Sir

Your editorial “When payment by results is a sensible approach” was ill-informed and superficial (Nature 396, 393; 1998). You highlighted suggestions from Germany's University Rectors' Conference (HRK) that new performance-dependent criteria should be applied to universities to increase efficiency and cut costs: that the pay of senior academics should be performance dependent, and that lifetime tenure should be abolished.

These suggestions would exacerbate the problems. First, it is true that German professors receive a sum of money for running costs which is not dependent on their research performance. However, often this sum barely covers the costs of teaching and departmental maintenance which are aggravated by service costs for large equipment as required by law. Running a modern research programme on this money is generally out of the question.

Second, a performance-dependent scale that is partially indexed by the amount of external funding is a questionable criterion. Within Germany there is a large pool of industrial money which is extensively used by academics. However, many of these collaborative grants are scientifically mundane and unchallenging. The criteria for success in winning such a grant are fundamentally different to those for public-sector grants. At present the only funding source that guarantees scientific excellence is the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is coming increasingly under financial pressure. So, judging performance solely by the amount of external funding would drag German science in the direction of mediocrity.

Another major difficulty is the assignment of performance indexing to a body within the university. Major decisions in German universities are often highly political and subjective. At present, this situation is usually tolerable as the personal status of the individual is not open to influence. The HRK suggestions seek to change this. I dread to think of the incestuous consequences this would bring.

The suggestion that tenure should be abolished to improve efficiency is at best surprising. All other European countries award tenure to academics on the assumption that, despite possible negative consequences, it is essential to ensure long-term planning for scientific programmes.

Many see the HRK developments as a political manoeuvre on the part of the technical high schools (Fachhochschulen), which are essentially teaching establishments, to attain full university status without having to fulfil the present requirements for research excellence. This has been a point of contention for years, as salaries in the Fachhochschulen are slightly lower than in the universities but would become equal under the HRK recommendations because the university professorial salary would be lowered.

The real problems facing university academics are that research groups are often too large and run on an imperialistic basis, and that funding opportunities for young scientists to organize independent research groups are too limited.