University of Halle: The good years are over

Those who live beyond their means have to tighten their belts.

The University of Halle-Wittenberg has been spending more money than it has for decades.

Because the state government in Magdeburg didn't want to stand by and watch this any longer, in 2014 the university ordered a university structure plan which, following the recommendations of the Science Council, called for efficiency in the first place.

The university then presented a concept which, according to the ministry, "did not reveal" "how planned structural changes should be brought into line with the budget".

In other words, university management continued to happily spend money they didn't have.

Instead of streamlining the structures, the Rectorate allowed the administration to grow in particular.

According to the Statistical Yearbook of Saxony-Anhalt, between 2015 and 2020 the number of administrative and technical employees throughout the university (excluding the medical faculty) rose from 1263 to 1449 - i.e. by almost 15 percent.

During the same period, around a hundred additional positions were created in the scientific service.

In the past year, the university's financial situation has evidently deteriorated dramatically.

In any case, the rectorate, which had been acting with admirable breeziness up to that point, suddenly switched to panic mode and presented the Senate with a paper on “profiling” last spring, which would have meant the end of the full university.

With the wrecking ball, Rector Christian Tietje wanted to tackle the humanities in particular.

Entire institutes and courses should be closed.

"Can be omitted"

The plans triggered a storm of protests, and Rector Tietje quickly declared his clearing paper a basis for discussion because the Senate did not want to follow him.

After months of discussion, the committee decided on a revised version of the bill in the third reading on April 6th.

The result: 13 yes and 10 no votes.

What was decided in Halle?

On page 21, the new plan states the "need to intensify the range of courses, particularly in the humanities and social sciences".

A whole series of professorships is marked in the paper with the note "kw" (can be omitted).

The individual affected are: one professorship at the Faculty of Theology, one in law and two in economics, the professorships for Greek Studies and Near Eastern Archeology in Classical Studies, the professorships for Japanese Studies, Indology and South Asian Studies at the Oriental Institute, a professorship in the Political science, one professorship each in Romance and Slavic studies, two professorships in music, a total of four professorships in the educational science-oriented Philosophical Faculty III,

four professorships in the fields of biology and pharmacy, two in chemistry, one in physics, two in mathematics, two in agricultural and nutritional sciences and one in computer science.

Each professorship has employee positions that are also saved.

University management overtakes ministry

Of the thirty kw-appointed professorships, fourteen are still in the philosophical faculties, which will continue to bear the brunt of the cuts, but will no longer shoulder them almost alone, as was planned a year ago.

The new plan presents itself as more balanced than the rector's red pencil paper from last May, and it also recognizes that the administration has to play its part in solidarity.

The size of the administration in relation to the scientific service is within the range of what is usual at other universities, it is said.

Where and how savings are to be made here, however, remains open.

It seems bizarre that the university management considers the austerity measures to be more urgent than the ministry.

Armin Willingmann, the responsible minister from the SPD, has repeatedly stated that he considers the cuts to be excessive and not necessary to reorganize university finances on this scale.

It is therefore questionable whether the ministry will give its blessing to the Senate decision.

It is downright ludicrous that the university wants to handle small but research-intensive subjects such as Indology and South Asian studies that also require a lot of third-party funding.

It is true that the disciplines are also in the portfolio of the neighboring University of Leipzig, but to justify the kw setting of the professorships and the permanent suspension of the courses only with this and with the currently rather low number of students falls far short of the mark.

Indology is only taught at eleven university locations in Germany.

The conflicts in the Middle East and now in Ukraine have shown that small subjects such as Islamic studies, Eastern European history and Slavic studies - which are also said to be bleeding in Halle - can suddenly boom if parts of the world suddenly become hot spots for which there was hardly any before someone interested.

South Asia is a dynamic metropolitan region with well over a billion people.

If research is carried out on them at eleven university locations in Germany, then there is no threat that they will be over-represented in the academic landscape.

Above all, supposed orchid fans hold expertise that cannot be stamped out of the ground when it is suddenly needed.

Therefore, the hurdles for their closure are rightly high.

The author is a professor of ancient history at the University of Oldenburg.