Denmark

The French system of supplying teaching funds to universities is based on the number of students enrolled. All programmes are categorised in a grid that serves as a weighting device to determine the standard costs per student. The level and type of the programme determine the weighting, taking into account issues like required floorspace and support staff for each programme (presently, there are 18 cost categories). This is known as the SANREMO (Système Analathique de Réparation des Moyens) model. The formula does not include any fixed costs, but is adjusted in line with the scale of the institution (as measured by the number of students). However, one should realise that staffing issues primarily belong to the authority of the central government. The Ministry of Education is the employer of nearly all staff. It allocates posts to the institutions, recruits staff to fill these posts, and determines salaries. So, educational staff are funded separately. Furthermore, institutions may receive some additional funds for specific projects, which are specified in additional contracts. Research is funded in a ‘dual’ way. On the one hand, universities receive personnel and grants from the central ministry, which also pays the staff. This is laid down in contracts, which are not legal contracts but regarded as a set of mutual, explicit and formalised engagements between public authorities and universities. The allocations are based on four-year development plans and research evaluations, implying some degree of performance orientation. On the other hand, the research units of the universities receive resources on the basis of (mostly four-year) contracts with the major national research organisations, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale. The first stream of research funds mainly concerns the funding of doctorate programmes, research schools, and the research institutes recognised by CNRS and INSERM. Of the resources for research teams and laboratories, universities may spend only 15% for carrying out their own research programme. Also most research is centrally appointed, paid and allocated across universities’ units.