The jury of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung selects the HSZG for peer-to-peer strategy consulting.
The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) is one of five other universities to qualify for strategic advice on digitalization in teaching and learning. For one year, experts from the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung will support the HSZG in its strategic approach to digital teaching and learning. The focus of this peer-to-peer format is on the digital world of work as well as educational equity, access and openness.
"In line with the HSZG's research focus transformation processes in business and society one of the university's strategic goals is to establish itself as a partner for lifelong learning in order to help ensure that skilled workers in the region can continuously produce new innovations in their companies," explains the Vice Rector. ", explains the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs at the HSZG, Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil. " Another strategic goal is to strengthen the economic and social relevance of our degree programs. For this reason, we want to develop interdisciplinary and inter-faculty study programs that integrate technical, digital and cultural innovation qualities. Inclusion in the Higher Education Forum Digitalization programme is an opportunity to further develop our digital teaching and learning scenarios, which we are very pleased about."
With peer-to-peer consulting, the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung will support six universities individually in their strategy development every year until 2020. The advisory process at the HSZG is actively managed and supported by the Education department in terms of technical and organizational aspects. The participation of the wider university community in a joint strategy development process is a priority. In the next step, the process provides for the formation of an internal university strategy group consisting of representatives of the Rectorate, the Deans of Studies, the Education Office, the Center for eLearning, the Student Council and representatives of the business community. Independent studies on the topic will be carried out with selected experts with the aim of identifying overarching strategies and university profiles for a digital age. The results are published in the form of working papers. The results of the work are shared and discussed with a broad public at the annual strategy conference.
A total of 26 universities applied for the peer-to-peer strategy consultation this year. When selecting the universities, the jury paid particular attention to the fact that the universities were able to formulate clear goals for the further development of teaching and demonstrate a concrete development and transformation process for digitalization in studies and teaching at their university. The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences was able to convince the jury with its application formulated by the "Digital Higher Education" working group (consisting of the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, members of the Education Unit, the Center for Knowledge Transfer and Education and the Center for E-Learning).
The Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) orchestrates the discourse on higher education in the digital age. As a central driving force, it informs, advises and networks stakeholders from universities, politics, business and society. The HFD was founded in 2014. It is a joint initiative of the Stifterverband, the CHE Center for Higher Education Development and the German Rectors' Conference (HRK). It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
