It was supposed to be a big boost, “unleashing”, “deregulating” the universities, even “ringing in a new era”. It took two and a half years of emotional struggle, and now the Higher Education Innovation Act is on the table. But it has only become a little reform instead of the big revolution on campus.
The fact that the comparatively modest leap has taken so long is not least due to the amateurish political approach. A lobby paper by two university presidents striving for liberalism became the basis for discussion for the realignment of the entire Bavarian university landscape. The conspiratorial, yes, non-transparent spirit that enveloped the law to the end triggered a culture war that can hardly be captured. Since Bernd Sibler, former minister, could gymnastics through so many YouTube discussions. The lesson for large-scale political projects is to approach something like this more professionally in the future.
After all, if the law passes in this form, universities can become a little more entrepreneurial and thus more competitive, students can have a little more say, and women can come up against a little less glass ceilings.
That’s a win, even if it doesn’t live up to expectations. From the very beginning, the ambitious Futurists had made skewed comparisons. Harvard, Stanford, MIT, announced Prime Minister Markus Söder wanted to compete with the big universities. But there is a diametrically different educational culture in the USA. Where a semester quickly costs thousands of dollars, universities are also financially able to engage the best minds from all over the world.
However, the strength of the Bavarian system is its equality. Thanks to student loans and manageable tuition fees, equal opportunities are better than in the USA. It is good that this understanding of education is maintained. The attempt to jump to the top with the local means was unrealistic from the start.