BAUHAUS.INSIGHTS: What is on the minds of German university chancellors in 2024?

Dr. Henrici, in just a few days, the annual »Jahrestagung der Kanzlerinnen und Kanzler der deutschen Universitäten« will begin here in Weimar. The event is returning to the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar after nearly 20 years, although there are cities in Germany that have never hosted. We are thrilled about this – can you tell us how it came to be?

Organising this kind of conference is of course both an honour and a challenge. Weimar is indeed a very popular conference venue and, as spokesperson for the chancellors of central Germany, I have also been interested in hosting the annual conference again at a small university »in the East«. It has been a wish of mine for quite some time, and preparing for such a conference requires a lot of long-term planning, so I threw my hat in the ring for the Bauhaus-Universität right after I was re-elected in 2021. One thing led to another.

The conference focusses on the challenges that universities need to overcome regarding their buildings, both in terms of maintenance and building renovations. What are these challenges and what do you think needs to be done to improve the situation?

The obvious challenges are the structural conditions of some buildings and the insufficient maintenance budgets. An additional factor is the rapidly evolving demands on spatial concepts in teaching and research, where things like meeting spaces are becoming more and more important. Other influences include a lack of personnel and incalculable risks due to increasing energy costs, construction price uncertainty, increasing staffing costs, etc., especially for a university like ours with a global budget. Ideally, we are hoping to achieve more stable conditions with the state as a whole. This could help increase sustainability and climate neutrality measures. But achieving step 2 before step 1 is impossible – we have to be honest with ourselves about this.

As you have just realised, sustainability is becoming increasingly important and is something we address in the conference programme. After all, taking clever steps can reduce CO2 emissions by several tonnes in the future, especially in construction and building renovation. How would you assess the situation when it comes to our Bauhaus-Universität buildings? Where do we stand at the moment, and what hurdles do we have to overcome?

Well, that’s a tough question to answer diplomatically. But I want to point out that we sometimes have to find a compromise between the essential operational measures such as repairs, fire protection and mould removal, and the desire to work towards climate protection. We manage over 80 buildings and cover the entire spectrum from old and historically protected — some are even World Heritage Sites — to modern, environmentally sustainable buildings. When it comes to sustainability, we would really like to have more support from the state of Thuringia for its own properties.

Another pressing topic that will be discussed is digitalisation at universities, especially in the construction sector. Can you give us a peek into the future? What will digitalised construction management look like in ten years’ time? What are the fields that can anticipate the most change?

In addition to e-files, accounting, process optimisation, digitalised staffing procedures, etc., it’s going to be all about how IT support will be converted to a new generation of software for facility management. We, as a university, want to be able to make better decisions about what needs to be done and when. To achieve this, we have imagined creating a comprehensive database that can identify refurbishment backlog at the touch of a button. This will allow data for prioritising construction projects to be generated and perhaps even allow the simulation of energy output of refurbishment measures using digital twins of the buildings in question. The right decisions can be made based on this.

Around 100 university chancellors meet at this annual conference to exchange their expertise. In addition to this annual meeting, there are work groups and regional organisations that deal with these topics. The cooperation is certainly beneficial, but universities are also competing for the top researchers, employees, and teaching staff when it comes to student numbers and third-party funding. How do you chancellors deal with this tension?

This tension is implicit, of course, but it’s rarely an issue between chancellors. We’re interested in a collegial exchange; a lot of chancellors are faced with difficult technical issues (construction, finance, tax, personnel law) for which they are responsible, but which nonetheless affect all institutions equally. Our department is not one that is really suited to competition. So, to answer your question in one sentence: The chancellors themselves are an effective self-help group.

Lastly, we would like to hear what you are personally most looking forward to over these three days?

I’m actually looking forward to seeing many of my colleagues again. I’m curious about and proud of the presentations, especially those from our university. I’m excited about the prestigious panel discussions with representatives from the federal government, the state, and other universities; I’m interested in hearing their perspectives, the pressing issues they’re dealing with and, of course, as event host, I hope the conference runs smoothly. If, at the end, all the participants feel that they have heard about and discussed new and interesting topics and had a pleasant time in a stimulating environment, then we will have achieved everything we set out to with the conference.

Dr. Henrici, thank you for your interesting insights. We wish you and all the participants a successful and enjoyable conference!

The BAUHAUS.INSIGHTS questions on the »Jahrestagung der Kanzlerinnen und Kanzler der deutschen Universitäten« were asked by Claudia Weinreich.

Find out more at: https://www.uni-kanzler.de/