Berlin Senate Imposes Severe Budget Cuts
The Berlin Senate recently unveiled plans to strike 250 million euros from the city’s tertiary education, research, and science budget in 2025. These cuts mean that state universities will have to reduce their budgets by 122 million euros, while Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin will have to make cutbacks totaling 20 million euros. The cuts that have been planned for 2025 and the manner in which further cuts will be integrated into in the budgets for upcoming years pose considerable challenges for Berlin’s universities. They also endanger Berlin’s reputation as a hub for research and science in the long term.
Freie Universität Berlin is heavily affected by these budget cuts: In total, it faces a budget deficit of approximately 41 million euros in 2025. For now, Freie Universität will be able to mitigate these cuts by up to fifty percent through its reserve funds. The remaining half will come from short-term measures that will initially apply exclusively for the year 2025. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether additional cuts will be announced for Freie Universität Berlin over the course of 2025.
Even less is known about the plans for 2026 and 2027, and how much money the university will be expected to save then. The university’s decision to make use of its reserve funds to soften the blow of these considerable cutbacks means that many of its planned construction projects will now have to be revised. The funding originally planned for construction and renovation works will now have to be used to preserve existing research, study, teaching, and administrative structures at Freie Universität.
Where Freie Universität Plans to Reduce Spending
Freie Universität is forced to take immediate measures in order to meet at least fifty percent of the mandated budget cuts that have been declared for 2025. These measures will have a tangible impact on university life and will affect all employees and students at Freie Universität.
Human Resources
- Recruitment: New positions in central university administration and central facilities will only be created, advertised, and filled in exceptional cases and with the express permission of the Executive Board. Ongoing hiring processes are exempt from this in order to protect legitimate expectations.
- Staffing budgets: Departments and central institutes will be expected to reduce their personnel costs by six percent, whereby individual solutions will be an option for particularly overworked units.
- Early appointments for regular professorships (Strukturplanprofessuren): These will be decided upon by the Executive Board on a case-by-case basis. Ongoing processes will also protect legitimate expectations.
Material Funds and Central Funds
- Material funds: No additional cutbacks; however, it will be necessary to make economical use of resources. Upper limits for unused funds that can be carried over to the next funding period will be established.
- Central management funds: Some cutbacks in order to lessen the impacts of other cost-saving measures. Protected areas such as faculty recruitment funding and ABV (General Professional Skills) will be unaffected by this.
Research
- Clusters of Excellence and collaborative projects: There will be stronger regulation of how funding for additional resources is allocated; this will be revised in 2025.
“Our overarching aim is to ensure that individual divisions and units can continue their day-to-day work to the greatest extent possible. We will try to navigate step by step, staying in close communication with the departments, central administration, the central facilities, and other offices across the university as we work together to absorb the impacts of these cuts. We must also be prepared for more financial cuts in the future – cutbacks that we in no way agree with – due to their scale, lack of planning and ideas, volume, and consequences, especially when it comes to construction and renovation work.”
Andrea Güttner, Director of Administration and Finance at Freie Universität Berlin (temporarily entrusted with the performance of official duties)