I think the parent comment can be interpreted as "German universities are bad, but free" (the students don't pay tuition fees, or only a trivial amount)

aksss is being sarcastic. When universities are compared across nations, a frequent retort to the preeminence of the top US universities is "But universities in [insert European country here] are free!". aksss's point is that, as MrBuddyCasino indicated, you tend to get what you pay for.

US metrics based on research programs for how good a university is don't apply to Europe. Comparisons based on those are worthless and the fact it is still being done frequently can be attributed to either incompetence or malice.

Yes, it's so obviously a completely ridiculous metric that it has to be willful at this point. It doesn't seem like anyone tries to measure how well educated the undergraduates are in terms of skills acquired, etc, by how many papers a totally different population occupying a similar space pump out instead.

It shouldn't need to be said, but no amount of Nobel prizes in the world is going to make one whit of difference for introductory calculus instruction. When the prime research centers are decoupled from the universities and these silly little metrics, it's no wonder that European universities are "bad."

Lack of market forces leading to mediocrity I suppose?

Or lack of a profit motive leading to not trying to game metrics as much. If an entity is ranked by some metric, and the better they are that metric, the more profitable they are, then they have an incentive to game it as much as possible.

Metrics are gamed in every organization.

Sure, but I would assume that the priorities for a private university are different than a public one. A private university might optimize for profitability and university ranking, while a public one might optimize for providing the most accessible and highest quality education while staying within budgetary guidelines.

It's like saying that American universities are the best on the "amount spent on American football facilities per student" ranking. It's true, but the other universities might not be competing on that particular metric and focusing on other ones.

> while a public one might optimize for providing the most accessible and highest quality education while staying within budgetary guidelines.

That doesn't seem like what they're optimizing for. Public institutions tend to optimize for maximum budget, maximum head count, and maximum power.