Bavaria: Despite the energy crisis, Bavaria relies on Semester in Presence

Munich (dpa/lby) – Despite the immense energy crisis, Bavaria is relying on a university presence for the upcoming winter semester. There will be no energy holidays or anything like that in Bavaria, “the universities will remain open and do their job,” said Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU) on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting in Munich. This is necessary simply because science has suffered major losses in the corona pandemic. There is currently a great deal of uncertainty at the universities as to how the semester will go.

Blume asked the federal government not to forget the universities in the energy crisis. The energy price brake must also apply to universities, university hospitals, non-university research institutions and student unions without exception. The students themselves also need a permanent and sustainable solution to cushion the rising energy costs.

Regardless, there is a “historic high” in the number of students in Bavaria in the winter semester: at 404,823, more students are enrolled at Bavaria’s universities than ever before. “We are experiencing a record-breaking winter semester,” said Blume. While the numbers are declining in other federal states, there is again a slight increase in the number of students in Bavaria.

Blume attributed the high number of enrolled students to “the attraction of Bavaria as a university and science location”. For the winter semester there will be around 90 new courses, two new technical universities in Augsburg and Würzburg-Schweinfurt and a new university location in Traunstein. With almost 64,000 first semester students, the number of first-year students has also increased compared to the previous winter semester, it said. There are slightly more women (50.3 percent) than men.

The state universities in Bavaria have long been of great importance as employers: more than 113,000 people are now employed here – more than ever before. With around 41,000 full-time scientific staff, as well as the 8,000 positions for professors included therein, record values ??have also been reached.