The Lower Saxony state government has announced that it will now, after all, provide 80 million euros for the first construction phase of the University Medical Centre’s new teaching and research building.
“We are delighted to note the state government’s latest decision. It is a milestone victory for us and the entire region. University Medicine Oldenburg is the guarantor of medical care in the north-west.” These were the words with which University President Prof. Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper responded to the announcement that the state would, after all, be providing 80 million euros for the first construction phase of the urgently needed teaching and research building at University Medicine Oldenburg. “With these funds, we can finally create space for the medical research of our newly appointed professors. This will also enable us to expand cross-border research with our partners in Groningen,” said Piper.
The university had already submitted a proposal for the teaching and research building (total cost: 142 million euros) and a building application to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science (MWK) back in 2019. The building had been registered with the MWK as a so-called “major construction project” for the 2021 budget. In early July, the state government took the surprising decision not to allocate any funds for the new building in the draft budget for the coming year.
“A great many people have fought side by side with us over the past few months against this decision by the state government. We have received tremendous support from the city and the region, from medical associations and numerous interest groups. We owe them all our deepest gratitude. Without them, we would not have succeeded,” emphasises Piper.
Reliable financial planning required
Nevertheless, the commitment of 80 million euros is not the solution to all problems, explains Prof. Dr Hans Gerd Nothwang, Dean of School V - School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “In order to realise the state’s planned increase from the current 80 first-year students to around 200 per year by the mid-2020s, we equally urgently need teaching facilities.” Although the new building could be constructed in phases, the original space and funding requirements remain unchanged. “We need reliable financial planning for the missing 62 million euros so that we can also create space for teaching,” said Nothwang.
As a next step, the number of first-year students is to be increased to 120 for the 2021/22 winter semester. This will require an additional staff budget of around 10 million euros per year.
In its statement last year on the evaluation of the School of Medicine, the German Council of Science and Humanities had attested to an “impressive range of degree programmes” that had been “convincingly implemented”. At the same time, the federal and state governments’ most important advisory body on science policy called for “a strong commitment from the state to Oldenburg as a centre of excellence, backed by substantial financial support” and urged the further development of the necessary infrastructure – not least to realise the expansion of the degree programme agreed with the state government.
Background
In total, the final expansion plan for University Medicine Oldenburg envisages 63 professorships and 200 students per year, amounting to 1,200 students (6 × 200 students) over the six-year period. In addition to the lack of teaching infrastructure, there is a shortage of research space for professors who have already been appointed and those to be appointed in future.
Calculations by HIS-HE, a recognised Institute for Higher Education Development, revealed a space shortfall of almost 19,000 square metres for the final phase of development. As a first step, a 12,000-square-metre teaching and research building is urgently required. This building would provide the teaching infrastructure for 200 first-year students per year, including anatomy facilities, and would cover part of the requirement for wet chemistry laboratory space. The city has set aside a site on Pophankenweg, near the university campus in Oldenburg, for this purpose. The costs for this infrastructure project amount to approximately 142 million euros, of which approximately 82 million euros are for the first major construction phase.
