The Student Parliament (Stupa)

I. Motion Resolution

On the basis of II.

1. the introduction of free attempts for failed exams of Iranian
   students, as well as urgently
2. the postponement of the deadline for the semester fee to be transferred.

II. justification

A total of 200 Iranian students are studying at the University of Kassel, who have a long way to go to obtain their student visa: bureaucratic hurdles, high financial requirements and a general uncertainty about their visa status that lasts for several months. Many of those who have managed to complete this process have a tight schedule here in Kassel: Studying at the university, possibly attending German courses (very many already learned German very well in Iran) and working. Like all international students, Iranian students also have difficulties gaining access to the job market. Despite excellent German language skills and years of work experience, they receive multiple rejections. This increases the financial pressure enormously. Iranian students, like all other international students, must be able to prove that they have at least €12,000 in their bank account. In order to pay rent, living costs and the semester fee and still keep the €12,000 in the account, a job is urgently needed.

Many travel to Iran during the semester break to bring cash from their parents back to Germany. Many also receive money from their parents in Iran via detours if they get into financial difficulties here in Germany. Due to the strong sanctions imposed by the West on the Islamic Republic of Iran, money transfers between banks cannot be carried out as usual and require complicated solutions.
The current war against Iran is putting the situation of Iranian students here in Germany, and therefore also in Kassel, at great risk.

They have been struggling with fears for their families since December 2025, which came to a head in January at the latest: after several protests by the Iranian population, there was a massacre of the Iranian population by the regime of the Islamic Republic over two days, in which around 50,000 people were murdered. There was also an internet shutdown at the time, which, after being briefly lifted, has continued since the start of the war on 28.02.2026 until now. In addition to the particularly poor psychological and mental health of Iranian students, they are plagued by the fear of financial hardship here in Kassel: those who are financially dependent on their families in Iran no longer have the opportunity to communicate with them and receive money, while many among them have still not been able to find a job to meet the financial requirements. The students also often felt unable to cope with their busy daily lives. The consequences: they earned less money or even lost their jobs.

Their questions: How do I pay the running costs of living? How do I pay the semester contribution? How do I keep the €12,000 in my account so that I can continue to study and live in Kassel?

In addition to the financial pressure, the student pressure to perform also increased: the
deterioration in performance due to the massive psychological and mental stress had an impact on the exams in February: Many failed their exams. This caused further anxiety due to the high requirements of the immigration authorities regarding the ECTS points to be earned in order to remain a student in Kassel.

At the end of January, students were made aware of the Studierendenwerk's social counseling service and the emergency fund, and this was also brought to our attention when we spoke to the Senate in February. However, after several students visited the service, they were told that they could not be helped with their concerns.

The Iranian students therefore lost confidence in possible help and support from their university, which further worsened their situation.

On the basis of these described study conditions of the Iranian students, we urgently request that you take note of the demands described in I.

There is currently no
reliable selection of halal-certified food in the canteens and cafeterias of the Studierendenwerk Kassel, which severely restricts students who follow Islamic dietary regulations.

The student parliament of the University of Kassel calls on the Studierendenwerk Kassel to

1. to offer a regular selection of halal-certified meals in the canteens and
   cafeterias of the University of Kassel,
2. to provide transparent labeling of these meals in the menus (online and on site),
3. and to ensure that the procurement, preparation and labeling comply with the recognized standards for halal certification.

The Main Committee notes that rising living costs are an increasing burden for many students and have a direct impact on study conditions.
It calls on the university management as well as the Studierendenwerk and the state government to examine and implement measures within the scope of their possibilities to relieve the financial burden on students in their everyday lives.

These include in particular

• Ensuring affordable offers in the area of catering
• examining further support offers for students in financially stressful situations
• as well as improving the transparency of existing support and
  counseling services

1. The Student Parliament declares its solidarity with the people in Iran who have been protesting against economic hardship, social inequality and political repression throughout the country since the end of December 2025, demanding human rights, freedom, self-determination and fundamental political and economic change.
2. The Student Parliament expresses its special solidarity with the students in Iran, who are playing a central role in the current protest movements and who are campaigning for democratic rights, freedom of education and social participation at great personal risk.
3. The Student Parliament expresses its solidarity with the Iranian students and other Iranian members of the University of Kassel and recognizes that many of them are under great emotional, familial and psychological strain as a result of the current situation in Iran.
4. The Student Parliament condemns the violent repression against the protests in Iran, in particular the use of firearms, arbitrary arrests and the deliberate and intentional shutdown of the Internet to suppress information, expression of opinion and civil society mobilization.

The Student Parliament expressly welcomes and supports the fact that, within the framework of the existing responsibilities of the General Students' Committee, reference is made to existing counseling, support and contact services for affected students and that these are made visible.

Ideology does not always have to be obvious, but it can still have an effect. A good example of this is the movie "Die Feuerzangenbowle", which was made in 1944, during the National Socialist era. In recent years, it has been shown several times on our campus by the "Uniparty" group without a historically critical classification. Unreflected screenings of the film have already been criticized by various bodies, including student representatives from other cities, representatives of academia and the Anne-Frank educational institution.

As elected student representatives, we therefore call on the initiative to refrain from showing the film without further reflection in the context of a professional critical classification.

Student assistants make an indispensable contribution to research, teaching and support at the University of Kassel. At the same time, their employment contracts are often temporary, with short hours, short-term contracts or changing areas of work. In the run-up to the 2026 collective bargaining and pay round, the GEW Hessen trade union made it clear that a binding collective agreement for student assistants is needed at universities in Hessen. The contractual agreement (SV) with 10 hours per week and a minimum contract term of one year etc. is an important milestone, but not yet a collective agreement. It has been shown that the universities do not adhere to the SV.

The new Hessian Higher Education Pact 2026-2031 was signed on July 17, 2025 and will come into force on January 1, 2026. This pact will result in significant savings requirements for the University of Kassel: The university is forecasting a structural deficit of around €14 million per year from 2026 and is planning to not fill or not fully fill positions in administration, central facilities and departments. These cost-cutting and consolidation measures also threaten to directly endanger the employment relationships of auxiliary staff: If permanent positions are not refilled or are reduced, the work and employment situation of student assistants tends to deteriorate.

The StuPa and AStA have already expressed their solidarity with student assistants in the past: For example, the Senate of the University of Kassel, together with the University Council, has been critical of the underfunding and the consequences for employees - and the student representatives have been involved in protest actions against the cutback plans.

Against this background, the student self- and co-administration has a special responsibility to actively campaign for fair working and employment conditions for student assistants at an early stage, especially in the area of conflict between collective bargaining for student assistants and the blanket savings constraints imposed by the Higher Education Pact. Therefore, the Student Parliament and the General Students' Committee resolve:

1. 
   We declare our solidarity with the nationwide TVStud initiative and support it and the unions in the demands they will put forward for the collective bargaining round: Student assistants should
   1. receive a collective agreement which, among other things, provides for a regulated scope of employment, a minimum contract term and largely permanent/supported employment;
   2. be integrated into a reliable and transparent personnel structure - particularly in the context of the consolidation measures triggered by the Higher Education Pact;
   3. not be used as a "substitute variable" for cost-cutting measures within the framework of the Higher Education Pact, i.e. job cuts or non-replacements must not be at the expense of student assistants.
2. 
   The AStA is authorized to actively represent the interests of
   student assistants in the upcoming negotiations for the 2026 collective bargaining
   and salary round for the state of Hesse. This includes in particular
   1. Public relations work among student assistants at the University of Kassel - informing them about their rights, inviting them to participate in the TVStud initiative, mobilizing them to sign
      declarations of intent to take action;
   2. Convening and co-organizing information and action events together with the TVStud initiative, ver.di and other trade unions that support student assistants
      to discuss current negotiations, employment conditions and the situation at the University of Kassel
      in the context of the Higher Education Pact;
   3. Calls for participation - if necessary - in supporting actions by student assistants in order to represent a strong student voice to the university management together with trade unions such as GEW or ver.di;
   4. Further cooperation with the TVStud initiative, with trade unions and with the student assistants' group at the University of Kassel (e.g. via the University of Kassel Assistants' Council) to ensure a high level of participation and visibility.
3. The student body's communication channels (website, social media, notices) should be used to report on the employment situation of student assistants, the status of collective bargaining and the effects of the Higher Education Pact on working and study conditions and to encourage assistants to actively participate.
4. We call on the university management of the University of Kassel and the state of Hesse to prioritize the employment and working conditions of student assistants within the framework of the Higher Education Pact. In particular, we demand
   1. a transparent presentation of the departments in which job cuts or non-replacements are planned and with what consequences for student assistants;
   2. that the vulnerable groups - in particular student assistants - do not bear the brunt of any cost-cutting and consolidation measures;
   3. that alternative consolidation strategies are adopted (e.g. reduction of administration, bundling of areas, no new hires at central facilities) and not primarily via flexible auxiliary staff employment relationships;
   4. that the medium-term financial planning of the University of Kassel explicitly takes into account the employment security of auxiliary staff - especially in view of the forecast deficit of approx. 14 million euros per year.
5. StuPa and AStA reserve the right to carry out public relations and action work together with the auxiliary staff structures of the University of Kassel and trade unions in the event of concrete indications of violations of the employment rights of student assistants (e.g. undercutting of the number of hours, chain limitation, failure to fill positions that were assigned to assistants).

At the latest since the university management agreed to the Higher Education Pact this summer, it has been clear that the University of Kassel must make structural savings and thus shrink. However, the handling of this need for savings is non-transparent and unconstructive, especially in the way it is distributed among the departments.

Other universities in Hessen have taken the impending cuts as an opportunity to start an open, broad exchange about their future and orientation as well as the resulting structural changes. The University of Kassel, which is particularly affected by the decline in student numbers and whose strategy papers are often enough still characterized by the growth ideas of the 00s, should also face up to these questions about the future and start an open exchange, also with the students.

Instead, the Presidential Board of the University of Kassel is trying to administer the cuts without any major discourse and without changing the strategic planning. To this end, the Executive Board has agreed with the Senate on 17 criteria for the distribution of cuts in the departments, but without a weighting key or a transparent presentation of the application in the departments.

Although the Senate approved the original list of criteria, the actual distribution of cuts is not democratically legitimized, but negotiated solely between the Executive Board and the deaneries. In these discussions, different criteria are weighted differently in different departments. The result is a non-transparent and undemocratic distribution of cuts, which gives the impression that the focus is less on strategic plans than on personal favors and the smallest possible resistance.

After three months of negotiations between department heads and the Presidential Board, the information available to us as students paints a picture that can only be described as chaotic. Departments with stable student numbers sometimes have to make more cuts than those with a sharp decline, while at the same time traditional courses of study that are important to Kassel are being cut, while any popular subjects are being retained. From a student perspective, it is particularly questionable that professorships that are in high demand by students are not to be filled, while empty shells are retained because they are considered prestigious by the university.

As the student body of the University of Kassel, the way our university management is dealing with the cuts is unacceptable, neither in the process nor in the result. The distribution that has resulted from the Executive Board's attempt to draw up a cuts plan without major discussions reflects more the power relations within the Professor body than a strategic plan for the University of Kassel. We therefore call on the university management to make the distribution of the cuts and the application of the decided criteria fully transparent and to start a second, this time university-wide discussion on how to deal with the cuts. In our view, it is essential that student perspectives are given greater consideration in this process.

If this does not happen, and the procedure remains non-transparent and problematic for us students, we call on the HMWK to review the university management's handling of the cuts with regard to their customary and sensible nature as part of a supervisory complaint.