Germany’s businesses provide more support to universities than official statistical figures suggest. This was found out by the Institute for the German Economy (IW) in Cologne. The reason for this is the fact that in official statistical documents donations in kind such as equipment for laboratories or free-of-charge software licenses are not accounted for as well as support for students in the form of internships and scholarships. In the year 2008 one fifth of industrial businesses in Germany provided financial support to a university, e.g. through donations, sponsoring, foundation professorships or scholarships.
Among major enterprises employing more than 500 people even two thirds supported universities. This was revealed in the course of a survey among 1250 industrial companies carried out jointly by the IW and the association of foundations for science in Germany in March this year. According to this survey, 82 % of businesses plan to continue their commitment despite the current economic crisis.
In total businesses made a contribution of about 1 billion Euros in the year 2006 to the budgets of German universities and universities of applied science. Including the contribution made by foundations, the capital of which comes most of the time from entrepreneurial activities, finance by third parties amounted to 1.356 billion Euros which is 65% more than in 1998. 