Impulse zur Stärkung der Gesundheitsförderung an Hochschulen: Vom Präventionsgesetz bis zur Hochschulgesetzgebung

BACKGROUND: Since 2015, the German Prevention Act has obligated social security agencies to support prevention and health promotion in the university setting, particularly for students, through measures and structural development in terms of content and funding. The German Network for Health Promoting Universities took part in these processes and assessed the situation on the basis of 5 years of experience. The strategy paper based on this with the recommendations for action is presented in excerpts. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the article is to present the complex structures and developments in the context of the German Prevention Act and to show the requirements that have not yet been implemented at the interface between universities. The focus is on the implementation of the recommendations for action at the level of the federal states and the targeted addressing of the responsible actors, including universities and student unions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The recommendations for action of the “Health Promotion Strategy 2019–2022 for Universities” (as of January 2020) are updated from official statistics (university statistics, financial results of the statutory health insurance) and a literature and internet-based inventory. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of the implementation of the German Prevention Act shows a number of previously unrealized requirements for the university settings. This includes the lack of cooperation between the social security agencies and the implementation of the jointly agreed fields of action (e.g., health literacy) for students. At the level of the 16 federal states, universities have not been taken into account as a setting in the state framework agreements. One reason is the lack of classification of young adults in their own phase of life: “Healthy in vocational training and studies”.