The International Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds us to courageously oppose all forms of anti-Semitism. Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. We commemorate and remember the victims of National Socialist crimes. At that time, too many university members actively contributed to the academic underpinning of the ideology of the National Socialist state of injustice, to implement it legally or, for example, to supporting and implementing it by ousting Jewish students, teachers, researchers and staff from the universities. This historical responsibility gives us universities a special duty to stand up for democracy, the rule of law, humanity and cosmopolitanism.

For the election to the Bundestag on 23 February 2025, the HRK´s Executive Board of the has named four central tasks in higher education policy to which the next federal government must give priority. German universities expect bold steps to reduce bureaucracy and to ensure comprehensive, efficient, interministerially coordinated research and innovation funding. The dynamized Future Contract for Strengthening Studying and Teaching in Higher Education must continue to be substantially funded after 2027, the target year of the current agreement period, and in general the social framework conditions for studying must be improved, in particular through a fundamental reform of the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG) and support for student housing. In addition, to tackle the massive backlog of renovation and modernisation work in university construction and in research and teaching infrastructures, the HRK is calling for targeted federal funding programmes.

International students offer Germany great potential. They make a decisive contribution to ensuring innovation and competitiveness. This makes it all the more important that employers, universities, politicians and all other stakeholders continue to intensify their efforts to ensure the successful transition of this group of people into the labour market and their integration into society. This is the central objective of a new position paper by the University/Business Working Group of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and the HRK.

The future of European research funding was on the agenda of the General Assembly of the HRK, having already been the subject of intensive discussions at the HRK’s recent EU Strategy Day in Brussels. With the aim of increasing the competitiveness of the European Union, the EU Commission is considering a fundamental reorganisation of innovation and research funding from 2028. The HRK welcomes, among other things, plans to double the funding for the European Research Council (ERC). At the same time, it criticises the idea of abandoning the tried and tested Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

At its meeting, the General Assembly of the HRK reaffirmed the universities’ commitment against all forms of anti-Semitism. The Assembly also welcomed the fact that the German Bundestag is committed to protecting Jewish life and is also recognising the many efforts made by universities and the HRK in this regard. In a resolution, however, the HRK members criticise the fact that the implementation of a university-specific resolution currently being considered could lead to an impairment of academic freedom and university autonomy.

In a recent reaction, Prof Dr Walter Rosenthal, HRK-President commented as follows on the break-up of the ’traffic light’ coalition between the SPD, the FDP, and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen: “The end of the coalition government is a turning point. In times of extensive challenges at national, European and global level, education and research policy needs also to be clarified quickly. This applies directly to the next federal budget and also to the work of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) until a new, stable governing majority is in place. We cannot afford a prolonged phase of uncertainty and of simply continuing the administration. The issues that need to be addressed are too big and urgent.“