Higher Education Pact: Nearly 30 million euros for additional study places in Kassel

Hessian Science Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann and University President Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Postlep signed an agreement to this effect in Frankfurt on Wednesday. In the agreement, the university commits itself to accepting an average of 3,831 first-year students annually over the period 2011 to 2015. By way of comparison, the reference year 2005 saw 3,171 first-year students, while in 2010 the figure was 3,674. The University of Kassel will receive an additional 29.5 million euros from the Higher Education Pact 2020 in 2013 and 2014 for the necessary expansion of its capacities. "The University of Kassel is thus making its contribution to coping with the increase in student numbers in Hesse," said Prof. Dr. Postlep. "We have presented a convincing concept of how we need to expand our capacities to achieve this. The state of Hesse and the federal government are providing us with funds for this under the Higher Education Pact."

Specifically, 13 million euros will flow to Kassel in 2013 and 16.5 million euros in 2014. In its concept on which the agreement is based, the university assumes that it will again receive funding of 16.5 million euros from this program in 2015. This depends not least on whether the agreed target student numbers are achieved.

The concept provides funding for around 80 positions. Among other things, 26 temporary professorships will be established, including twelve visiting professorships. Associated with this are additional positions for academic and administrative staff. At the same time, 24.5 existing positions for teaching staff for special tasks will be continued and five new positions will be created, as well as 3.5 positions for pedagogical staff. Eight professorships will be filled early. In total, about one third of the funds have been earmarked for these appointments in teaching and learning. About another third is allocated to administrative positions and material resources, and about one third to a construction program.

A total of 12.13 million euros is available for the construction program from the 2013 and 2014 appropriations. The program provides for the expansion of the Engineering Sciences III building on the Holländischer Platz campus, which is to be partially raised. Here, new seminar rooms, offices and internship rooms for students are to be created on 930 square meters. Also planned are the expansion of the Witzenhausen Nordbahnhofstraße library to include a reading and work area, the renovation of rooms in the former Henschel administration building (K10) on Holländischer Platz, additional rooms for the Institute of Sports, new computer pool rooms in the technical departments, and the construction of a new student self-study center on the campus expansion area north of Moritzstraße. Here, mainly study and group work rooms with laptop connections are to be created on 600 square meters. All of these measures are in addition to the Heureka program of the state of Hesse. Heureka funds were and are being used, for example, to finance the expansion of the central cafeteria or the construction of the Campus Center lecture hall.

In addition to the construction program, the university is also investing in the upgrading of student internships. This concerns in particular the technical equipment of these workplaces, i.e. computers, laboratory apparatus and the like. Other items include, for example, the temporary reinforcement of the examination offices in the departments or the acquisition of literature in the library.

"These additional funds give us breathing room in coping with the coming rush of students," said Prof. Dr. Postlep, referring to the double Abitur cohorts that will be streaming into universities in Hesse starting in 2013. "Implementing all these steps will require considerable effort from us as a university. But we want to offer young people good prospects. And we also see this as an opportunity to further sharpen the profile of the University of Kassel." For example, the new professorships will be designed to support the development of existing research priorities. For example, the future professorship "History of Globalization Processes" in the History Department complements the professorships "Globalization and Politics," "International Relations" and "Politics of Labor Migration" in the Politics Department.

In the agreement, the University of Kassel commits to enrolling a total of 19,155 first-year students between 2011 and 2015. This corresponds to 3,831 young people annually. Only students in their 1st university semester are taken as a basis for the calculation. If the target figures are achieved, the number of enrolled students will be well over 23,000 in 2015.

The Higher Education Pact 2020 is a program of the federal and state governments. It is designed to provide universities with funds to cope with the increase in student numbers in Germany. The first phase ran from 2007 to 2010. In 2009, the Higher Education Pact was extended to cover the period 2011 to 2015. However, because student numbers rose even more sharply than initially expected (partly due to the suspension of compulsory military service), these funds have now been increased once again.

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Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-2474
E-mail: mense[at]uni-kassel[dot]de