Election benchmark 6:
Higher Education Development and Participation

From the CDU’s perspective, the student services organizations are an indispensable part of good study conditions in Saxony-Anhalt. Through their services in the areas of housing, meals, counseling, and social infrastructure, they make a significant contribution to equal opportunity and to the attractiveness of higher education institutions.

The student services organizations should continue to focus on their core mission of providing social, economic, and organizational support to students. We will continue to fulfill this core mission, with a focus on efficiency, reducing bureaucracy, affordability, and meeting students’ needs.

The student services organizations play a very important role in students’ academic success and social well-being, as they provide not only essential counseling services but also meals, housing, and cultural activities. Free meals, psychosocial counseling, book subsidies, and other services provide support during crises and beyond. The DSW social surveys provide important insights into the social situation of students in the state. The student services organizations are a central pillar of a successful academic experience. Without them, the dropout rate would skyrocket, and significantly fewer young people would come to Saxony-Anhalt. Student services organizations are therefore essential to the attractiveness and success of higher education.

The student services organizations and the housing, dining, counseling, and many other services they offer are essential for a successful, smooth, and satisfying college experience.

Student services organizations play a key role in providing housing and other infrastructure at universities. Just like the universities themselves, they deserve adequate and sufficient funding to ensure the long-term availability of these services.

Student services organizations are an important and indispensable part of Saxony-Anhalt’s academic landscape. It therefore goes without saying that Green Party education policy includes calls to support and strengthen these organizations.

A reliable funding base is crucial for ensuring the long-term stability of universities and student services organizations. This involves, in particular, planning certainty, the efficient use of funds, and the strengthening of existing structures. The federal and state governments share responsibility for this. The goal is to maintain the performance of universities while enabling student services organizations to further develop their offerings in line with student needs.

We will ensure reliable and predictable base funding from the state that is aligned with the universities’ actual core missions. Instead of constantly introducing new, often ideologically motivated programs and bureaucratic bloat, we will concentrate resources with a clear focus on the educational and research missions of universities, as well as on student housing and meal services in university dining halls. Increased efficiency, the streamlining of administrative structures, and faster planning and approval procedures for student housing—free from ideological constraints—should help make better use of existing resources. The quality of cafeteria meals must be improved without raising prices.

As previously mentioned, we on the left will advocate for the funding of the student services organizations to be adjusted to meet actual needs. Saxony-Anhalt must at least bring its funding in line with the national average. Furthermore, increases in costs and collective bargaining agreements must be covered as a matter of principle. Additional funds are needed for the construction and renovation of student housing. The student services organizations should be funded by the state, not through rising tuition fees. The services currently covered by these fees must be funded from the state budget.

The stable and reliable funding of universities is one of Saxony-Anhalt’s major locational advantages, with significance that extends far beyond academia and research. The critical and sometimes precarious situation in other federal states shows just how important it is that Saxony-Anhalt has set its priorities in favor of academia. With us, there will be no change to this set of priorities. Investments in higher education and science are investments in the future of the entire state. The process of setting performance targets provides universities with a reliable and proven framework for their work, which we intend to maintain.
Under SPD leadership, student services organizations can also count on stable, long-term funding.

See the answer to question b)
(The FDP answered the related questions.)

During the state budget negotiations, we intend to advocate for an increase in base funding for colleges and universities. We also want to secure financial support for student services organizations in the state budget negotiations and advocate for an increase in funding for them.

Student participation and involvement are important elements of a vibrant university culture. The CDU of Saxony-Anhalt is committed to strengthening existing participatory structures, ensuring transparency in processes, and enabling students to be constructively involved in decision-making processes. This also includes supporting student council work and fostering dialogue between university administration, students, and other stakeholders.

The concept of the “group university,” as advocated by the ’68ers, calls for comprehensive participation by all status groups at universities. We consider this model to be flawed, as it increases bureaucracy and places a burden on research and teaching. Universities serve to impart knowledge and insight and should therefore be organized in accordance with scientific principles. Key decisions should rest primarily with academically qualified professors. We will therefore push through a university reform that eliminates these undesirable developments and, in particular, curtails the influence of student bodies.

We want to reform the State Higher Education Act and enshrine in it separate vice-rectorates for students and for staff. In addition, we want to ensure equal representation of all four status groups on university governing bodies. We want student bodies to have sufficient resources and information to actively represent their interests. Furthermore, we want to strengthen the roles of inclusion and equality officers. We will make access to higher education more socially equitable by enshrining the right to free learning and teaching materials and by abolishing tuition fees for second degrees.

We are fully committed to preserving the student body as the democratically legitimate representative of students’ interests. We have strengthened students’ rights to participate in decision-making through the recent amendment to the Higher Education Act. We will continue to pursue this policy.

Student perspectives must play a significant role in the university’s governing bodies—during the last legislative term, for example, we reformed the Faculty Council for Medicine to this end. Regarding participation in recognized student organizations, we think from the students’ perspective and want to give them more choices: Students who do not wish to take advantage of the services and opportunities offered by recognized student organizations should be able to withdraw as early as the first semester.

For us Greens, strengthening democratic participation—particularly among students at colleges and universities—is a key priority. To this end, we want to amend the Higher Education Act to allow for the appointment of student vice-rectors at the state’s institutions of higher education, who will serve as intermediaries between the rector’s office and the student body. We also want to introduce a one-quarter quota so that all status groups are represented equally in the senate and have corresponding voting rights. We want to enshrine a legal obligation to consult with student representative bodies.