Thuringia also had to save at the universities in 2022 – nevertheless, the expenses for the students were quite high in comparison to the rest of the country. And now the universities should be able to keep part of their savings contribution.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – Thuringia’s expenditure per student is above average in a nationwide comparison. Despite the cuts in the budget specified by the state parliament, they averaged 9,900 euros per student for teaching and research last year, according to the Ministry of Science in Erfurt. It relied on data from the 2022 Education Financial Report of the Federal Statistical Office. The focus was on current expenses for teaching and research. The national average was 7,800 euros per student.
In a comparison of the federal states, Thuringia came in second place after Saarland in terms of expenditure per student, according to the Ministry of Science. According to him, around half a billion euros were made available for the ten state universities in Bavaria last year.
Against this background, the fact that the universities had to shoulder part of the global underspending in the state budget was “a painful, albeit justifiable decision,” explained State Secretary for Science Carsten Feller. A global underspending are unspecified savings targets.
According to the State Secretary, about half of the savings of 27.5 million euros that the universities should bring could be waived. This gives room for investments in the university infrastructure. It is possible to reduce the savings contribution, among other things, through reallocations in the household. The share of the universities in compensating for the so-called global underspending in the 2022 budget would thus be reduced to 14 million euros.
According to the ministry, the state is making a total of 2.7 billion euros available to universities, technical colleges and dual universities in the period 2021 to 2025 alone via a framework agreement. This year it is again around half a billion euros.
The CDU parliamentary group had pushed through a global underspending totaling 330 million euros for the 2022 state budget. The individual ministries had to save the money in their expenditure – without precise specifications from Parliament. Thuringia’s red-red-green minority government is dependent on the votes of the opposition when passing the budget.
