Not only private households or companies are suffering and inflation and gas price explosion – the increased energy costs are also worrying the Ruhr-Uni Bochum. Because the large university in the Ruhr area can no longer afford the high prices for electricity and gas, savings are to be made there. The university has imposed a hiring freeze, and 250 vacant positions will no longer be filled.
The Rectorate has “decided on short-term and one-off measures,” according to a recent press release. The job stop should initially apply for six months. It’s about 250 jobs in administration and, for example, in the botanical garden or the library, which should not be filled until next summer. The research is not affected, they say. Seven million euros are to be saved in this way.
With the money saved, the Ruhr University wants to arm itself for the high energy costs. With almost 50,000 students and a 4.5 square kilometer campus – covered with the famous concrete buildings – it is one of the largest universities in Germany and is therefore particularly struggling with this problem. That’s why people in Bochum are calling for more support from the federal and state governments, because the rectorate fears “that we will only be compensated to a small extent for the massive additional costs for electricity and gas.”
And that despite cost-cutting measures in terms of staff and in terms of energy. Like all other universities in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Ruhr-Uni Bochum has also decided to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent. This is to be achieved, among other things, by lower room temperatures and reduced lighting. There’s not much more you can do there – just hope that the country won’t leave its universities alone if the worst comes to the worst.
Source: WDR
