the German basic law, permits output oriented funding under certain conditions. It protects the freedom of choice in research and teaching with regard to issue, methodology and publication of results. How much this freedom is compromised by output oriented funding depends on several factors, especially on the specifics of the relevant scientific discipline. Because of the different incentives the possibility to normalize general content requirements is limited. The missing protection has to be achieved by a strict code of practice. An output oriented funding system can be created only by an analysis of the individual case circumstances (financial volume, structure of the university or faculty) by qualified personnel. With regard to contents three general principles have to be followed. First the different scientific outputs and their qualities need to be captured. Second these outputs need to be weighted appropriately in relation to each other. Third the minimum equipment for research and teaching has to be guaranteed. In practice, these requirements are not always fulfilled. A trend has been observed, that only few quantitative outputs (especially external funding and graduates) are captured. To guarantee an adequate protection of academic freedom the legislature therefore has to normalize the requirements for output oriented funding.