General Information
The students who matriculated in the winter semester of 2006/07 were the first to have to pay 500 Euros per semester in tuition fees. Since the summer semester of 2007, all students (except doctoral students) have been having to pay. There are strict rules on how the money is spent; these rules are defined in the university-wide Guidelines for the Use of Tuition Fees. The most important principles prescribed are transparency, prohibition of substitution of funds, and capacity neutrality. The objectives are: transparency concerning the channels of allocation and the utilisation of funds; that the additional funds must not substitute regular budget resources; that staff financed through tuition fees must not be considered as capacity-increasing. A particularity of Göttingen University is the strong student involvement in the decision-making process regarding the distribution of funds, which is institutionalised on all levels. Central funds – amounting to 50% of the money taken in as tuition fees – are allocated to the various university institutions through an application process. The applications from the faculties and the University service units are handled by the Central Commission for Teaching and Studies (zKLSplus), which has been expanded in order to allow for 50% of the members to be students. The other half of the funds is assigned directly to the faculties, to be used at their own discretion. The deciding bodies are the academic commissions (also comprised of 50% student members) and the faculty councils. The utilisation of funds must be disclosed in detail to the university administration.

Projects at the Faculty of Chemistry
The Faculty of Chemistry receives an annual budget of approximately 270,000 Euros (which is proportionate to its number of students) to be assigned to the individual institutions. Several major packages of measures guarantee reasonable and flexible spending of these funds. Some of the respective projects are: the recruitment of assistants to improve student support; the purchase of equipment for practical training; offering additional courses in the optional area; acquisition of literature; setting up new access points to the SciFinder database; and creating a part-time position in the glass technology workshop in order to provide glass appliance repairs to students free of charge. First-semester students are issued a comprehensive information brochure and a free basic outfit consisting of a lab coat and safety glasses. The Faculty has been able to secure funding from central tuition fees several times, which has allowed for the establishment of new practical training courses, the purchase of particularly expensive equipment for practical training, and the fitting of the auditoriums and lecture rooms with video projectors and silver screens.

Office of the Dean of Studies
The professionalisation of the Office of the Dean of Studies is a project which is financed with tuition fees as well as Faculty budget funds. This money has enabled the Dean’s Office to hire an additional student counsellor. With regard to the allocation of funds, the Dean’s Office works in close co-operation with the departmental student committee. After all, we believe that trust and transparency should be the crucial criteria when taking financial decisions within the Faculty.

• Tuition fees


• Chemistry – local tuition fees


• Chemistry – central tuition fees


• Practical examples