Everyone should save energy this winter.

Strategies are also being developed at universities to cope with the explosion in the price of electricity, gas and oil with simultaneous inflation.

The enormous increase in energy costs is such a burden on Germany's universities that in many places expenditure will at least double in 2022 compared to previous years.

At the University of Heidelberg, instead of the 17.5 million euros in energy costs in 2021, additional costs of 13 million euros are expected this year, and by 2024 a total of 40 million euros.

The LMU in Munich is also planning additional costs of up to 15 million euros, and in Münster, instead of the 13 million euros in 2019, costs of up to 50 million euros are expected for the next few years.

The TU Berlin expects to spend up to 140 million euros on energy in 2023.

There is no question that savings have to be made.

Exactly where this should happen is up to the universities themselves.

Whether they send their students back to “work from home” for the winter or leave university members sitting in the lecture hall in winter jackets and hats is at the discretion of the Rectorate.

Most opt ​​for direct measures: reduced heating, no outdoor lighting or hot water, and the closure of buildings.

In Vienna, the start of the university will be delayed in the new year in order to minimize additional costs.

In January, the students will return to distance learning, which has already been tried and tested, probably for two weeks.

Recruitment stop in Bochum

In Heidelberg, agreement was reached on a target of 19 degrees in administration rooms and lecture halls, says the rector of the university, Professor Bernhard Eitel.

Corridors are not heated, unused elevators are switched off.

Many German universities are currently vehemently ruling out a return to online teaching as a measure.

"We will do everything we can to give students the opportunity to meet within the university, to learn together, to study and also to maintain the exchange between teachers and students.

That has priority,” says Bernhard Eitel.

Maximum savings at large research institutions such as Heidelberg, Berlin and Munich would be around 15 percent.

Otherwise, operations in research and teaching would be noticeably impaired, says Eitel.

What further limits action are health and safety guidelines that must be complied with.

For example, air circulation in laboratories cannot be dispensed with.

Maintaining critical infrastructure, i.e. data centers, botanical gardens, research in chemistry, medicine or physics, requires energy that can only be saved to a small extent.

The Ruhr University Bochum is making a different kind of cost saving.

Up to seven million euros are to be saved here by a six-month hiring freeze for employees in administration and central operating units such as the library and IT service.

Similar to the temperature drops and temporary building closures, it is only intended to be a short-term measure.

Classroom teaching as the primary goal

In an emergency, universities are covered.

The Federal Network Agency classifies universities, like clinics and hospitals, as “protected customers” so that they can count on support in the event of a shortage.

The demands for relief are also having an effect in politics.

The budget of the state of Baden-Württemberg provides for reserves of one billion euros for the energy price increases for 2023/24, in which, according to a press release from the Ministry of Science, Research and Art, universities can also participate.

Universities in North Rhine-Westphalia have just received a commitment of 24 million euros for this December.

The University of Bochum now wants to re-evaluate its measures, as stated in a press release.

Above all, long-term measures are required for a sustainable reduction in energy costs - through the energetic renovation of buildings or sustainable concepts for independent energy generation, for example through solar systems.

The universities themselves cannot arrange this independently, since the buildings and infrastructure are under the responsibility of the respective finance ministries of the federal states.

Although the supporters of such measures at universities are numerous, practical access is lacking.

Bernhard Eitel speaks of a "delayed renovation backlog".

The university rector believes that the fact that there has been no response to years of demands for more funding for energy-related renovation is now taking revenge.

One thing seems to be clear for the universities: the top priority is face-to-face teaching.

The measures taken in the course of the energy price explosion are based on this.

It remains to be hoped that this will remain the case even in the case of extreme deficiencies.