Just under a year after the renegotiation of university contracts began, Berlin's state universities today signed an amendment to the existing university contracts. The renegotiations had become necessary after the Berlin House of Representatives decided in December 2024 to no longer provide the necessary financial resources for the existing university contracts. This was unprecedented and a breach of trust.
For more than six months, Berlin's universities negotiated intensively with the responsible senator and state secretary on the amendment agreement and held numerous discussions to advocate for a reduction in the cuts. The amendment agreement now provides for funding increases again for the years 2026 to 2028. However, as these fall far short of the five per cent annual increases agreed in the original agreement and also behind the expected cost increases, the universities will continue to have to make drastic savings.
"With the amendment agreement, we were able to prevent worse from happening – there is no more positive way to sum it up. We consider the political decision to make drastic cuts in the field of science to be wrong for many reasons. We therefore protested against it and spent many months wrestling and negotiating with the Senator and the State Secretary.
With the amendment agreement, we were able to achieve improvements and relief in several areas. Nevertheless, the extent of the savings targets is hitting us universities hard. We are facing difficult decisions that will lead to painful cuts in research, teaching and administration and to a reduction in the number of university places," said Julia von Blumenthal, LKRP chairwoman and president of Humboldt University in Berlin.
Key points of the amendment agreement:
- The amendment agreement provides for increases in funding for the years 2026 to 2028, but these fall far short of the five per cent annual increase in funding that was bindingly agreed in the original higher education agreement. The increases provided for in the amendment agreement cannot offset the expected cost increases (general price increases, wage agreements).
- It provides for an adjustment of key performance parameters at Berlin's universities, such as a reduction in teacher training and the retention obligation, i.e. the number of study places that a university must offer according to the agreement.
- The State of Berlin undertakes to assume all the supply costs of Berlin's universities, which will relieve the burden on the universities.
- The State of Berlin has agreed to set up a university building company in close consultation with Berlin's universities in order to deal more effectively with the renovation backlog. Pilot projects, which are to be transferred to the university building company at an appropriate time, have already been identified.
- Working groups will be set up between the universities and the Senate Administration to develop greater agility for the universities in specific areas.