University of Bremen: Special session of the Academic Senate

The Academic Senate will hold a special digital session on Monday, March 15. On the agenda is the planned benchmark of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen for the science budget.
The members of the Academic Senate (AS) voted with a large majority to convene an unscheduled meeting. The next regular meeting of the University Parliament is scheduled for April 21st. “That is too late,” said the university lecturers Professor Rita Groß-Hardt and Professor Matthis Kepser and suggested a virtual special session to the AS members. “It is important that we position ourselves as representatives of the university members. The situation is very serious, ”said Rita Groß-Hardt. “We can’t wait until April”, says Matthis Kepser, “we have to work now to implement the Science Plan 2025!”

Rector Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, who chairs the Academic Senate, thinks it is appropriate and sensible for the Academic Senate to participate in the current discussion. “The diverse commitment at the University of Bremen, which arose in the context of the current debate about the budget, shows how much the development of the university depends on the benchmark of the science budget,” says the rector.

Scholz-Reiter and the Chairman of the Staff Council, Holger Ruge, had been in a joint open letter to the President of the Senate, Dr . Andreas Bovenschulte, in which the effects of non-compliance with the Science Plan 2025 by the planned benchmark for Bremen and the University of Bremen were outlined and the implementation of the Science Plan was demanded.

A little more than a week ago it became known that the state government did not want to implement the Science Plan 2025. As a result, the university management and staff council wrote the open letter, university lecturers collected over 8,000 signatures against the cuts and students, lecturers, university management and trade unions demonstrated together against the Senate’s plans.