2025

There were no reforms in the area of higher education during the reporting period.

2024

In June 2024, the Federation and the Länder adopted a new Strategy of the Federal and Länder Ministers of Science for the Internationalisation of Institutions of Higher Education in Germany (Strategie der Wissenschaftsminister/innen von Bund und Ländern für die Internationalisierung der Hochschulen in Deutschland). It replaces the 2013 internationalisation strategy and is intended to strengthen the higher education location in the face of new technological and political developments and increasing global risks, and to make it more resilient. At the same time, the Federation and the Länder want to take a strategic approach to the social, economic and technological developments of recent years that are relevant to the internationalisation of higher education institutions. The sustainability agenda and the growing socio-political demand for more equal opportunities and diversity are creating new expectations and requirements for the internationalisation of research and teaching. In addition, the potential of digitisation is to be exploited in the context of the internationalisation of higher education institutions.

In this context, the Federal Government and the Länder aim to:

• further increase the attractiveness of German higher education and research institutions for international students and researchers and to further reduce potential hurdles to their recruitment, integration and retention in order to attract more qualified people to research and industry.
• enabling high-quality internationalisation experiences for as many students, researchers and other higher education staff as possible – both by promoting physical and virtual mobility and by internationalising at home.
• while safeguarding the autonomy of higher education institutions and the EU's division of competences in the higher education sector, to work towards further expanding and deepening the quality of European and international cooperation in research and teaching, from smaller projects to larger networks and strategic alliances.

Dealing with and combating anti-Semitism at universities

In response to the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel, the federal and and state governments, as well as the German Rectors' Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz – HRK) and the higher education institutions, have condemned these attacks, reaffirmed their solidarity with Israel and dealt intensively with the protests that have been developing in Germany and the associated attacks.

By 2023, the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kultusministerkonferenz - KMK) (higher education plenary) and the Federal Education Ministry have adopted a “Action plan against anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel” (‘Aktionsplan gegen Antisemitismus und Israelfeindlichkeit’). In June 2024, the Standing Conference (higher education plenary) issued a “Declaration for an open promotion of scientific exchange” (‘Erklärung für eine offene Förderung des wissenschaftlichen Austausches’ and against calls for a boycott of Israeli researchers and Israeli research institutions. In addition to intensive exchange between the Länder on their experiences with the measures taken and their effectiveness, the committees in the Standing Conference are also exchanging views with representatives of Jewish organisations and the German Rectors' Conference.

Act amending the Federal Training Assistance Act

The 29th Act amending the Federal Training Asssistance Act (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz - BAföG) addresses key projects to strengthen equal opportunities in education. In addition to an increase in the needs-based rates, the housing allowance for recipients not living with their parents and the parental allowances, it also includes structural adjustments such as the introduction of a study start grant for students from financially disadvantaged families, a flexibility semester and a simplified change of subject. The law came into force at the beginning of the school year and the winter semester of 2024/2025.

2023

In November 2022, the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz – GWK) adopted the Federation-Länder-agreement on the Women Professors Programme 2030. This will bring the Women Professors Programme into a fourth phase. Building on the successful previous three programme phases, the cultural change towards more gender equality at institutions of higher education is to be further strengthened. The aim of the funding programme is to dynamically increase the number of female academics in top positions in the field of science towards parity and to anchor gender equality even more firmly in the structure of institutions of higher education. The institutions of higher education first submit an equality concept; after a successful assessment, they can apply for funding for up to three professorships for women. The programme is funded in equal parts by the Länder and the Federation. The "Professorinnenprogramm 2030" will run for eight years (2023 to 2030) and has a total funding volume of Euro 320 million.

More detailed information on the Women Professors Programme is available in the chapter on higher education funding.

Future Contract Strengthening Teaching and Learning

The Federation and the Länder are providing institutions of higher education with additional funding to maintain study capacities in line with demand and to improve the quality of studies and teaching with the Future Contract for Teaching and Learning. In their agreement on the Future Contract in 2019, the heads of government of the federal and Länder governments agreed that the Federation would provide Euro 1.88 billion annually from 2021 to 2023 and Euro 2.05 billion annually from 2024 onwards. The Länder will provide their own funds in at least the same amount. 

In November 2022, the GWK decided to dynamise the Future Contract from 2023 onwards. According to this, the funds provided by the Federation and the Länder will increase by three percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, by around 5.9 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, by 1.5 percent in 2025 and by three percent in 2026 and 2027. The Federation and the Länder will each provide a further Euro 338 million in the period from 2023 to 2027 as a result of the agreed dynamisation. With the dynamisation of the Future Contract, the budget development of higher education institutions will be aligned with that of non-university research institutes.