TU Braunschweig discusses strategies and goals at the University Development Days 2024
On June 19th and 20th 2024, around 100 participants from all areas of the TU Braunschweig met at the third University Development Days to discuss the ongoing development of the university. The two-day event focused on current strategic processes, questions of profile development and the idea of developing our scientific ecosystem. Both days were accompanied by "critical friends" and members of the university council, who contributed their valuable external perspective to the discussions.
The first day started with a focus on the current state of the strategic processes in the areas of diversity, teaching, sustainability and transfer. In the context of the reports on the processes and the subsequent panel discussion with the vice presidents and the colleagues responsible for the content, it became clear that all strategies were developed in a participatory manner from the ideas and initiatives of the university. This was noted and commented on by the "critical friends" as a great strength, because it is only in this way that the members of the TU Braunschweig can also support and represent these strategies. Based on the strategies presented, the second half of the day was devoted to discussing future visions for the TU Braunschweig. The Press and Communication Office provided an insight into brand development. Ms. Moritz (SPK) used a "language persona" and practical examples of implementation to illustrate how we will change the way the TU Braunschweig communicates in the future in order to create more visibility and to differentiate ourselves more strongly from our competitors. There was another impulse from the ExLab, a joint structure of project house, research service and strategic university development, and a report on this new form of cooperation and the ExLab's main areas of work. The lab is currently supporting the application process for the clusters of excellence and is accompanying the application "Potenziale strategisch entfalten" from the program "Zukunft Niedersachsen", which supports the development of a science ecosystem in Braunschweig.
The second day began with a "poster walk" by the administration on the topics of "professionalization of administration", "strategies of central administration" and "digitalization of administration". Here too, the participants made good use of the opportunity to talk to their colleagues about these topics. After the informative start to the day, an intensive working phase followed in the form of four workshops on the topics of "Student Marketing 2.0: Best Cases and Strategies for Degree Program Marketing", "Review of the University Development Concept - Implementing New Ideas", "Reforming Research Assessment and Promoting Open Science - the CoARA Initiative at the TU Braunschweig" and "Digitalization Quo Vadis? AI, Security, Services & Tools". The participants made good use of the opportunity to exchange ideas on the topics in smaller groups and came to the lunch break in a spirited mood after the work phase, continuing the discussions seamlessly.
At the end of the second day, the results of the workshops were briefly presented and then discussed with the audience and the Executive Board in the concluding panel discussion. It was emphasized that there is currently great potential in the further development of the TU Braunschweig; but difficult topics such as the sometimes long processing times, the renovation backlog and the high workload due to many parallel processes were also addressed.
Both the "critical friends" and the Executive Board emphasized the importance of continuing to work together as a team to achieve internal goals and to create transparency in the process steps. They saw great potential in the planned establishment of the science ecosystem to positively advance the future development of the university. To be successful, increasingly strong university locations are needed that use their common strengths. In this regard, the TU can be proud of the development it has achieved and the profile it has established. We were explicitly encouraged to also project and demonstrate this self-confidence to the outside world.
Perhaps influenced by the football match the evening before, the TU members summed up by saying "We are all Team TU Braunschweig", which was intended to make it clear that we are all shaping the future of the university together. Many of the participants emphasized afterwards that this form of exchange on central strategic topics and considerations was very important to them and that they were able to take away many insights.
The University Development Days were organized and moderated by the Strategic University Development (SHSE) unit. The Executive Board and the SHSE would like to thank everyone involved; a special thanks goes to our "critical friends" and the members of the University Council who were present for their important feedback, and to all the workshop moderators for their intensive preparation.
