A Fresh Start with the Department of Academic Affairs  [08.12.20]

Satisfied, well-supervised, and successful students are more important than ever for the universities - because more competition among the universities is supposed to help enhance their profile. This is what the politicians want. The Department of Academic Affairs has an important role to play in this respect in Hohenheim. It accompanies students from choosing a degree program right through to starting a career. In addition to classic administrative tasks, such as enrollment and organizing exams, the department's range of tasks also includes sports and culture. In the future, the department will also take on further coordinating tasks in the area of university didactics and learning through research. The Online Courier had a virtual coffee with the new head of the department, Dr. Stephanie Müller-Otto, and the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Prof. Dr. Korinna Huber.

 

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Ms. Müller-Otto, what attracted you to the position at Hohenheim and what is your professional background?

Müller-Otto: The tension between academic freedom and the requirements of the administration has long been a driving force for me. I know the different perspectives from my professional career very well.

In the field of "Experimental Psychology," I was initially active in research myself. Subsequently, I was responsible for the academic staff as head of an inter-university center in Thuringia. And finally I was Director of the Learning and Development department at the HdM in Stuttgart for four years.

After all, the universities are competing with each other more and more. From my previous experience, I have come to believe that they can be successful above all if they succeed in understanding themselves even more as a unit internally and in pulling together across institutional boundaries.

What particularly appealed to me about the University of Hohenheim's call for applications was that they were explicitly looking for ways to achieve this goal.

In your opinion, what are the unique features of the University of Hohenheim?

Müller-Otto: The University of Hohenheim is comparatively small, so this is a great opportunity.

We can set ourselves apart from larger universities if we manage to really give students the feeling that they are not studying at an anonymous institution but at a personal campus university where they receive optimum support and do not get lost in the maze of bureaucracy when they have questions and problems.

I believe that the Department of Academic Affairs can make an important contribution to this. I would like to take a look at all aspects of the "Student Lifecycle": From decision support in choosing a degree program, enrollment and orientation at the university, examinations, and acquiring additional qualifications to the later start of a career. Of course, the sports and cultural programs also play a very important role in the experience of studying.

I see our major department project for the coming years as a joint effort to find out how all these aspects can be better integrated and made more service-oriented.

How can you imagine this in concrete terms?

Müller-Otto: An example: A student comes to the Examinations Office in consternation after an exam. After a short conversation, it becomes clear that there is a need for advice that actually goes beyond administrative issues.

If employees in the Examinations Office and the Student Counselling Center see themselves as immediate colleagues and will hopefully even be sitting next to each other in the future, the conversation can be continued one door further.

If it then turns out that it is not an individual case, but possibly a structural problem in the degree program, then it should be easy to offer the faculties direct support from university didactics.

At Hohenheim we are heading in this direction. I now see it as our task to grow together even more in our everyday work, to network better, and to make information transparent and quickly accessible. I would also like to expressly promote cross-connections, short distances, and communication beyond the boundaries of our department. Not everything always has to go through the management level.

Ms. Huber, under the predecessor, Mr. Wilhelm, there was continuity in the management of the department for a very long time. As Vice President of Academic Affairs, what was important to you when looking for someone new?

Huber: Actually, we want to use the transition to further develop the department organizationally. In addition to the traditional administrative tasks and student counseling, we want to add more coordinating and advisory tasks for university didactics and research-based learning. This will be reflected in a new name for the department.

One background is the new university financing agreement, which links the financing of the universities much more strongly than before to factors such as student numbers and degrees in standard study periods. The state universities will be compared directly with each other in terms of these key figures and will receive deductions or additional funds.

Making our programs even more attractive to students will therefore be a very important strategic focus for us as a university in the coming years.

To this end, we are taking action in a variety of areas: From the further development of our degree programs to accompanying offers for students, didactic support for lecturers, and marketing to make more students aware of our programs. I see the Department of Academic Affairs as the backbone of this process. As a central service facility for students and lecturers, it is to take on an even more active, connecting role in the future.

When we advertised our vacancy, we were therefore looking for a person who could build bridges between different departments and faculties and who would be able to take employees along on the planned path in the best possible way.

What concrete reforms are planned?

Huber: The goal is to bundle competencies and resources where it makes sense and to further improve the networking of all areas involved in teaching.

As one of the two major organizational changes, the Office for University Didactics is to become part of the department. In addition, there will be a new unit to coordinate the continuation and further development of core elements of the "Humboldt reloaded" project when its funding ends in the coming months. So far, Humboldt reloaded is affiliated with Faculty N, due to the original application coming from Prof. Dr. Blum from the Department of Biology.

The STEPS projects from the FEST-BW state funding program, which involve additional offers in the introductory phase of studies, such as bridge courses in mathematics, are currently coordinated and supervised by the Teaching Development Office. Fortunately, the MWK has provided us with three positions for the continuation of the projects at the end of the year. Here, too, the aim is to ensure that project ideas are well and appropriately integrated into the department.

All in all, more central coordination seems to us to make sense here. Also in view of the fact that we will have to keep applying for and coordinating new comparable projects in the future. For some years now, funding for the further development of teaching has been allocated by politicians mainly on a project-related basis.

What is the timetable for restructuring?

Müller-Otto: At the moment we are still at the beginning of the process. But it is important for us to inform the university about planned changes as early as possible. We aim to have the new organizational form in place by spring 2021. A few weeks ago, we initiated the involvement of the Staff Council for this purpose.

It is important to me that organizational development is not designed as a top-down process, but is based on the experience of the employees. After all, they are the experts in their field. In most cases, we don't want to create completely new work processes either, but above all to improve communication and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.

Numerous workshops have already taken place in the past, and we can build on them very well. In the coming months, we will continue to build on this with additional formats. Here, we expressly want to bring on board the faculties and institutions with which we work closely in everyday life.

 

We will continue to report. Thank you for the interview!

 

Interview: Leonhardmair / Translation: Neudorfer