11,000 x Thank You!  [15.06.21]

A vaccination offer for students this summer, investments in digitalization, climate-friendly construction, no watering down of the right to award doctorates: University President Stephan Dabbert used the public presentation of the annual report to the university on Friday for clear messages to politicians. But he was also particularly keen to thank the university's employees. After the university bodies had to meet virtually in recent months due to Covid-19, the members of the Senate and the University Council met today for the first time again in presence on campus - with masks and social distancing. Students and employees were invited to join the part open to the public via livestream.

 

"I cannot look back on three waves of Covid-19 pandemic as President without first and foremost saying an 11,000-fold 'thank you' to every member of this university," Prof. Dr. Dabbert emphasized at the beginning of his presentation. In a rush and with incredible commitment, employees had digitized teaching and organizational processes. Students got involved in the transition and made the best of the situation, he said.

"New concepts were also born in the process," the President said. As an example, he mentioned the seminar on the anatomy of farm animals, a compulsory seminar for first-year students. With the winter semester, Prof. Dr. Korinna Huber changed the classic lecture into a mix of pre-seminar, synchronous lectures, question time via video conference, and practical videos. She said that's why she was nominated by students for the 2021 state teaching award

 

"Politics must compensate for the deficits of the past three semesters"

"In addition to thanks, however, the current generation of students also deserves a perspective to fill personal and professional shortfalls of three online semesters so far!" the President emphasized. "In Hohenheim, there are students who have completed half of their Bachelor's degree without having seen the university from the inside."

In order to finally enable joint learning and social interaction in the lecture hall, laboratory, and grounds again starting in the fall of 2021, he said, there needs to be a mandatory vaccination offer for all students this summer. Politicians are also called upon for an extension regulation for BAföG or child benefits, he said.

 

 

"Special program for university digitalization is urgent and long overdue"

What is urgently needed now, he said, is a long overdue special program for university digitalization. "During the crisis, the universities made advance payments with their own funds, and the state provided emergency support. With the new Vice Presidency for Digital Transformation, we have also anchored the topic at the highest level in university management. Now the state must also provide sustainable financial backing for a fundamental and comprehensive development in the direction of digitalization if it does not want to jeopardize its global position in science and industry."

The necessary digitalization encompasses all areas: Teaching, research, and organizational processes. The financial requirement amounts to 100 million euros a year for the universities alone (excluding medicine), of which at least 50 million euros will be needed permanently beyond the legislative period, according to an extrapolation by the State Rectors' Conference.

 

"Climate targets cannot be achieved without investment in university construction"

Despite the shutdown, there was some important construction progress on campus in 2020, he said. These included the first part of the Phytotechnical Center, which will be expanded in the coming years into what will likely be the largest high-tech research greenhouse in Europe. Also, the new State Institute for Apiculture now has a contemporary timber construction.

"These are not only important infrastructure for research. The buildings are also pioneering in terms of their energy efficiency," Prof. Dr. Dabbert reported. However, the campus continued to be dominated by renovation backlogs and old buildings with outdated energy and structural conditions.

University construction is therefore proving to be a central point for achieving a climate-neutral campus. "As long as we are still waiting on strong investments and an improved organization of university construction, the targeted climate neutrality by 2040 remains illusory," the President concluded.

According to the State Rectors' Conference, in order to achieve the important climate goals, a pilot phase with an additional 200 million euros annually for research buildings and infrastructure at the universities is needed starting in this legislative period. From this, each university should be given a building budget with its own priorities, he said.

 

"Research successful despite restrictions"

The Covid-19 pandemic also led to restrictions in research, but not to a standstill. As an example of outstanding success, the President cited the award of the prestigious ERC Synergy Grant to systems biologist Prof. Dr. Waltraud Schulze. In the fall of 2020, he said, the University of Hohenheim and the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart established the joint "Competence Center Biodiversity and Integrative Taxonomy" (KomBioTa), which acts as a central pillar of the state in the fight against species loss. At the end of 2020, he said, the go-ahead had been given for the realization of a biorefinery farm at the Unterer Lindenhof experimental station, which will be operated in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The university also launched an unusual program for Covid-19-related research: Researchers can apply for up to 5,000 euros in start-up funding for projects that focus on pandemics as a global challenge.

 

Top position of university doctorates must be maintained

In response to suggestions that the right to award doctorates should be extended in part to universities of applied sciences (HAW), Prof. Dr. Dabbert warned against watering down the standards that have made the state so economically successful to date. For example, he said, publications and research funding provide objective evidence that research progress is driven almost exclusively by universities.

In terms of quality-assured, international and peer-reviewed publications, an average HAW professorship achieves about three percent of the publication output of a university professorship. In terms of research funds, which the German Research Foundation awards according to strict criteria, the quota per average HAW professorship would correspond to 0.3 to 0.4 percent of the university professorship (depending on whether medicine is included or not).

As sources, the President cited the Ministry of Science's annual figures on publications (more than 25,000 publications annually from state universities versus 730 publications from HAWs in Baden-Württemberg) and data from the state statistical office for DFG research funding (365 million euros for state universities plus 116 million euros for university medicine versus 1.4 million euros for state HAWs).

"Permeability in the system has already been created for exceptional professorships at HAWs with university-like research performance: since 2018, internationally visible professors at an HAW can also reliably and equally supervise doctorates as associated research personalities at a university," explained Prof. Dr. Dabbert. The University of Hohenheim has already formed associations with a total of four HAW professors with strong research skills.

His conclusion: "As universities of applied sciences, HAWs make an important contribution to society when it comes to closing the gap between research and product development. This division of labor should be strengthened. A "Dr. HAW," on the other hand, does not advance the country internationally."

Text: Klebs / Translation: Neudorfer