Troubled times have dawned in the Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences at the University of Gießen: There is a gap of one million euros in the budget.

The confirmed university chancellor Susanne Kraus of the FAZ. Savings must now be made, especially in personnel costs.

The students fear that the quality of teaching will be affected.

A general budget freeze for the department was imposed with immediate effect.

The aim is to restore the balance between income and expenditure as early as possible, according to Kraus.

She expects this to take three to four years.

For this purpose, the faculty is granted a credit line within the university, which, however, has to be reduced to zero through consolidation steps.

In terms of material costs, the Chancellor sees potential savings of around 200,000 euros.

There shouldn't be any layoffs.

The range of courses must continue to be guaranteed.

With more than 3000 students, Faculty 03 is one of the larger ones at the University of Giessen.

In addition to the professorships, he currently has almost 130 technical-administrative and scientific positions.

The budget, managed independently by the Dean's Office, amounted to 7.14 million euros last year.

In the current year 7.45 million are available, in 2023 it will be 7.91 million euros.

“We should have intervened earlier”

Kraus countered rumors about further financial gaps in other departments.

Only department 03 is affected, she emphasized.

He significantly increased his workforce between 2017 and 2020 and entered into too many jobs.

This was initially financed from reserves, which have now been used up.

As far as research into the causes is concerned, the Chancellor is keeping a low profile.

"We don't want to play black Peter games now, but look ahead and, above all, prevent something like this from happening again." In retrospect, it was clear "that we should have intervened earlier".

It will be examined at what point in time intervention by the head office in the decentralized budget planning will be necessary.

Kraus did not provide any information on the number of employees affected by the austerity measures.

Employment relationships would not be continued after a time limit, or not to the same extent, she explained.

It is not possible to determine “at the push of a button” which people would have expected follow-up contracts or increases, as this is planned decentrally.

GEW: Those affected do not receive suitable compensation

The Education and Science Union (GEW) criticizes the financial pressure on employees.

So far, more than 20 people affected have contacted him, reports GEW representative Tobias Cepok.

All of them are in the phase of life between the end of their studies and their early 40s. Many of them have made financial commitments, for example to buy or build a house, which they will hardly be able to meet in the future.

Temporary increases - such as a 50 percent position to 100 percent - would be deleted.

Cepok complains that most of those affected are only offered jobs as lecturers as "compensation".

As a solo self-employed person, they received 25 euros for each hour actually given, including the academic quarter.

Preparation and follow-up would be paid just as little as exam corrections.

In addition, the remuneration is only paid at the end of the semester, not at the end of a month.

Lecturers are only a third as expensive as academic staff, says Cepok.

The fact that the number of employees is decreasing will certainly not have a positive effect on the quality of the course.

In addition, the trade unionist criticizes the communication of the university management.

The employees were informed a week before Christmas;

that is "unfortunate".

Cepok suggests involving the faculty council in future decision-making processes so that problems can be identified earlier and counteracted.

In order to make the painful losses more bearable, the balance of the deficit can also be stretched over a longer period of time.

Unlike the chancellor, Cepok sees "a structural underfunding of the humanities for years".

The country must provide more money.