Update: University Financing  [11.02.20]

Students and employees have taken to the streets several times in recent months to get adequate university funding. With the adoption of the new two-year budget shortly before Christmas, the Landtag (state parliament) laid down the financial cornerstones for the future university financing agreement (2021 - 2025). There were no last-minute surprises. University President Stephan Dabbert concluded: "In the short term, the new financing agreement will hardly alleviate our problems, but in the medium term there is some light at the end of the tunnel, especially with regard to the annual percentage increase in basic funding. Another positive aspect is the continuity of the previously limited expansion funds." The Ministry intends to present details of the university financing agreement to the university presidents in January. The signing is scheduled for spring.

 

According to the Ministry, it intends to make an additional €1.8 billion available for the basic financing of universities over the five-year term of the agreement until 2025. In nominal terms, the state government is thus meeting the core demand of the universities to increase the budget by 3% per year.

Annual growth: Core demand partially met

But the devil is in the details, emphasized University President Stephan Dabbert:

"The Ministry's bill is extremely complicated. For example, the percentage of annual growth is not related to the entire basic budget, but certain sums are deducted beforehand, in Hohenheim around 16%. In addition, a deduction is made from the 3% annual increase based on this for the wage increases agreed in the collective agreements. This means that a large part of the growth goes into the wage increases. This is of course good for the employees and also for the competitiveness of the university on the labor market, but these funds are not available for the universities' ongoing expenses. It is also still completely open as to what costs will be incurred by the universities in the coming years as a result of new legal requirements, which will also have to be financed from the basic budget. On the positive side, we are receiving an additional increase in freely usable funds every year," said Dabbert.

One-off budget increase below expectations

The universities' demand for a one-time budget increase of €1000 per student remains largely unfulfilled. It had already become clear in the autumn negotiations that the state sees this as financially infeasible. However, the universities had hoped to benefit from unplanned additional revenues from fines paid by Daimler as a result of the diesel-engine scandal.

In fact, a total sum of around €200 million for the next five years has been renegotiated. This corresponds to an average of about €40 million per year for all universities together, although the different types of universities benefit from these funds to varying degrees. The universities will receive less than a fifth of the sum, so that only a mid-range 6-digit amount is likely to arrive in Hohenheim.

"This is a fraction of the sum originally requested and part of the money is still subject to budgetary reservation. However, since these are actually freely disposable funds, they are particularly valuable for the universities. It is regrettable that the distribution key puts the universities at a disadvantage compared to other types of higher education institutions," said Dabbert.

Conclusion: Improvements above all noticeable in the long term

The background to the universities' demands were the developments of the last 20 years. While the number of students has risen dramatically during this period, the state's funding has not kept pace. According to calculations by the State Rectors' Conference, the universities receive 33 percent or €3,540 less per student (adjusted for inflation) than in 1998.

"In the next 5 years, this gap will not widen further, but rather close a little bit. If the state continues to maintain annual growth rates beyond that, the situation will improve noticeably in the medium and especially long term. Another positive aspect is that the country's temporary expansion programs are now being stabilized and transferred to the basic budget. These points alone are a success. On the whole, however, the universities had hoped for more. We will hardly have sufficient funds for important future topics such as digitization in the next five years at least. The same applies, for example, to the expansion of a comprehensive and stable WiFi network on campus, which is absolutely necessary," concluded University President Stephan Dabbert.

Humboldt reloaded: Project end 2020

As announced, the state will also not provide additional funds to continue discontinued successful projects such as "Humboldt reloaded," which are currently financed from temporary federal funds from the Quality Pact for Teaching. Humboldt reloaded is currently funded with around € 2 million per year. The project will be discontinued at the end of 2020.

In order to be able to build on the success of Humboldt reloaded after that date, Hohenheim intends to participate in future federal calls for proposals in the area of innovative teaching concepts. However, instead of €200 million, the Federal Government intends to provide only €150 million per year in the future.

 

Text: Leonhardmair