The Situation of the Universities in the 80’s

Abstract

In 1982, the existing 750.000 university places are all but sufficient fcr the more than 1 million students; together with the serious constraints in the staff development the universities have reached, if not transcended, the limits of their capacities. In addition to that, we will have to face a further increase in the number of students due to the baby-boom years. But neither the schools and the universities nor the society as a whole have so far been able to cope with the problems arising from this explosive developnent within our educational system. The necessity for immediate action did not allow the responsible politicians enough time to calculate the educational, social, economic and financial implications of their decisions.For years, research has been clearly disadvantaged in favor of teaching and training functions. An initial moderate optimism has by now turned into a general confusion over the complete change of policies in the field of higher education. While this change was already indicated by the course of budgetary debates, the following budgetary negotiations made the cancellation of all goals of educational developnent a certainty — the politics of higher education has been removed frcm the list of social priorities. Instead of getting adequate funding for solving the problem of increasing student lumbers, the universities have now to operate with further cuts in their already scarce financial resources. The quality of education will no doubt suffer frcm the increasing disproportion in the staff/student ratio, which can be anticipated to become even worse than in the 60’s. This burden also affects research, which is after all a main function of the universities and one of the major bases for providing security for the future of cur society. Only if it were possible to reduce the existing number of students by one half, the majority cf universities would be able to fulfil their regular tasks adequately. Such a drastic limitation is, however, neither conceivable nor can it be realized after years of “campaigning” for education and given the present lack of alternatives for graduates. The chances of those who have finished their studies to get a permanent job are decreasing continually. More than 60 % of all university graduates find their employment in the civil service. In the future, access to this sector will only be possible for about 15 %. The economy absorbes approximately 20 % of the graduates in each year; this level will most probably be reduced to 14 %. Most of the university graduates who have chosen one of the favorite disciplines will only get a job if they are willing to accept work which does not necessarily correspond to their education and which was formerly done by non-academic labour force. Such prospects have to be pointed cut clearly and realistically, and without any euphenism. At the same time it must be made equally clear that high-school graduates have already been given a great chance. They have enjoyed an education and were able to develop their personality in such ways which in former times was a privilege of a minority. All this constitutes an extrenely well-founded basis for their future.