After the Social Democratic Party suffered serious defeat in the past state elections chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for early elections to take place in September this year. The Christian Democrats (CDU) have already announced some changes in the educational sector, in case they should get the chance of forming the new government under the leadership of Angela Merkel.  Decision making in higher education policy might be fully transferred to the regional level, that is to say to the Länder.  A future Federal Ministry dealing with universities might exclusively focus on research.