Hessen's universities need a significant increase in their funding for research and teaching

At its meeting on June 6, 2019 , the Conference of Minister Presidents sealed the funding of the "Zukunftsvertrag Strengthening Study and Teaching". The basic agreement of the ministries on the three pacts on research and teaching funding between the federal and state governments had already been reached on May 3. The "Contract for the Future" initially includes from 2021 and then from 2024 in a second stage further increasing funding for universities and research institutions in Germany. 

With the resulting additionally available funds there is also in the ongoing negotiations on the Hessian Higher Education Pact plannable scope for the Hessian universities, which have a considerable backlog demand, said the spokeswoman of the Conference of Hessian University Presidents (KHU), Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt. Wolff welcomed the decision of the Minister Presidents: "After the agreement in principle at the beginning of May, an important hurdle for more planning security in university financing has thus been overcome." In the KHU the presidiums of the five hessian universities united, under it the University of Kassel.

In the view of the KHU, these improvements are urgently needed. Figures from the Federal Statistical Office prove the need to catch up: the universities continue to be the backbone of the Hessian science system. Of just under 224,000 students enrolled at public Hessian universities in the winter semester 2017/18, 152,500 were enrolled at the universities. Thus, after the high increases of the last ten years, the universities continue to shoulder the lion's share of higher education teaching services in Hessen, but with strongly under-proportional increases in professorships. Overall, the professorial supervision ratios for students are the second worst in a comparison of the German states. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of professorships at Hessian universities increased by only about 1 percent, with the result that today one professor supervises an average of 77 students. This results in a sharp increase in the time spent on teaching for individual university professors - more and more at the expense of research.

Adjusted for inflation, funding for study places at Hessian universities from regular state funds and funds from the Higher Education Pact 2020 has shrunk significantly: while 8,912 euros per study place were available in 2010, the figure was only 7,711 euros in 2017, a significant drop of 13 percent. 

With a total of more than 480 million euros (2017), the universities raise 95 percent of the third-party funding of all Hessian universities. These funds finance nationally and internationally competitive research. Between 2013 and 2017, the annual third-party funding of the Hessian universities increased by more than 70 million euros - a plus that directly benefits Hessen as a research location. However, the Hessian universities are thus stuck in the so-called "third-party funding hamster wheel": an increasing part of the work capacity is invested in acquiring, managing and proving the use of third-party funding . In addition, the staff employed in third-party funded projects can generally only be hired on a temporary basis. 

KHU spokesperson Wolff: "Some of the universities in Hesse have 40 percent more students today than they did ten years ago. Despite unfavorable financial conditions, they have compensated for this increase with additional staff commitment, a high level of creativity and, above all, a strong increase in third-party funding. It is not primarily teaching for students that has suffered from this situation, as surveys of students show, but research. If Hessen wants to continue to set national and international trends in research, the state government must take appropriate action now. Our researchers need more freedom for excellent research! In the next higher education pact period, we therefore need significantly improved and permanently secured university funding, which must also be reflected in a significant improvement in supervision ratios."