Sound prospects for developing building stock
The New Master Plan is to be used to identify those construction projects at the University of Bonn that will need to be tackled as a priority in order to develop the infrastructure available for research, teaching and transfer further in a targeted way. The aims are to accelerate planning processes, make binding decisions early on and use available resources effectively.
“An important step at the right time,” says Rector Hoch
As far as the University of Bonn is concerned, joining the process marks an important step toward strengthening its strategic site development over the long term. The University of Excellence has around 31,000 students and is home to eight Clusters of Excellence—more than any other institution in Germany. In Düsseldorf, Rector Professor Michael Hoch said: “As a University of Excellence, the University of Bonn needs an excellent framework for its research, teaching and transfer. Being included in the state’s new master plan is an important step at the right time for us. Now that we’ve retained our status as Germany’s most successful university in the Excellence Strategy, the new procedure provides some sound foundations and healthy prospects for the continued strategic development of our University. This is something I’m most grateful to the state government for.”
All parties round the same table from day one
At the heart of the New Master Plan is a close working relationship between ministries, BLB NRW and the respective university right from the early stages of a project. Following the “funnel principle,” it focuses planning efforts on those measures that are actually urgently needed, thus freeing up resources and enabling processes to be sped up. This is designed to make construction and planning processes faster and more streamlined, enabling time savings of up to 30 percent according to the state.
In the past, new buildings constructed at universities were based on the University Location Development Plan (Hochschulstandortentwicklungsplanung, HSEP). This had to forecast future trends for decades in advance, often resulting in lengthy review loops or vague concepts that ultimately ended up gathering dust in a drawer.
Phased introduction in NRW
The New Master Plan was first introduced in April 2024, taking in Paderborn University, Hochschule Bielefeld – University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. RWTH Aachen and Fachhochschule Dortmund then came on board a year later. With the Universities of Bonn and Wuppertal, there are now seven higher-education institutions involved in the process.
Experience gained to date is to be fed into the continued standardization efforts. This includes profiles for specific buildings, prioritization matrices and a BLB NRW calculation tool that allows a cost framework for planned measures to be determined at an early stage. The long-term aim is for the New Master Plan to be rolled out across all sites hosting higher education in NRW.
Below are some more reactions to the news:
Ina Brandes, Minister of Culture and Science: “The New Master Plan is a landmark achievement for construction in higher education in North Rhine-Westphalia. You used to have a great many planning, review and approval procedures running one after the other, involving numerous parties and some lengthy review loops. Now everyone involved in the construction process works in parallel, which cuts the time required by up to 30 percent and thus also saves money.”
Dr. Marcus Optendrenk, Minister of Finance: “Our higher-education institutions need modern infrastructure if they are to perform to the best of their abilities. This is why we are completely overhauling the planning process, making decisions earlier and getting all the parties round the same table right from the start. We have clear goals, namely to build faster, plan reliably and achieve more with the resources at our disposal.”
Gabriele Willems, CEO of BLB NRW: “The New Master Plan is a genuine success story. Even at the really early stages of a project, we’re dovetailing closely with one another and are better attuned to what the other parties are doing. This is speeding up planning processes, ensuring quicker, binding decisions and thus enabling clear priorities to be set in good time.”
