New vice president for studies and teaching

The lectures for winter semester 2023/24 started yesterday. What do you wish the instructors, the students and the first-semester students who are just starting out at HAW Hamburg over these initial days?
My wish for our first-semester students is that they can start this new life chapter with courage and curiousity. I can remember the start of my studies clearly: I was the first person in my family to pursue university studies and I moved to the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg for my degree and subsequent doctoral studies. For this reason, I can really understand potential feelings of being lost and stressed at the beginning. I hope the students feel comfortable at our university and in Hamburg and that they can discover and unfold their potential. We provide support for our students on this exciting academic and personal journey. My main advice for our first-semester students is to approach others with confidence and openness: your instructors and fellow students are looking forward to meeting you. 

My wish for our students who have already been at HAW Hamburg for longer is positive energy and decisiveness with respect to their plans. During university studies there are always moments that require an active choice: Do I want to study abroad? How much can I work during my studies? How much do I need to work? Should I apply for a scholarship? Which internship should I do? What topic should I pick for my thesis? What should I do when I'm done with my studies? Roughly 17,000 students here at HAW Hamburg – all of whom have their own personalities, life situations and needs – will be asking themselves these and similar questions. We're interested in getting to know our students as fellow people and thus being able to support them in the best possible way, including in these moments.

I wish our professors and instructors both equanimity and pleasure in generating new ideas. I've already heard from some of them that they used the lecture-free period to develop new teaching concepts. I think this intention and drive to try out new formats in their own teaching and to exchange ideas with others about it is great. I also hope that we all start the lecture period in positive anticipation of seeing new and familiar faces and with a desire for change – in our own areas of responsibility and for our university as a whole. As an instructor and a former department head I know, though, that it's not always possible to have a positive attitude. The university is in a difficult financial situation, and a lot of people are keeping critical basic teaching operations running through huge personal effort. This is why it's also important to me in my new capacity to 'stay on top of' the needs of the academic staff, the professors, and the colleagues in the administration who support their work. Only if I hear about what's going on in the faculties can we find good solutions together.

Your transition from teaching to the Executive Board means a new chapter is beginning for you as well. What are your plans and ideas as you start your term as vice president?
As the Executive Board team we are responsible for leadership, which means that we get to shape the future of this university together with all of the groups that make up its membership. Especially in this period of societal challenges, being able to play a role in creating conditions that enable innovative science and education is a highly meaningful activity for me, which motivates me and gives me an incentive to act. Before I was appointed at HAW Hamburg I worked for over 10 years as a strategy consultant. So I'm looking forward to contributing my professional experience and the tools I have acquired to the strategy development and implementation process for 'HAW Hamburg 2030' over the coming months. I haven't worked at the university all that long, so I can offer my fresh perspective on the one hand and bring in my academic governance experience as department head and the vice dean for studies and teaching in the Faculty of Design, Media and Information on the other.

In terms of my plans for studies and teaching at HAW Hamburg, my first priority is to strengthen the students' perspectives and to assess our offers based on a systematic analysis of the student life cycle. This means being familiar with the different needs that arise during the different phases from the perspective of prospective students, students and alumni and interlinking our degree courses with the study-support areas in a way that meets these needs. There is a great deal that is already working very well, but we need to set strategic priorities, more clearly define responsibilities and continue to optimise those areas where there are overlaps. It is important to me that students can easily bring their issues to the right places and get support quickly. This also includes using clearer names so that it is immediately clear who is responsible for what issue and what offers are available centrally as well as decentrally on the specific campus. This is particularly – though not only – relevant when students are starting their studies. HAW Hamburg stands for educational mobility: our university is open to smart thinkers who want to make a difference, regardless of where they are starting out from or their social background.

HAW Hamburg is a place of intercultural interaction. Students from different countries and with diverse biographies are a big benefit for us. We need to give our students time and space to get to know one another and expand their horizons together. They can learn from and with one another to work across disciplines and to take part in the university's development. Our unique selling point in the higher education sector is that as the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences we teach, learn and conduct research with a focus on application. From the very beginning, for example, students can investigate academic questions in the teaching labs using a theory-based and findings-driven approach. They can experiment, test and practice – all in a hands-on way. To guarantee this for the future in these times of rapid digital transformation, we need flexible physical and virtual teaching and learning spaces that are equipped accordingly. HAW Hamburg is an on-campus university, where instructors complement their courses and self-study with digital formats. Together with the professors and instructors, I want to identify how teaching concepts and learning spaces can be further transformed. The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) will and must be part of our considerations. Ultimately, I'm convinced that as a university we have to do more than simply transmit expert knowledge and that our students need to acquire skills for the future and keep developing. We should intensify our discussion about which skills we want to promote and which methods and concepts we need to do so.

As part of your election you said that you would like to focus on joint responsibility and space for creativity. Could you explain that briefly for us?
In addition to the formal participation of students and instructors in governance bodies, informal exchange is very important to me. Communication is multidimensional: in my view we therefore need both clear formal channels of communication as well as informal channels which enable direct, accessible and trustful exchange. As the vice president I want to be available and accessible to students and colleagues to talk about their issues. This is why everyone knows my mobile number, I communicate via various online and offline channels, and I use advisory bodies such as councils with all of the university's member groups to be able to act from a place of joint responsibility.

Our university also offers a great deal of freedom. I want to encourage students and instructors to take advantage of this and advocate for the issues they care about. The most important thing here is the desire for change. To me it's not just whether a concept is successful in the end, but rather that it is tried out and implemented. I'm happy to provide support where necessary and helpful. My role is to look at how we can structurally anchor successful projects and enable the entire university to apply them.

All those who are brave enough to actually implement their ideas should be appreciated and celebrated accordingly. 'Courage over comfort' is a guiding leitmotiv for me. Ultimately, we're here at this university because we want to make a difference.