Germany¡¯s new government has promised big spending increases for universities and research, describing higher education as ¡°the?backbone of?the German scientific landscape¡±.
The ¡°traffic light¡± coalition ¨C made up of the ¡°red¡± Social Democrats, the ¡°yellow¡± Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens ¨C published a?political programme that promises to increase funding for universities by 3?per cent each year from 2022 through a?¡°pact¡±, akin to a?similar settlement for research and innovation.
The 177-page agreement also pledges to increase government spending on research and development to 3.5?per cent of gross domestic product by 2025, and to create a ¡°digital university¡± programme covering teaching, qualifications, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
The Excellence Strategy, a federal and state government funding programme, will expand with a focus on interdisciplinarity, while the German Research Foundation will get its programme budget ramped up until 2030.
¡°The agreement has a lot of great potential to advance the German science system, to advance German universities, and Germany. There¡¯s a lot of appreciation of science in it; there¡¯s a lot of very interesting, very forward-looking measures,¡± said Jan W?pking, managing director of the German U15 group of research universities.
¡°In general, it¡¯s really good news that the system of higher education is mentioned that often and that it is the focus, and not the non-universities sector, which has benefited in the last years massively,¡± said Peter-Andre Alt, president of the German Rectors¡¯ Conference, who highlighted that the introduction of an annual grant uplift for higher education institutions gave them a privilege that non-university research institutes had enjoyed since 2006.
The political agreement, the result of more than a month of talks between the three parties, also promises reforms to the ¡°capacity¡± law, which in effect prescribes student-to-staff ratios, as well as changes to make student financing more flexible. ¡°If there were reforms to come, the importance for higher education institutions cannot be overemphasised,¡± said Dr?W?pking, referring to the two areas.
Frank Ziegele, executive director of the Centre for Higher Education, a German thinktank, noted that the document¡¯s sections on higher education and research were ¡°very specific and detailed¡±, showing that the authors ¡°know something about higher education and they know where the pressing issues are¡±.
However, while the agreement names much, it is light on figures. Dr?W?pking and Professor Alt suggested that a new German agency for knowledge transfer and innovation would get €1?billion (?850?million) a?year from mostly existing sources, for example, but nothing is on paper.
¡°If you add up all these promises, even in the part of higher education and research, it¡¯s not a cheap thing,¡± Professor Ziegele said. ¡°They could be financed, but this is a matter of priorities. I?have some hope that there is a priority, because especially the Free Democratic Party and the Greens both have been very, very strong proponents of many of these proposals.¡±
Bettina Stark-Watzinger, the former manager of a research institute at the Goethe University Frankfurt and a member of the FDP, has been named education minister. ¡°She knows universities; she knows non-university research. She¡¯s not new to the system,¡± said Dr?W?pking, adding that it was a good sign that the FDP leader, Christian Lindner, will lead the Finance Ministry. ¡°It might be helpful that she¡¯s from the same party.¡±
Professor Ziegele added: ¡°If they do all the stuff that they promised, I?think in four years¡¯ time we will have taken many, many steps into the right direction.¡±
