Budget Cuts, Bigger Burdens – WIPR forum on the financial situation at the UHH As you may have already noticed, the financial situation at UHH continues to deteriorate. We would therefore like to invite you to a WIPR forum on 11 June 2025 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. We will provide background on the current developments, share the latest updates, and create space for discussion around possible courses of action.
The situation began last year with a 3% advance deduction from the university budget to fund IT security and digitalisation projects. Shortly after, the city suddenly offset the contractually guaranteed 2% annual budget increase against its obligation to cover wage increases — effectively eliminating the expected inflation adjustment.
For years, the federal government’s permanent subsidies (ZSL – Zukunftsvertrag Studium und Lehre stärken, or Future Contract for Strengthening Studies and Teaching) have been channelled into structural maintenance and the compensation of structural deficits without being able to fully offset them.
This approach was sustainable only while the university maintained financial reserves. However, the city of Hamburg stipulated that these reserves must be reduced as a condition for adjusting subsidies to accommodate the university’s increased requirements. At present, the reserves have been fully depleted, and costs have risen across the board, yet there is no sign of a corresponding adjustment in municipal funding.
How to deal with this situation is still a matter of debate.
The executive university board is currently focussing on “management measures”: the faculties are faced with the task of saving around 4.5% of their budgets without being relieved on the other side of the equation, namely in the required services. It is clear to everyone that this equation will not work out. If positions are kept vacant and parental leave or reduced working hours etc. are not compensated for by substitutes, how can teaching, research, supervision of Bachelor's and Master's theses etc., be maintained at the same level if not by spreading the same load over fewer shoulders?
The result is overwork. This represents a health risk that needs to be minimised. The German Occupational Safety Act provides the option of submitting an overload report to the employer. You can find more information on overload notifications here. Your overload report would not be the first.
But do employees have to accept the overload and powerlessly submit to a cost-cutting dictate? The WIPR believes that we as a university should work together to improve the general conditions. In doing so, we can recall our experiences from the fight for the future (Kampf um die Zukunft) from 2011 onwards (https://www-archiv.fdm.uni-hamburg.de/kampfumdiezukunft/www.uni-hamburg.de/kampf-um-die-zukunft.html).
We warmly invite you to a WIPR forum to discuss the university’s financial situation, the background and its impact, as well as possible options for action.
