Higher Education Pact

With the Higher Education Pact, which is to run until 2020, the Federal Government and the Länder want to give an additional 275,000 new university entrants the opportunity to take up their studies.

Institutions of higher education are facing great challenges in Germany: The number of young people qualified to enter university is set to increase significantly by 2020. At the same time, international competition demands that universities put a greater emphasis on research. In order to maintain the performance of institutions of higher education and give more new entrants access to university, the Federal Government and the Länder have decided to continue the Higher Education Pact 2020. The Federal Government alone is providing more than €5 billion for the second programme phase. The aim is to give the 275,000 additional new entrants expected between 2011 and 2015 a chance to pursue a high-quality university education. Providing one-off payments for research projects supported by the German Research Association will increase universities' ability to develop new strategies.

A first-rate research landscape and highly qualified professionals are key factors for a country's social and economic development. Universities play a particularly important role in securing Germany's future. As the central institutions of our research system, they are the drivers of knowledge acquisition. At the same time, they provide qualifications for young scientists.

Demand for university graduates in the labour market is growing and will continue to grow in future. At the same time, the number of Abitur holders applying for a university place is set to increase in coming years. The Federal Government and the Länder want to join forces to meet these challenges. That is why the Federal Government and the Länder agreed on a Higher Education Pact in June 2007 to create good educational opportunities for the next academic generation while maintaining universities' research performance. This Pact has already achieved considerable success. It has stopped the downwards trend in the number of new university entrants and sustainably strengthened research at German universities.

Second programme phase from 2011 to 2015 agreed

On 4 June 2009, the heads of the Federal Government and the Länder agreed on a continuation of the Higher Education Pact. According to the draft agreement, the Pact - which is designed to run until 2020 - is being extended for a second phase until the end of 2015. It includes a programme for the admission of new university entrants and a programme for the provision of one-off payments for research projects supported by the German Research Association (overheads).

1. Programme for the admission of new university entrants:

With the Higher Education Pact, the Federal Government and the Länder have created a demand-based solution for dealing with the 275,000 additional university entrants expected between 2011 and 2015. In the second programme phase, the costs per additional university entrant will increase from €22,000 to €26,000, of which the Federal Government will provide €13,000. The Länder will take on general funding responsibility. This means that in the second programme phase, there will be an additional €4000 available per student (compared to the first programme phase). This increase is also intended as a contribution towards improving teaching quality. The Länder will also take on responsibility for expanding the so-called MINT subjects and for promoting equal opportunities for women.

The second programme phase of the Higher Education Pact will continue to take the special situations of the city-states and the new Länder into account.

• The new Länder, which - according to the KMK's prognoses - are expecting a decline in the number of new entrants by 63,000 between 2011 and 2015, will continue to receive lump sums from the Federal Government and the Länder to enable them to maintain their capacities and reduce the strain on West German Länder (excluding the city-states of Hamburg and Bremen). The Federal Government will provide an additional €179 million for this purpose. The West German Länder (except Hamburg and Bremen) will pass on five percent of the Federal Government funds they receive from the Higher Education Pact to the new Länder. In addition, the reference thresholds for the new Länder, which were previously based on the number of new entrants in 2005, have been lowered. All new university entrants above the new threshold will be taken into account in the allocation of Federal Government funds. The new Länder have agreed to maintain their student capacities in the subject of medicine despite demographic developments.
• The reference thresholds for Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen have been lowered. All new university entrants above this new threshold will be taken into account when allocating Federal Government funds.
  
  The Federal Government funds will be provided in the form of pre-payments; the accounting will then be carried out on the basis of the number of additional students admitted. This will give the Länder planning certainty. At the same time, it will ensure that the Federal Government's funds are actually spent on the universities where a larger number of young people take up their studies.

2. One-off payments

German universities need to make a bigger international name for themselves as research institutions. They must enhance their research intensity and excellence despite the challenges posed by the increasing number of students. This challenge is addressed through the second pillar of the Higher Education Pact: the provision of one-off payments (overheads).

As in the Higher Education Pact I, the Federal Government will fund 100 percent of the one-off payments for research projects supported by the German Research Association, which will amount to 20 percent of the project costs. This will make an additional €1.7 billion available to universities. After an evaluation at the end of 2013, this special funding will be reviewed with the aim of introducing a joint financing of the one-off payments by the Federal Government and the Länder that is better suited to the DFG.

First programme phase 2007 to 2010

On 14 June 2007, the Federal Government and the Länder concluded the administrative agreement on the Higher Education Pact 2020. The first phase of the Higher Education Pact 2020 will enable universities to admit a total of 91,370 additional new university entrants by 2010 (compared to the number in 2005). In addition, one-off payments will be provided to support research at universities. The Pact is already showing first signs of success: The downwards trend in the number of new university entrants has stopped. The 2007/2008 academic year was the first in a long time in which more young people embarked on a university degree than in the previous year.

The Higher Education Pact 2020 consists of the following components:

1. Teaching

The Länder will admit a total of 91,370 additional new university entrants by 2010. The Federal Government will provide €11,000 per new entrant over a period of four years. Approximately €565 million have been earmarked for payments until 2010. The Länder will take on general funding responsibility. The distribution of Federal Government funds will take the different situations of the Länder into account.

• In view of their special demographic situation, the new Länder will receive a lump sum in the years 2007 to 2010 amounting to 15 percent of the annual funds provided by the Federal Government. In return, they have agreed to maintain the number of new university entrants that they had in 2005.
• Bremen and Hamburg will jointly receive 3.5 percent of the Federal Government funds, with the condition that they hold the level of new entrants that they had in 2005. If the number of new entrants exceeds the 2005 level, they will receive the same amount of funding as the other Länder.
• Berlin will receive a lump sum of 4 percent of the Federal Government funds. In return, it has agreed to admit an average of 19,500 new university entrants per year between 2007 and 2010.
  The Federal Government funds will be provided in the form of pre-payments; from 2011 onwards, the accounting will be carried out on the basis of the actual number of additional students admitted. This will give the Länder planning certainty. At the same time, it will ensure that the Federal Government's funds are actually spent on the universities at which a larger number of young people take up their studies.

When using the funds, the Länder will put special emphasis on increasing the number of new students at universities of applied sciences, increasing the number of women to be appointed to chairs and other positions, and creating new positions.

2. One-off payments

With the second pillar of the Higher Education Pact, the Federal Government is contributing towards the full-cost financing of research projects and thus providing long-term support for university research. In this context, the projects funded by the German Research Association are to receive an additional 20 percent of funding. In the period from 1007 to 2010, the Federal Government will finance 100 percent of these costs. The one-off payment has been granted for collaborative research centres, research centres and research schools since 2007. Since 2008, it has also been provided for other DFG-funded research projects.