First project results presented

Anna-Lena Rose and Liudvika Leisyte presented their research on the external governance of private universities in Germany at this year's conference of the Society for Higher Education Research (GfHf). They emphasized that this topic has hardly been investigated in German higher education research to date. In their contribution, they showed that private universities are seen as potential drivers of reform due to their independence from the state. At the same time, however, they are under increased pressure to adapt and are more strongly influenced by external stakeholders, particularly in the area of teaching. In their article, they therefore addressed the question: What does the external governance of private universities look like? Using the governance equalizer model (de Boer et al., 2007) and its five dimensions - state regulation, external governance, academic self-governance, hierarchical self-governance and competition - Rose and Leisyte examined 15 private universities in Germany. They analyzed the state higher education laws as well as websites and accreditation reports. Initial results showed that the external influences of actors such as operators, sponsors and boards of trustees vary greatly.

At the conference, TP2 gave a poster presentation on "Equal opportunities and teaching" and presented their ongoing research on teaching and learning concepts at private universities: Module Handbook Analyses in the Subject Groups Business, Medicine and Health Sciences. Daniela Schmitz, Manfred Fiedler and Jan-Hendrik Ortloff first analyzed the websites of private universities and then examined module handbooks from 30 degree programs in order to identify innovative teaching-learning concepts. The central questions were: Which higher education didactic principles are manifested in the module handbooks and which innovative approaches are pursued in order to establish sustainable teaching-learning concepts? The results so far show that private universities offer a broad spectrum of teaching-learning approaches that depend heavily on the respective field of study and type of university. While study formats, learning objectives and principles of skills development are visible in the module handbooks, there are clear differences in practical orientation, career support and student-centeredness. Particular emphasis was placed on the flexibility of study formats and the use of digital and individualized learning methods.

As part of a paper session on participation, Uwe Wilkesmann, Olga Wagner and Felix Fankhänel, together with Kamal Bhattacharya, Pro-Rector Research & Transfer at IU International University, gave a presentation on the topic of Private universities: Enablers through Innovation in Teaching?  They showed how private universities communicate their offers to prospective students and thus address specific target groups. There were differences in the expectations activated here, particularly between private universities and private universities of applied sciences with distance learning programs. The latter particularly emphasize the flexibility of studying: studying anytime, anywhere and for everyone. In this context, Kamal Bhattacharya presented the AI-based teaching assistant Syntea used at IU International University.

Many thanks to all those who made this conference possible and discussed the current status of our research project with us.