Working together to shape the future of campuses Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education promotes "Campus in Transition"
- TU Braunschweig, Leuphana University Lüneburg and Georg August University of Göttingen receive funding from the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education
- Goal: cross-university modernisation of teaching
- Project serves as a transferable model for Niedersachsen
- TU Braunschweig receives additional individual funding for ‘”Explorer Master – learning through curiosity”
“Our universities stand for a shared responsibility to make education future-proof and resilient,” says Professor Knut Baumann, Vice President for Teaching at TU Braunschweig. “With ”Campus in Transition”, we are creating new forms of cooperation in which innovation does not stop at the boundaries of individual institutions.”
In a time of multiple, interlinked crises, universities are called upon to fundamentally rethink their structures, educational offerings, and ways of working together. With a total funding volume of over 12 million euros, “Campus in Transition” is responding to these challenges with an innovative, cross-university approach. At the heart of the project is the strategic cooperation between the three universities in Niedersachsen, which aims to structurally renew and flexibly develop university teaching in order to make it sustainable for the future.
Cooperation as the key to transformation
In “Campus in Transition”, the three partners are pooling their complementary strengths. Together, they are developing new, flexible study and teaching structures that enable interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary educational programmes, facilitate transitions between studies and adapt administrative processes to the requirements of agile university teaching.
A model for the whole of Niedersachsen
At the same time, the Ministry of Science and Culture of Niedersachsen (MWK) is supporting “Campus in Transition” as a model initiative for cross-university cooperation in the state. Professor Joachim Schachtner, Niedersachsen’s State Secretary for Science and Culture, said, “By pooling resources, combining strengths, and working together to develop innovative and forward-looking study and teaching programmes, we can achieve great things. “Campus in Transition” has the potential to set new standards in inter-university cooperation and identify new solutions at state level. We are supporting this initiative in close coordination with the universities.”
Thanks to funding from the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education, the project will have the necessary resources to implement the desired structural innovations, while also creating transferable models for sustainable university development.
Three areas of action for structural renewal
The project focuses on three areas of action: firstly, a fluid study structure for individual, cross-location educational pathways; secondly, a cooperative teaching architecture for the joint development of innovative, transdisciplinary educational programmes; and thirdly, an adaptive administration architecture for legal and organisational frameworks that enable agile cooperation.
The focus in all areas is on the transfer of good practices, the scalability of results, and the active participation of all relevant stakeholder groups.
Individual funding for the “Explorer Master” project
Alongside the joint project “Campus in Transition”, TU Braunschweig was also successful with its individual application “Explorer Master – learning through curiosity”.
The aim of the “Explorer Master” is to establish a new type of master’s degree programme structure. “Instead of many individual degree programmes, we are creating an overarching structure – a completely new format for master’s degree programmes at TU Braunschweig,” explains Professor Baumann. The degree programme portfolio will be clearly defined based on its own strengths.
Within this clearly defined structure, pilot degree programmes will be developed with a high-quality range of research-based courses. These programmes combine current research, a high degree of interdisciplinarity, and innovative learning and research locations, and are specifically designed to promote the spirit of discovery among students.
“With the Explorer Master’s programme, we are realising our vision of educating tomorrow’s changemakers – individuals who will take on responsibility in an ever-changing and working world, both nationally and internationally,” say Julius Othmer and Knut Baumann.