Demonstrate now:
Against cuts, for affordable studying!
Together with other Berlin students, ASten and university administrations, we want to send a strong signal!
When?
Thursday, 19.12.2024 from 08:30 am
Where?
In front of the Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin
Niederkirchnerstraße 5
10117 Berlin
Statement of the AStA of the HTW Berlin
On November 19, the Berlin Senate agreed in the coalition committee on a significant cut in funding for Berlin’s higher education sector from the 2025 state budget. These cuts will have a significant impact on both studierendenWERK BERLIN and Berlin’s universities – both with corresponding financial consequences for students throughout Berlin and HTW.
studierendenWERK alone is facing the loss of a third of its subsidy – a sum amounting to EUR 6.5 million. Such harsh austerity measures would jeopardize the function of studierendenWERK in its current form immensely and would have consequences for every facet of its current work; be it for the canteens, the halls of residence or cultural and support services for students throughout Berlin.
As a result of the planned reduction in funding, the social contribution to studierendenWERK would have to be significantly increased, which in turn would be reflected in higher semester fees. This would be an imposition on students, many of whom already find themselves challenged by a significant increase in the cost of living. In addition, many students are at risk of poverty, as a recent survey by the Federal Statistical Office shows.
Furthermore, in the event of the planned subsidy cut, some canteen locations would have to be closed, while existing canteen prices would have to be increased, for example the cheapest lunch would have to be raised from EUR 1.45 to EUR 1.75. The situation in the halls of residence would be similarly drastic: Due to the already existing investment backlog of EUR 110 million, the structural substance of the halls of residence would deteriorate further, while at the same time hardly any new hall places could be created.
In addition to studierendenWERK, Berlin’s universities are also facing massive pressure to make savings. Savings of EUR 100 million are on the table here. At the same time, the question of “what” and “how” exactly savings can be made is still under discussion.
What is known, however, is the 80% cut in funding for the quality and innovation offensive at Berlin’s universities and the funding provided for construction and renovation. In fact, urgently needed investment pressure is being ignored and delayed into the future – here too with corresponding consequences for the quality of teaching and the further development of the universities. The removal of EUR 370 million from the education budget, which is to become the largest item in the budget, is an aggravating factor – a threat to the quality education of our next generation and future specialists.
As the AStA of HTW Berlin, we are extremely critical of the Berlin Senate’s planned cuts to university operations and will not accept the planned measures without our involvement.
In particular, further increases in semester fees would represent a considerable additional burden for students and make Berlin one of the most expensive places to study in Germany. This not only contradicts our claim to social justice, but also actively promotes an elitist higher education landscape in which financially weaker students would be confronted with further increasing hurdles.
As a social society, shouldn’t we help each other? Instead, we are cutting back on the poorest, who will return the help they have received to our society later in life.
As a student body, we see ourselves directly affected by the planned cost-cutting measures – after all, at the end of the day, we are the ones who will be affected by all the cost-cutting measures. At HTW Berlin, this will already become clear with the foreseeable discontinuation of numerous AWE courses next semester; a “blunting” of the courses on offer is already a foregone conclusion. Furthermore, many of our student initiatives are facing massive challenges due to funding cuts from the university side – this applies not least to the necessary psychological counseling for students, who are happy to accept such help, especially in such challenging times.
We appeal to the Berlin Senate to reconsider the funding cuts for studierendenWERK and the Berlin universities in their current form. We believe that both the attractiveness of Berlin’s universities as a place to study and the academic future of the state of Berlin are being jeopardized by short-term budgeting.