Habemus Grand Coalition! It’s hard to believe, but we finally have a government in Germany: the grand coalition consisting of the SPD, CDU and CSU. And since every government brings with it a different education policy, we have briefly summarized for you what you can now expect from the Grand Coalition.
This is what the coalition agreement says
“Education, science and research are the key issues for Germany’s future.” This marks the beginning of the chapter “Offensive for Education, Research and Digitalisation” in the 2018 coalition agreement. That’s a strong statement. But what’s behind it?
The biggest change is probably that the so-called ban on cooperation has been lifted and education is now no longer just a matter for the states, but for the federal government. This means that the federal government is allowed to distribute funds in a targeted manner and promote measures. Sounds good at first, but whether and what this innovation really brings remains to be seen.
Overall, the inter-university exchange with regard to successful teaching concepts is also to be promoted.
Universities of applied sciences to be strengthened
The Grand Coalition emphasizes the importance of the universities of applied sciences in the new coalition agreement. In the course of this, not only is the path to a university professorship to be facilitated, but also the fundamental innovation function is to be further expanded.
The Grand Coalition is also very generous in other aspects. On the one hand, BAföG is to be increased and the scholarship culture and the scholarship support organisations are also to be expanded and made more generous. Around one billion euros is to be made available for the BAföG increase.
Unfortunately, the Grand Coalition is very unspecific when it comes to the creation of student housing. There is only one sentence about this in the coalition agreement. So what we can expect is and remains completely unclear for the time being.
3.5% of GDP for research
A lot is also to be done in the field of research: a research data infrastructure is to be set up so that data and publications are more easily accessible and international exchange can be promoted. In addition, research campuses are to be built and the research fields of digitalisation, health, climate, energy and mobility are to be expanded through a so-called high-tech strategy. 3.5% of Germany’s gross domestic product (around 126 billion euros) is to be used for this purpose.
Many undertaken, but what comes in the end?
Politicians are often accused of not keeping their word: a lot is promised, but little is kept. But that’s not true at all. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a large part of the promises of the last Grand Coalition (2013-2017) were kept. No one knows whether this will also be the case with this Grand Coalition. But the signs are at least not bad. In any case, we are excited! What about you? Do you believe in the promises of the new government? And do you miss something?
On the MDR website you can find the whole coalition agreement.
Photo credits: (c) German Bundestag / Achim Melde