HE sector slams ‘drop in the ocean’ refurbishment funding

A German government programme aimed at boosting construction measures in higher education and research has received a lukewarm response from trade unionists and university heads, given that more and more buildings are in a state of bad repair and modern equipment is lacking.

The “Modernisation and Refurbishment Programme” adopted by the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz – GWK) in mid-February comprises a total of €4 billion (US$4.7 billion) to cover the 2026 to 2029 four-year period.

The money, coming from the Sondervermögen für Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität (SVIK – public special assets for infrastructure and climate neutrality), will be spent on modernising and refurbishing universities as well as childcare centres.

Established in 2007, the GWK comprises the ministers and senators of the federal and state governments who are responsible for higher education and research as well as those in charge of finance.

The SVIK, adopted by the federal parliament last March and approved by the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house comprising the heads of the federal states, last October, amounts to a total of €500 billion covering a 12-year period, the start of which was backdated to January 2025.

The money is intended to support development of transport, energy infrastructure, digitalisation, research, health and education. Part of the funding has been earmarked to help achieve climate neutrality goals targets by 2045.

No planning security

While welcoming the federal and state governments’ agreement on the funding programme, Andreas Keller, responsible for higher education and research as a board member of the Gewerkschaft für Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW – German Trade Union for Education and Research), pointed out that the GWK has not determined how much of the funding is to be allocated to the universities and how much to childcare facilities but is leaving this up to the individual state governments.

“This amounts not only to denying universities planning security but also to playing two education sectors off against each other,” Keller said.

While welcoming the federal and state governments swiftly reaching an agreement on funding for the modernisation and refurbishment of institutions, the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK – German Rectors’ Conference), representing the heads of the country’s publicly funded universities, also stressed the magnitude of the repair backlog.

An extrapolation of Hamburg’s funding requirements regarding modernisation and refurbishment of publicly funded universities to the Federal Republic of Germany as a whole suggests that a total of €141 billion will have to be spent on coping with demands up to the end of the 2030s.

“These requirements cannot be covered within four years’ time with the funds now provided,” said HRK president Walter Rosenthal on the announcement of the new programme.

“It is therefore obvious that the agreement now reached can only represent the beginning of long-term cooperation between the federal and state governments in the field of university construction,” he noted.

A ‘drop in the ocean’

Keller agreed that the new programme’s funding falls way below what is needed to address the current repair backlog.

“Taking this into account, the new joint federal and state funding programme is just a drop in the ocean,” he said.

“The plaster is peeling off the ceilings in lecture halls, IT infrastructure isn’t meeting the demands of the 21st century, university buildings are far away from achieving climate neutrality targets, and actual requirements – all this urgently calls for a major effort. So the federal and state government programme has to be swiftly implemented and considerably expanded.”

After the programme was announced, the Deutsches Studierendenwerk (DSW – German National Association for Student Affairs) stated that for the refurbishment of student cafés and canteens alone, a total of “at least €4 billion (US$4.713 billion)” would be required.

Michael Gardner can be reached at michael.gardner@uw-news.com.