The LRK meets several times a year to discuss current issues and agree on common positions. The end-of-year meeting, which took place on the Kamp-Lintfort campus in the former RAG warehouse building, focused on higher education policy issues.
The President of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr Oliver Locker-Grütjen, was particularly pleased that, in addition to the Chair of the LRK, Prof. Dr Bernd Kriegesmann, the President of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), Prof. Dr Walter Rosenthal, was also in attendance: “The discussion with Professor Rosenthal was very valuable, as many issues affecting the higher education landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia are relevant beyond the state’s borders. These include not only study and teaching, research, innovation and knowledge transfer, academic continuing education and internationalisation, but above all questions concerning teacher training at universities of applied sciences and the remit of the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI).“ The HRK is an association of German universities, whose member institutions account for around 90 per cent of all students enrolled in Germany.
At the same time, the Conference of Chancellors of Universities of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia (Chancellors’ Conference) was also meeting in the former RAG building. The Chancellors’ Conference is an association of the chancellors or vice-presidents for financial and human resources management at universities of applied sciences, technical universities, church-run universities and private universities in North Rhine-Westphalia. It addresses administrative issues relating to day-to-day university life as well as relevant developments in higher education policy, and develops joint strategies and solutions.
“Collaboration between higher education institutions is becoming increasingly important in the face of a growing shortage of skilled workers and tighter budgets,” said Michael Strotkemper, Chancellor of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences. Against this backdrop in particular, it is very encouraging that the decision to expand the cross-university Centre of Excellence for Finance to include art and music colleges has now been unanimously approved, and that the cooperation is being strengthened.
Both conferences joined forces in the afternoon for a joint session, which focused on higher education funding and start-up support. The event concluded with a pre-Christmas get-together, for which the FabLab Kamp-Lintfort provided an innovative and creative setting.
The chancellors, presidents and rectors in attendance were delighted by the atmosphere on the Kamp-Lintfort campus, which is characterised in a unique way by the disused West Mine and the site of the State Garden Show. Here, structural change is clearly evident as a model for success: from a mining site to a university town. The Kamp-Lintfort campus impressively symbolises this transformation and has become a hub for innovative, interdisciplinary and international education and research in North Rhine-Westphalia.
