Overview
- Reporting on Tuesday, October 20, 2026 revealed an internal 59‑page framework that would reduce the university’s 16 faculties to seven, merge many institutes into larger units, and attach deaneries more closely to the presidium.
- The presidium says the document is a draft and plans three transformation teams by year‑end with new faculties to be founded in winter semester 2028/29 and the new structure operational by 2032.
- Student bodies, staff, academic representatives and unions have sharply rejected the proposal, arguing it centralizes power, weakens faculty self‑governance and risks narrowing course and research offerings.
- Student representatives report immediate operational effects: a Physics faculty hiring freeze and the dismissal of more than 30 state‑funded research staff, a development critics say shows cuts are already affecting teaching and research.
- The plan is presented as a response to mandated savings under the Hessian Hochschulpakt that require roughly €30 million in cuts this year and larger shortfalls by 2031, a pressure that could force renegotiation of state funding and reshape regional higher education policy.