Erfurt/Jena (dpa/th) - The GEW education union has criticized the planned elimination of a chair in gender history from 2025 at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. "The intended deletion of the chair is incomprehensible in view of the social debates," announced the GEW Thuringia on Thursday in Erfurt. According to the GEW, the university's plans add to a long list of abuses at Thuringian universities. For example, students are not paid according to collective agreements for their work at universities and there are too many fixed-term employment contracts.

The planned abolition of the chair is also a wrong signal, "particularly in times of rising fascist movements". At the University of Jena, students have occupied a lecture hall for the past week in order to ensure that the chair for gender history is retained.