A period of Upheaval

400 students had set out for the FH location Goethestraße (with a further 200 heading towards Campus Jülich) to give the then NRW Minister of Science Hannelore Kraft a piece of their mind, back in January 2004. The AStA spoke of a "complete lack of concepts" with regard to university funding; one poster read: "Our government is saving FH to death". It is one of the most significant periods of upheaval in the history of FH Aachen. The university is in the midst of the transition from the old Diplom to the new Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. There are fears that up to 40 professorial positions are to be cut. The Minister tries to dispel these fears: "There is no hiring freeze!" Global budget, cost-performance accounting, then, later, student fees - the structure of university funding is being thoroughly stirred up in these years.