Petition addressed to: Universitätsleitung Universität St. Gallen (HSG)

We demand an immediate halt to the measures aimed at destroying our university culture and career prospects.

The administration of the University of St. Gallen plans to leave business administration bachelor’s students out in the cold and actively undermine the university’s culture and student organizations.
The new measures are clearly directed against the students who have been bringing this university to life for years and are actively committed to it; yet, with increasing pressure on the job market, the university has decided, for the sake of cost-cutting measures, to leave Bachelor’s students in Business Administration out in the cold after they graduate.

External students are to be treated the same as HSG alumni, but aren’t there qualitative differences in teaching? Why study at this university if the degree doesn’t even offer added value in internal selection processes?

Furthermore, students are the easiest target for such cost-cutting measures. While a new campus is being built and professors receive massive pay raises, the burden of these cost-cutting measures is being shifted onto the students themselves.
We are increasingly convinced that an internal decision was made to take the path of least resistance: these measures were announced on the Friday before the break to suppress any immediate resistance, and they target the most vulnerable group—students who lack organized resistance groups like a union.

The impact on the spirit of this university is also significant: if the majority of bachelor’s students no longer have the opportunity to complete their master’s degree at their alma mater, student engagement will decline drastically.

For bachelor’s students, it is rather difficult to get involved in the assessment process; in the second year, however, some level of engagement can be expected. However, this will likely drop off again in the third year, as the focus will then shift to applying to other universities and looking for jobs, since no one can be certain they will be able to complete their master’s degree at HSG.

For external master’s students, getting involved is generally difficult, as the adjustment period and the job search in the second year occur so close together.