The universities have known since September 1 that face-to-face teaching has top priority, also from the point of view of the Federal Network Agency.

The classification as "protected customers" assures the universities in the event of a gas shortage that vital needs will be covered.

This does not mean absolute protection, but it does ease the situation.

Most universities have now moved away from partial lockdown scenarios.

If there is one insight from the Corona semesters, it is how important social contact is for students.

The demand at various universities shows that nobody wants to go back to online teaching.

A new lockdown cannot be expected of students and lecturers after four Corona semesters, says Andreas Keller from the Education and Science Union (GEW).

The Deutsches Studentenwerk agrees and points to the psychological needs of students resulting from the multiple crises.

The psychosocial counseling centers of the student union were literally overrun.

The Conference of Ministers of Culture also emphasizes the social importance of education.

Nina Bub

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In return, the Ministers of Education have committed themselves to ambitious energy saving targets of mostly fifteen to twenty percent of normal consumption.

The universities must now identify potential savings and initiate appropriate measures.

Horror scenarios of long winter breaks or weekend closures have now largely evaporated.

Nevertheless, the situation remains uncertain.

The University of Hamburg, which committed itself very early to face-to-face teaching this winter, has presented a scenario-based plan that describes three different levels of gas supply and the resulting measures.

With a regular supply situation, the university envisages energy savings of fifteen percent.

This should be done through organizational, structural and operational measures.

The room temperature should be lowered by one to two degrees Celsius, devices that are not required should be switched off completely and the operating times reduced.

In addition, the ventilation systems should be lowered at night and corona-related operating conditions should be reset, i.e. less fresh air should be supplied to store heat.

In addition, the central control of the building technology will be adapted and the hot water at the hand wash basins in the toilets will be switched off.

The measures are tightened for the scenarios of a critical or even emergency supply situation.

In these cases, it would also be an option to relocate teaching to a location with a better supply situation, to further reduce room temperatures and to close building openings and additionally insulate them.

Some colleges are also considering extending the Christmas holidays and reducing lights.

At the University of Passau, the light sources are being switched to LEDs, and there are also plans to expand the company's own production of electricity using photovoltaic systems.

Who bears the additional costs?

After the announcement by the Federal Network Agency, the energy supply is no longer the biggest problem.

Of greater concern is the rise in energy prices.

"The Goethe University assumes that in the coming months there will most likely not be a crisis in the energy supply, but in energy prices," Goethe University Frankfurt am Main President Enrico Schleiff told the newspaper.

The Goethe University participates in the measures introduced by the federal and state governments to save energy in public buildings with a bundle of its own activities.

In the event of a limited energy supply, the university has set up a crisis management team and developed a phased plan similar to that in Hamburg.

Andreas Keller from the GEW demands

The federal and state governments would have to help the universities with a special program.

He says: "There is a risk that the universities will have to cancel teaching assignments and tutorials or even positions for lecturers in order to be able to pay their heating costs." The Alliance of Science Organizations also fears that the higher electricity prices will affect the studies of thousands Students.

According to the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), almost all federal states have given their universities more or less specific energy saving targets.

However, they did not take into account savings that had already been made.

On the other hand, concrete agreements to bear the additional costs caused by price increases can only be observed in individual countries.

The HRK cites Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein as examples.

There, the universities either receive a share of the funds from an additional pot for all public institutions or a lump sum determined for the universities, which is billed retrospectively exactly.

In all of this, it should be noted that the universities usually do not have liquidity reserves built up over many years, but only medium-term earmarked funds.

This shows how urgently the universities are dependent on the financial support of the federal states for their energy supply this winter.

The exact amount of the additional costs to be expected is difficult to estimate, since the prices for gas and electricity depend to a large extent on political decisions to relieve consumers, says Harald Schultz from the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich.

The concrete design of the planned gas price cap will have a far-reaching effect on consumer prices.

In any case, the universities have to adjust to increased energy costs, and the gas price cap will not change that.