Future.THM

The environment and conditions surrounding universities have changed dramatically in recent decades, both technologically and socially. As an innovative university, we have adapted to these changes and continued to develop. Change is always a driving force for innovation and creativity. To focus on the future, the presidium recently initiated the Further development of the strategy process and the identification of THM . Under the name " Future.THM, THM a vision for the "University of the Future" will be developed collaboratively with broad participation from all members of the university community.

This will be achieved, for example, through future workshops and conferences , which will enable interdisciplinary work in small groups and the development of desirable visions for a sustainable THM and its Departments and central organizational units. In this way, we aim to remain an attractive university for students and staff and be prepared for future challenges.

This project is open to all Departments and central organizational units, as well as students. Participants will be supported by Prof. Dr. Anja Grothe and Dr. Matthias Teller of Sustainum Consulting, who have extensive experience in complex organizations and have successfully guided and moderated numerous processes. The process flow shown below illustrates the individual phases and steps of the project. Further information on these will be provided here later.

You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/CWBHjXNVog4

Goals:

Initiation of a university-wide process
Raising awareness of future issues
Further description of existing strategies
Promoting interdisciplinary collaboration at THM
Ensuring competitiveness
Further ensuring the attractiveness of THM for students and employees
Identification of necessary measures and adjustments
Answering the questions: What will the university of tomorrow look like? What projects and new ideas will emerge from this? What are the next steps?

Process flow:

Overview of the future process model.THM

survey

For an initial exploration of future strategies, it can be helpful to take a closer look at key future topics (future fields), that is, major currents of change in society or the world. Developments in these future fields are comprehensive, have a significant impact on technological, social, environmental, and economic areas, and determine the future of our society.

Therefore, a university-wide survey was conducted in advance of the "Future.THM" project. This survey served to gather initial assessments from deans' offices, central organizational units, and students regarding the relevance of future fields and topics. The results were directly incorporated into the subsequent process and revisited at the kick-off event.

Kick-off event

On March 29, 2023, the opening event of the "Future.THM" project, initiated by Vice President Prof. Dirk Metzger and Vice President Prof. Dr. Katja Specht, took place. Among the nearly 80 participants were representatives from the Departments (in the form of the deans' offices), senior staff from central organizational units, as well as representatives from the student councils and the student union (AStA). Based on the preceding survey, a strengths and weaknesses analysis was developed in a multi-hour workshop: What can THMdo, what additional skills must it possess, and where are the needs – and with what urgency?

The kick-off event in Friedberg, led by the organizational development consulting duo Prof. Dr. Anja Grothe and Dr.-Ing. Matthias Teller (Sustainum Consulting), took a deliberately unconventional, exchange-promoting approach: Moving boxes served as a projection surface for future topics and fields for small groups, strengths and weaknesses were assigned, and finally, they were arranged to form a wall of tasks.

The entire university is addressing these tasks in a process that increasingly involves more people. At the beginning of May, so-called future workshops will begin in the Departments . There, the topics developed will be examined for relevance, current state of implementation, and with regard to achievable and desirable goals.

Future workshops

On May 4th and 5th, the first four Departments , represented by deans, professors, staff, and students, participated in the one-day future workshop. Life Science Engineering (LSE), Information Technology-Electrical Engineering-Mechatronics (IEM), Civil Engineering (BAU), and Management and Communication (MuK) met at the Volksbank Forum Giessen to explore the future of the university, the opportunities and risks to consider, and how to remain attractive to students and staff within the framework of the HMWK-funded project "Future.THM".

As an introduction to the future workshop, the facilitators, Prof. Dr. Anja Grothe and Dr. Matthias Teller from Sustainum Consulting, chose an unusual method: all participants were asked to build a desirable vision of the future in small groups using Lego bricks. The creative ideas generated a positive atmosphere and provided initial insights into the path ahead.

A future workshop is divided into three phases: the critique phase – let's get started. All aspects that should not be continued or should be changed were collected on index cards. At the end of this phase, the critique was summarized in one negative and one positive sentence.

The fantasy phase was about letting thoughts run free and – without the constraints of financing or concrete feasibility – imagining visions of a desirable future.

The prioritization of feasible ideas was then the focus concretization phase

This event marked another step towards the future. Becoming clear about what one no longer wants and what one wants instead is an important prerequisite for the path ahead.