Dundorf

[TheNick]

Bundestag Approves Higher Education Reform
January 5653

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The Hofmann University's main building in Dunburg

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Dunburg - After years of work and deliberations, the Bundestag finally approved the Government's main piece of legislation for this term: the long-awaited Higher Education Reform, informally called as Die Gesetz zur Bildung für Morgen (Education for Tomorrow Act) by the lawmakers who created the bill. Since the last term, the Greens' decided to shift their priorities on education, in an effort to rebrand themselves as the "young and educated party", and they were quickly followed on this issue by the Social-Democrats and the Social Union once they formed a government together two years ago. In that Government's contract, the three center-left parties put education reform as their number one priority, the main parties on the center-right (NDZP and TLD) remained kind of skeptic, but open to debate, while the JSU, in order to defend the State Government's legislative autonomy on education, launched a very strong opposition.

Among the provisions contained inside the bill, tuition has been eliminated completely for Bachelor-Abschluss level courses (3-4 years) offered in state universities, and tuition eliminated for poor students and reduced for middle income ones in regards of Master-Abschluss level courses (2 years) and the Doktorat (2-4 years). The so-called Einstufiger Studiengang (one-stage course of study like Law and Medicine, for example) will have the same tuition level as the Master-Abschluss students. But reduced tuition isn't enough, according to the Education Ministry: scholarships are fundamental too, and the reform introduces two different types of them. The Chancen-Stipendium Dundorf (Opportunity Scholarship) is a scholarship offered to poor and underprivileged students, in order to guarantee their access to studies, while the Leistungs-Stipendium Dundorf (Best Achievers Scholarship) is offered to particularly deserving students in their field of study, both scholarships provide direct financial payment to students and housing provision within the campus or the city. The reform doesn't involve itself on the issue of academic support, so the universities will continue to decide autonomously on it.

Another big move in the reform is the establishment of the Nationale Schule für Verwaltung (National School of Administration), which is a new public university specifically created to train and recruit future public servants, but will not offer Political Science courses as previously intended in order to not add "competition" to other well-established departments across the nation (like Lutzenkamp). The NSV will follow a new provision in this bill that intends to create more green and more digital campuses across the nation, by renovating or rebuilding from scratch the buildings, and will be located in Dunburg.
Research will be prioritized as well by reallocating most funds from private institutions to public ones, and increasing the overall GDP expenditure for R&D, with the only mandatory Federal Research priority being Healthcare, meaning the State Governments will maintain their autonomy in determining other research priorities. Finally, last but not least, the bill directs Universities to create, where possibile, trainership and internship opportunities in the public or private work sector, in order to facilitate the trasition from studying to working and reduce the risk of youth unemployment or underemployment.

The JSU, which spoke against the bill fearing a "centralization" approach, said it was relieved that many provisions were left under the State Government's jurisdiciton (for example curriculums, research priority and oversight on university governance) but condemned the overall "overtly socialist and very radical proposals" saying the private sector shouldn't be punished but used as an asset. This comes as the party prepares for a special congress in which its evolution from a Julstoch-only party to a national regionalist conservative party is discussed, and this bill was the reason they feel a "strong pro-State government voice" is more than ever necessary in Dundorf.