On June 29 & 30, 2023, 115 participants from all areas of the TU Braunschweig took part in an event on the strategic development of the TU Braunschweig at the invitation of the Executive Board. The discussions and workshops were accompanied by six external experts as "critical friends". Their role was to provide a critical and constructive feedback to the TU Braunschweig from an external perspective and to identify important levers for further development.
The first day focused on the exchange between the faculties with regarding their strategic development plans and action items. Based on short presentations and panel discussions, the major lines for strategic advancement of the TU Braunschweig were taken up, discussed and further developed.
On the second day, five parallel workshops took place in smaller rounds on the current strategic topics of student marketing, transfer, sustainability, equality and internationalization. The results illustrate the strategic potentials of the TU Braunschweig, like the profiling approach via the research foci, which have to be used even stronger. They make clear to the TU Braunschweig: Great challenges and potentials lie in the further development of the range of courses, especially also in English, in the expansion of a clear brand identity and in the stronger strategic networking and focusing of the research foci.
In the context of the University Development 2030 initiative of TU Braunschweig, this event was a first step towards creating a basis for our comprehensive development. Stakeholders from all areas discussed the potentials across faculties for the first time. The initiative thus creates the framework to make the strengths of the entire university transparent. The importance of joint planning and focusing is particularly evident in the preparation for upcoming rounds of the federal excellence strategy. TU Braunschweig is judged in this context as well on the basis of externally evaluated key figures from research (e.g. DFG grants, ERC funding, prizes) or other factors such as equality and diversity concepts or the development of student numbers (absolute numbers, internationalization rate, proportion of women). The university development concept therefore lays the foundation for a university-wide joint strategic development and goal setting. In the context of faculty development, these goals are operationalized at the level of the faculties and the administration in order to exploit the potential for further development in the relevant metrics.
The process of university development 2030 continues: In November, the Presidential Board will follow up on the agreed development goals (see comprehensive development and universitry development concept) with the faculties in the next round of faculty development discussions.
Thanks go to all organizers and participants of the "University development 2030" event for the exciting, constructive discussions and especially to the facilitators of the workshops for the excellent preparation and performance.
Further reports:
TU Braunschweig on the way to its vision University Development Days: Impressions and Insights