"This office calls for continuity and sustainability," underlined the President of the University, Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter on the occasion of Hoffmeister’s re-election. Speaking of the great challenges facing the University of Bremen, the President cited the digitalization and internationalization of teaching as examples.
Focus on research-based learning
Professor Thomas Hoffmeister has held the post of Vice President Academics since 2014. In this time, he has built a solid track record. The trained biologist was, for instance, responsible for establishing quality assurance in teaching, so-called system accreditation, across all of the University’s Faculties. The University has in the meantime thus been able to conduct more than ten self-directed evaluations. Under his leadership, research-based learning has also become firmly anchored across the curriculum and the University of Bremen is the only German university to date that has geared entire degree programs to this principle.
Recruiting female students for the STEM subjects
In the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM subjects, there is still room for improvement in the area of student support and reducing dropout rates. “We have to compensate for the skill gaps of school leavers and help our students bring their studies to a successful conclusion,” said Hoffmeister. In the frame of the Hochschulpakt (higher education pact), the state of Bremen has agreed for the next four years to fund support offers in the run up to studies and in the first academic year. “We are thinking about STEM orientation studies, especially with a view to recruiting more female students for these subjects,” said Hoffmeister.
Promoting innovations in teaching
In his following four-year term, the Vice President Academics wants to closely follow the program Quality Offensive Teacher Training as well as the promotion of teaching innovations in all disciplines. “We should continue to work on making examples of innovative teaching more visible – both inside as well as outside the University," says Hoffmeister. He wants to create more scope for teachers to develop new formats. For instance, it might take more time to produce videos that deal with a topic comprehensively and are easy for students to understand than simply to record an entire lecture – but it’s much more efficient in the long run.
Driving internationalization
In addition to the digitalization of teaching, the internationalization of degree programs is another major item on the Vice President’s agenda. “The predicted decline in domestic student numbers is at the same time an opportunity to attract new groups to the University of Bremen.” The planned undergraduate offer in the natural sciences, in which studies begin in English and are then gradually converted to German, is one of the innovative ideas that Professor Thomas Hoffmeister wants to push forward in his next term until 2022.
Members of the press: You can download a photo of Professor Thomas Hoffmeister under: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/f/4acd1d6bfa3145b6a1a3/?dl=1
If you would like to know more about this topic, feel free to contact:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffmeister
Vice President Academics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49-421 218-60030
Email: kon2@uni-bremen.de
