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Free University of Berlin

Photo: Jürgen Ritter / IMAGO

The Berlin Senate would like to make it possible for universities to expel students or employees if they commit violence against fellow students or other members of the university. Exmatriculation should also be possible if the alleged attacker has not yet been convicted but repeatedly becomes violent, as Science Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD) explained. The Senate has approved the change, now the Berlin House of Representatives must vote on the proposal.

The new regulatory law provides for a five-step solution:

  • Expressing a reprimand

  • Threat of exmatriculation

  • Exclusion from the use of individual facilities or digital offerings

  • Exclusion from individual courses

  • Exmatriculation

    • A new committee will decide on the measures at the request of the Executive Board or the Academic Senate, according to the draft law that SPIEGEL has received. A student and a fully qualified lawyer should also sit on the committee. When choosing the individual measure, proportionality must be taken into account. According to the draft, exmatriculation is only possible after prior warning.

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    “We want universities to be safe and non-discriminatory places,” said Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). »The change to the Higher Education Act offers the best conditions for this.«

    According to Czyborra, the focus is on victim protection. The aim is not to punish the perpetrators, but rather to protect members of the university from anti-Semitism or sexual violence. “Exmatriculation may only take effect if it protects the victim from meeting the perpetrator,” said the Science Senator. Victims of a crime should not have to sit in a seminar with the alleged attacker.

    In order to ensure this, a measure that is already in the Higher Education Act should also be tightened. So far, students who “disrupt” university operations have been allowed to be excluded for a maximum of three months. In the future, presidents should be able to repeat this measure in order to be able to exclude the perpetrators from the university for longer, possibly until they are legally convicted.

    Display is a prerequisite for action

    As a rule, a conviction is a prerequisite for exmatriculation, said Czyborra. However, if further crimes occur after the threat of the measure, expulsion should be possible earlier - provided the incidents are reported. Otherwise, the university would have “no basis to act,” said Czyborra.

    The background to the change is a suspected anti-Semitic attack on Lahav Shapira, a student at the Free University of Berlin. Shapira is said to have been knocked down and beaten by a fellow student after visiting a bar in January. The attacker's motive is said to have been Shapira's pro-Israel stance on campus. Shapira is Israeli and Jewish.

    After the attack, there was a public outcry: Students, they demanded, must be better protected from anti-Semitic attacks at Berlin universities. There were also calls to deregister the alleged attacker - which is not possible under the current legal situation in Berlin because the option was abolished in 2021. In the Shapira case, the amendment cannot apply because laws do not apply retroactively.

    According to Czyborra, regulatory law should now also cover cases that occur outside of the university - as long as the perpetrator and victim belong to the university. If students or employees are attacked by external people on campus, house rules apply again.

    Czyborra emphasized that the proposed law is not about restricting political expression or other freedoms. It's more about protecting freedom of expression and spaces for discourse. She explicitly does not want the occupation of lecture halls to be subject to regulatory law. In case of doubt, this is a question of house law. Nevertheless, demonstrators warned against “politically motivated exmatriculations” in front of the Red City Hall, where the Senate normally meets.

    “Necessary means of a robust democracy”

    The Left rejects the new higher education law. "The Senate is overshooting its target by far and sticking to activism," explained the parliamentary group's science policy spokesman, Tobias Schulze. The goal of protecting victims of violence is not achieved: "A possible exmatriculation would only take place many months or even years after the crime." The Greens also doubt that the law offers effective and legally secure protection against violence or anti-Semitism.

    The student associations Ring Christian Democratic Students (RCDS), Jewish Student Union (JSUD), Liberal University Group (LHG) and CampusGreen welcomed the draft. »The de-registration of enemies of democracy is a necessary means of a defensive democracy. Anyone who physically attacks others, excludes them from lecture halls or threatens them should not study at a German university," said RCDS federal chairman Lukas Honemann.

    Most other federal states have already anchored university expulsion in their higher education laws in serious cases. However, according to a SPIEGEL survey from mid-March, there have hardly been any such cases in recent years. The ministries report fewer than ten forced exmatriculations in recent years. There is no known anti-Semitic background anywhere.

    “The constitutionally guaranteed freedom of occupation – even of a perpetrator – is a very valuable asset,” says the Hessian Ministry of Science. Essentially, it’s about ensuring everyone’s professional freedom. Exmatriculation is not a punishment, “but rather a protective mechanism to maintain peace on campus.”

    With material from dpa