Senate

The Senate is the main legislative body of the University and is responsible for enacting and amending the University’s central regulations, including the constitution, framework regulations and other official regulations, unless otherwise stated by the Higher Education Act of North Rhine-Westphalia. Moreover, the Senate contributes to both the voting in and voting out of members of the Executive Board, and provides an official statement on the annual report of the Executive Board. The Senate also issues official recommendations and statements regarding drafts of the Strategic Development Plan and the institutional contract between the University and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Hochschulvertrag), as well regarding evaluation reports, the annual budget and the distribution of both funding and staff positions to the faculties, central institutions and central staff units. Finally, the Senate is also authorised to issue official recommendations and statements regarding matters of research, teaching and academics which affect the entire University or central institutions, or are otherwise considered fundamentally important.

As outlined in Section 6 of the Constitution of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, the Senate consists of 40 members, 25 of whom are formally elected and granted voting power. Of these 25 members, ten are professors, five are members of the academic staff, five are members of the non-academic staff and five are students. The term in office for student members is always one year, while the term in office for the other members with voting power is two years. Besides the members with voting power, the Senate also consists of 15 members without voting power. These members include the Executive Board, the Deans, the Disability Officer, the Special Needs Commissioner for Students with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses, the staff councils (both academic and non-academic), the head of the General Student Committee (AStA) and the Equal Opportunities Officer.

The Senate generally meets once a month. You can find the upcoming sessions of the senate meetings in the meeting schedule of the University Boards and Committees. In accordance with Section 4 (1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, these sessions are generally open to the public.

Voting members of the Senate are:

Representatives from the professors

Representatives from the academic staff

Representatives from the non-academic staff

Representatives from the students

Non-voting members of the Senate are:

• the Members of the Executive Board
• the Deans
• the Disability Officer
• the Special Needs Commissioner for Students with Disabilities or Chronic Illnesses
• Chair of the Academic Staff Council
• Chair of the Non-Academic Staff Council
• Chair of the General Student Committee (AStA)
• Equal Opportunity Commissioner