Why Are You Demonstrating?  [30.10.19]

"Everyone in front of the Palace! No more underfunding!": The yellow banners are already hanging - after the student demonstration last week, employees and students of the University of Hohenheim want to fly the flag together at the nationwide action day on 30 October. Demonstrations have been announced in 8 cities throughout the state. The president of the University of Hohenheim will also protest. Too few positions to provide good support for students, backlogs in digitalization and building renovations, the threat of the end of projects such as Humboldt reloaded - solutions for this are not in sight now, says Stephan Dabbert in an interview with the Online Courier: "The state has to do more!"

Among other groups, the students, mid-level faculty, and the president are calling for participation in the action day. An information event by the academic mid-level faculty will take place on 28 October at 5 p.m. in HS 33.

Interview

 

Mr. Dabbert, you call on all employees and students to participate in the action day. For employees, the information event is regarded as working time. Why is the topic so important?

It is about the future of universities. It is our chance to jointly send a strong signal to the state government for good future-oriented conditions for research and teaching - and against the structural underfunding we are suffering from.

In the run-up to the negotiations on the financing agreement, the universities drew up clear, detailed demands. These demands were not excessive, but had already been made with a large portion of political realism and in consideration of the state's resources. Even if all these demands were met in full, we would still receive considerably less money per university place than 20 years ago.

After long and difficult negotiations, the state is willing to make concessions on a number of points. But one essential demand remains unfulfilled: A one-time increase of the basic financing by 1000 € per student in order to at least partly close the financial gap that has arisen in the last decades.

Instead of the 172 million euros per year required for this, the state is only prepared to give an additional 8 million euros per year for all universities, and only for a limited period of 5 years. A possible increase of a further 8 million is still subject to budgetary reservation. That is too little!

The universities are calling for the state to add another €100 million per year for each of the next 5 years from 2021. Of course, that is not a small amount. How do they justify these demands?

The universities have accepted considerably more students in the last two decades at the request of the state, but the funding has not kept pace. If tariff increases and inflation are taken into account, the state universities today receive 34% less in real terms per student than at the turn of the millennium.

On the other hand, the challenges are constantly growing, for example in the area of digitalization. While universities abroad are making great strides, we are struggling to keep our basic IT infrastructure up and running and supply the campus with WiFi.

But the list is long: In Hohenheim alone, we have a backlog of several hundred million euros in building renovation work. We have great and increasing difficulties in financing the necessary modern infrastructure for research and teaching, such as literature, databases, and the latest equipment.

The student body today is more diverse than ever before. We have to adapt to this in our teaching, but also with extended orientation and support courses, including math preparatory courses, writing courses, etc. These are all permanent tasks. The growing share of temporary and project-related funds, however, creates a difficult job situation in the mid-level faculty.

One must not forget with all this: Research and teaching at universities are important for society - so we are not only interested in our own interests. The universities train urgently needed specialists and thus contribute considerably to the economic power of the state by promoting innovation.

Even future projects such as climate protection can hardly be realized without the universities as pioneers. The universities carry out the necessary research and we train the young people who apply and further develop them.

Tax revenues are still good, but their increase will not be as strong as in recent years. Student interest does not suggest a massive decline in student numbers. So the time has come to ensure reliable and sufficient basic funding for universities.

So far, the country has shown itself to be tough and has referred to the balanced budget amendment. It was probably no coincidence that the hot phase of negotiations was set for the summer break. What effect can the protest have now?

The situation is indeed difficult, but it is not hopeless. As long as the budget has not yet been adopted, we can influence it.

If the state really does not see a possibility in the budget from regular tax revenue, there are extraordinary, unplanned one-off revenues from which this is possible. The state is expecting diesel fines from Daimler, Bosch, and Porsche to the tune of 1 billion euros. All the universities together are demanding a total of 500 million, i.e. 100 million per year over the next 5 years.

 

In addition to the one-off budget increase, the universities had also demanded an annual increase of 3%. What about this point?

This demand is particularly important for the universities: otherwise the gap will automatically widen again in the coming years as a result of inflation. Non-university research institutions have been granted a corresponding regulation by the federal and state governments for many years.

The state has taken a step towards the universities on this point and has promised a nominal increase of 3%. However, the devil lies in the details. The increase is not related to the entire basic funding, but certain sums are deducted beforehand. The bottom line is that the small print ensures that, de facto, we have a plus of 1.2% per year after the jobs have been funded. We had called for a more favorable regulation.

Nevertheless, this is a tangible improvement on the previous situation, which I want to acknowledge. If the state can maintain this over the long term, i.e. not just for 5 but for 10, 15, or 20 years, the situation will gradually recover. In the short term, however, it will not really help us out of our current predicament.

 

The University of Hohenheim is also anxious about the successful "Humboldt reloaded" project, which is currently financed from temporary federal funds.

Unfortunately, there is no good news here either. The state has rejected our demand to continue financing the expiring federal projects from the Quality Pact for Teaching. The aim of these projects is to noticeably improve the quality of teaching despite overcrowding. As Humboldt reloaded, but also projects at other universities show, this is currently also very successful.

According to the current state of negotiations, however, financing for these projects is no longer planned for the future. They will be eliminated or can at best still run on the back burner if the university saves money elsewhere in its budget.

So there are plenty of reasons to make a joint statement on 30 October. Our message to the state: Universities are not learning factories that produce graduates at constantly decreasing "unit costs"!

 

We will report! Thank you very much for the interview.

Interview: Leonhardmair / Translation: Neudorfer