Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 17 April 2014: This marks a milestone in the project, as long-standing lecturers and newcomers alike can now register in the online database and create a profile listing the courses they teach.
Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 17 April 2014: This marks a milestone in the project’s progress, as both long-serving lecturers and newcomers can now register on the online database at www.lehrbeauftragtenpool.de and create a profile detailing the courses they offer. From this pool, staff at the Service Centre select suitable candidates who meet the requirements for the teaching posts advertised by the various departments and put them forward to the heads of department. Both sides benefit from this: through their application profiles, lecturers can reach four universities at once and do not need to actively keep an eye out for job vacancies. The universities, in turn, gain access to a significantly larger pool of active or potential lecturers and are thus able to fill teaching posts with the right people. And these are precisely the key objectives of the project. “The recruitment and selection process for lecturers is being professionalised to ensure a high standard of teaching. Logically, we have now also integrated the lecturers working at the partner universities much more closely into our continuing professional development programmes,” explains Prof. Dr Anja von Richthofen, project leader at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and Vice-President for Studies, Teaching and Continuing Professional Development. The response from lecturers to the professional development programmes has been exceptionally positive. “The lecturers have been particularly pleased with the variety of our programmes,” reports Dr Cornelia Rövekamp, who is responsible for staff development at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. “As we are in direct dialogue with the lecturers, we can tailor the programmes precisely to their needs.”
Why do the four universities place such great importance on high-quality lecturers? They play a particularly important role at universities of applied sciences. In addition to their work at the universities, lecturers continue to practise their profession in the wider world and are therefore an ideal link between the university and industry. The project was launched around a year ago. Much of the groundwork has been completed since then, and the ten staff members can now devote their time to the actual objective. Their task involves, amongst other things, recruiting lecturers quickly and easily in line with the departments’ needs. To this end, they systematically search for lecturers, utilise existing contacts with businesses, associations or other institutions, and establish new contacts. From now on, the online database will make this task considerably easier.
The timing is well chosen, as the double cohort of A-level graduates has meant that many students have enrolled at universities this winter term. Among other things, this is leading to an increased demand for lecturers, which is set to continue in the coming terms. “One of the desired outcomes is to use the database to find the right person for a teaching post more quickly and with greater precision,” says Rolf Kerkhoff, who is responsible for recruitment at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences. “To ensure this succeeds, the focus is now on raising awareness of the service centre and the opportunities it offers within the region.”
The project forms part of the Quality Pact for Teaching launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The four universities of applied sciences are receiving a total of 4.12 million euros for this, of which approximately 900,000 euros will go to Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences.
Caption:
Rolf Kerkhoff and Dr Cornelia Rövekamp from Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences.
