Prick on the prof; analysing the funding of academic research
Prikkel de professor tot goed onderzoek, maar vergeet het onderwijs niet
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However, in terms of costs per publication, performance is only average. The latter fact may well be due to the way university research is being financed. Government funding is the main source of research income for Dutch universities. The government budget for university research is divided among the thirteen universities chiefly on the basis of fixed, historically determined, budget shares. This implies weak incentives for university research.
This study looks at the pros and cons of reforming the university funding model in such a way that incentives for research are strengthened. The study is motivated not only by the current performance in terms of cost per publication, but also by a number of trends that could make the current model unsustainable. These trends include the increasing intensity of international competition for the best researchers, and students who increasingly demand value for money from their universities. The main findings are as follows:
- Changing the budget formula in such a way that research performance affects a university's share of the budget, has the potential for improving the research performance of Dutch universities.
- Stronger research incentives would also help in making the university system more robust with respect to future trends.
- The main risk of introducing stronger research incentives is that the quality of university education suffers. In order to avoid this from happening, it may be advisable to introduce measures of educational quality into the funding model as well.
This publication is in Dutch.