Senate confirms Vice President Katja Koch unanimously re-elected

On 12 June 2024, the Senate of Technische Universität Braunschweig unanimously confirmed the re-election of part-time Vice President for Teacher Education Professor Katja Koch for a fourth term of office. In the next step, the result will be submitted to the Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and Culture as a proposal with a statement from the University Council. Her term of office begins on 1 July 2024 and ends on 31 March 2026.

The Senate has unanimously confirmed the election of Professor Katja Koch as Vice President for Teacher Education. Photo credit: Kristina Rottig/TU Braunschweig

TU Braunschweig trains teachers for three types of school, with several faculties involved in the training programme. On average, there are 550 first-semester students and a total of 2,350 teacher training students, which makes up one sixth of the entire student body.

Over the next two years, Prof. Koch would like to further strengthen the professional orientation of teacher education at TU Braunschweig, create coherence in the curricula and further strengthen the national and international networking and institutionalisation of teacher education. In terms of research, she would like to continue on the successful path it has taken so far and to further profile and consolidate the existing research focuses in teacher education. An important point here is the establishment of a research alliance with neighbouring universities.

In addition, a structural reform of the teacher education programmes is imminent, as the state is expected to introduce a tiered teaching degree. All four faculties involved in teacher training at TU Braunschweig are involved in the implementation of the reform. A pilot degree programme is due to start in the winter semester 2025/26. In addition, Prof. Koch, together with the Vice President for Transfer and Innovation, will support the establishment of the “TIES Generation Future”, which will bundle the school-related activities of TU Braunschweig and test innovative exchange formats.