Beyond the Impact Factor: Faculty Careers at German Universities of Applied Sciences – Where Academia Meets Practice (GAIN26)

This workshop introduces postdocs to the particular nature of professorships at German Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) – strong autonomy in teaching and strong faculty voice in shaping programs: UAS professors develop courses, design curricula, and connect teaching with applied research and real-world partnerships.
The session opens with a short provocation: “What if academic freedom didn’t end with the impact factor?” After situating the role of teaching in the structure of professorships at Universities of Applied Sciences, a diverse segment of UAS representatives add their own teaching ideas or societal challenges they would like to address in the classroom. Building on these ideas, each speaker presents concrete examples of how such autonomy works in practice: project-based courses with industry partners, applied research integrated into teaching, and students as co-creators of knowledge.

• Prof. Dr. Sylvia Heuchemer, President, TH Köln
• Prof. Dr. Konrad Wolf, Rector, Hochschule Bremen
• Prof. Dr.-Michaela Hoke, Vice President, HSBi
• Prof. Dr.-Ing Samir Salameh, FH Münster

Language: English