Higher salaries 'help attract top researchers'[fr] 

Professor Jean-Claude Latombe, a professor at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory , said it is almost impossible to be a top researcher and an excellent teacher simultaneously. 

However, he dismissed the idea that funding and organisational structures are central to excellence and innovation in higher education. 

"Overall, I don't think that whether a university is private or state-run is the key issue. What really matters for a research university is to recruit the best professors and admit the best students, to encourage diversity, not only of people, but also of ideas, and to create a vibrant atmosphere where excellence, impact, and creativity are valued by all for the benefit of all," he told EurActiv. 

Latombe, who was a member of group of external experts which evaluated research at INRIA , the French national institute for research in computer science and control, described the salary disparity between the US and Europe as significant, but said there were a range of factors contributing to the attractiveness of a research institute. 

"Salaries are only one aspect of the full picture. At INRIA and in research universities, quality of colleagues and of students is even more critical to attract new excellent people," he said. 

Some university professors on both sides of the Atlantic are overloaded with hundreds of teaching hours per year, making it challenging to compete with top class researchers, according to the French-born expert in artificial intelligence. 

"It's quasi-impossible to do cutting-edge research and be an excellent teacher when the teaching load of a professor is close to 200 hours per year. The quality of the infrastructure is also very important." 

"In the end, however, salaries still play a big role. They reflect the value that is given to a professor's work. Over time, low salaries are demoralising, because they send a signal to the professors - even if they love their work - that they are not highly valued," Latombe said. 

He added that higher salaries encourage people to challenge themselves in order to justify their salaries, and that remuneration at top US research universities is higher than at their EU counterparts. 

To read the interview in full, please click here.