Eight years ago, Germany announced the Excellence Initiative, under which the country’s universities would compete for several billion dollars in public funds to spur national and global recognition for the schools. Since then, the German government has injected $2.3 billion into some 40 universities–and while the effort has received some praise, a recent report from Berlin’s Social Science Research Center (WZB) raises key questions about the program, saying it has failed to create a more diverse higher-education sector and produced few lasting changes at universities.