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last mo.

Hesse Ratifies Hochschulpakt With Short-Term €30 Million Cut and Guaranteed Growth

The pact merges multiple funding streams into an expanded base budget, securing annual increases from 2028 despite campus protests.

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Overview

  • Signed on July 17, 2025, the Hochschulpakt cuts €30 million from 2026 budgets before restoring funding to 2025 levels in 2027 and phasing in yearly rises through 2031.
  • The agreement integrates €12 million from hessian.AI and half of Digitalpakt Hochschulen funds into a unified base budget and raises the performance-based share from 15.5% to 18.1%.
  • From 2028 onward, Hesse will provide at least €37.5 million annually for tariff adjustments, plus extra state funding if wage settlements exceed 4%.
  • University presidents warn that staff and material cost inflation will leave a high three-figure million euro real-term shortfall by 2031 despite nominal upticks.
  • Thousands of students and staff have protested across Hesse, and Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences has already suspended two engineering programs in response to the cuts.