Hessian universities position themselves for further digital pact

The letter highlights the positive experiences with the state's ongoing digital pact. In 2020, the state of Hesse concluded an agreement with its universities that will run until the end of next year to support the development of digital teaching formats and the modernization of administrations, among other things. The pact was backed with 112 million euros.

"We have made very good progress with digitalization, but the challenges have also grown," explained the spokesperson for the Hessian university presidencies, Kassel University President Prof. Dr. Ute Clement. "Universities are hotspots of transformation and must remain so in order to be efficient and secure, to be able to research effectively and to offer young people a state-of-the-art academic education. Fields such as data security, cloud computing and the use of artificial intelligence are particularly important."

Prof. Dr. Eva Waller, Chairwoman of the Association of Hessian Universities of Applied Sciences and President of RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, added: "With artificial intelligence, we are currently experiencing a further push towards the digitalization of society and the world of work. Our universities are making vital contributions to this. In particular, this includes practical research on AI and digital transformation as well as good teaching. Students and lecturers expect us to keep pace with the state of digital research in our offerings and administrative services. The Digital Pact gives us the necessary resources for this."

Eva Waller and Ute Clement emphasized the need for reliable funding from the state of Hesse in order to meet these challenges. "We are assuming an additional funding requirement of around 50 million euros per year from 2025, with an annual increase in line with price and tariff developments," the paper states. A significant increase in funding is necessary in order to secure and sustainably operate what has been achieved so far, as well as to develop further digital solutions and roll them out across Hesse.

In order to proceed as efficiently as possible - also in view of the shortage of skilled workers and scarce resources - the universities are relying on cooperation. As the starting situations and framework conditions are different, there cannot be a uniform digitalization strategy for all universities. But wherever possible, they want to work together, "after all, there are large overlaps in common digitization needs." This applies, for example, to the development of joint infrastructures.

In a second, accompanying paper on the topic of the cloud, this technology is described as essential for future-proof IT provision and cooperation. Among other things, the universities at  propose the establishment of a Hessian university cloud for shared IT services. This could be exemplary and form a central building block in the digital transformation.

The German Rectors' Conference also recently called for greater commitment from the federal states and substantial support from the federal government for the digitalization of universities.

The position papers Digitalization 2025+ and Cloud Services for Research, Teaching and Administration at Hessian Universities  can be found here.

The five universities in the state of Hesse have joined forces in the Conference of Hessian University Presidents (KHU). The current spokesperson is the President of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Ute Clement. Prof. Dr. Eva Waller represents the association of the five state universities of applied sciences (HAW) in Hesse and the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt.