The German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, HRK) and a number of other higher education organisations are urging Germany’s prospective new government to address key issues ranging from student support to boosting research.
The HRK demands solutions to what it refers to as “an enormous funding backlog in university construction and renovation”. Students should be provided with more housing with good digital connections, it says.
Taking the figures of the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI), a policy advisory body set up by the federal government in 2006, the HRK is calling for an annual sum of around €270 million (US$313 million) to be provided by the federal and state governments.
For students, the HRK backs a needs-based reform of the federal government (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz) grants and loans system which would also include an emergency aid component.
Student organisations are particularly concerned over financial problems which have been aggravated by the coronavirus crisis.