On 04.09.2022 the meeting of the Landes-Asten-Konferenz (LAK) took place at the Hochschule der Medien. Among the 22 attendees were also our networking officer Julian Schmoll and Svea Brun from the networking team. We would like to summarize the most important topics in this article.
Positioning: State-wide semester ticket
The State Asten Conference has decided to support the positioning paper on the statewide semester ticket. This can be found here.
The starting point for the decision is the inter-transportation youth ticket presented at the end of November 2021 at a price of 365€, which is to be available from 01.03.2023. Entitled all under 21-jähirgen, as well as Schüler:innen, apprentices, Freiwilligendienstleistende and students up to 27 years.
The Working Group Statewide Semester Ticket welcomes the introduction of the youth ticket, but the currently planned implementation is considered insufficient for reasons of age discrimination, price increase of existing semester tickets and with regard to the successor solution of the 9 € ticket.
Campaign “Improvement of Study Conditions in BaWü
The state student representation would like to initiate a campaign, the implementation should be carried out by the executive board and the speakers as well as the universities themselves.
The first draft of this campaign will be presented at the next meeting.
The background to this will be topics such as second tuition fees, tuition fees for non-EU citizens, and the financial situation of students.
Pandemic-related learning delays
The representatives:inside of the University of Ulm have reacted to the concept from the MWK earlier this year. This concept includes 28 million euros to be used by colleges and universities to alleviate pandemic-related learning backlogs.
The statement criticizes the basic principle as well as the practical implementation. On the one hand, there is a lack of specifications for which expenditures the funds can be explicitly used, and on the other hand, the funds cannot be used meaningfully across years. There is an explicit wish for improvement here.
Equality issues
Amendment of the LHG with regard to mental illnesses
The Equality Unit has submitted a motion to recognize any mental illness in the State Higher Education Act.
Through this motion, the Department for Equality and the Executive Board of the State Student Council are tasked with bringing about an amendment to the State Higher Education Act. The background is that mental illnesses are not sufficiently recognized in the LHG. This includes, for example, the anchoring of psychogenic reactions to the examination process as well as anxiety disorders. Affected persons should receive adequate compensation possibilities and also be able to withdraw from examinations in an orderly manner.
Modification of structures for compensation for disadvantages
Furthermore, the Department for Equal Opportunity and the Executive Board of the State Student Representative Council are charged with creating structures (at the state and university level) that ensure that disadvantage compensation for students is complete, adequate and sustainable, and that application procedures are standardized.
These disadvantage compensations concern students with disabilities, chronic illnesses or other mental/physical limitations. The goal is for the state government to provide legal security for those affected and to communicate guidelines to any higher education institutions to support students.