Students sit in a lecture hall during a lecture. (File photo)
© dpa
The dilapidated buildings at Berlin's universities are to be renovated more quickly. To this end, the Berlin Senate has decided to establish a university construction company (BHG).
It will be responsible for coordinating all major construction and maintenance projects for the state-owned buildings of the eleven public universities. As a result, everything will be planned under one roof in the future.
The state budget cannot cover these costs. The construction work will therefore be financed through loans and rental income - the universities will lease their buildings from the newly established BHG in the future. In the long term, all university properties are to be transferred to this company. The Department of Higher Education will provide the universities with approximately 300 million euros annually to cover rental costs. As the Department of Higher Education explains, the rent will thus not come from the budgets for teaching and research.
Under the new financing structure, between approximately 220.3 and 298.6 million euros are to be invested annually from 2032 to 2046. According to the law, an average of about 290 million euros has been invested in recent years. The Senate anticipates that universities will reduce their floor space by 10 percent by 2032. "The University Construction Corporation is helping us to systematically reduce the investment backlog despite the tight budget situation and to position our academic institutions for the future," says Berlin’s Senator for Science, Ina Czyborra (SPD).
Higher education institutions use approximately 450 state-owned buildings with a total floor area of 1.2 million square meters. Many of these properties were built in the 1960s and 1970s and, as stipulated by law, some require complete renovation. As things stand, the estimated cost of renovation is 8 billion euros. The state’s university location development plan anticipates a total of 389 construction projects, including 240 construction measures to address the renovation backlog, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Science.
According to the Department of Higher Education, universities are to be closely involved and represented on the supervisory board. University administrations are calling for a clearly guaranteed right to co-determination and no substantive influence on the universities' strategic development planning. The law will not take effect until it has been passed by the House of Representatives. This is expected to happen before the summer recess.