Prof. Dr. Matthias Willems has been re-elected as President of the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen by the Senate. He received 29 out of 32 votes cast in the first round of voting. A search committee comprised of members of the election board and the university council of THM had nominated Willems as the sole candidate. His next term of office begins on April 1, 2022, and will last six years.
The current Senate of THM comprises 33 voting members – according to the Hessian Higher Education Act, these include not only the regular members but also their deputies. All groups within the university are represented in the body: professors (18), students (9), academic staff (2), and administrative and technical staff (4).
Willems, 57, has led the university since 2016. Previously, as a professor in the Friedberg Department of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Data Processing, he taught Business Information Systems . Willems holds a doctorate in Medical Informatics and an MBA. Before becoming president, he gained experience in university administration as Managing Director of the Center for Dual Studies in Wetzlar and as a long-standing member of Department Council and the Senate.
In his acceptance speech, Willems gave a positive assessment of his first term in office. The number of students had risen to a record high in the past winter semester. This, he said, spoke to the continued quality of the academic programmes offered.
“With the establishment of the Research Campus of Central Hessen THM has institutionalized its research collaboration with the two universities in Central Hesse. THM was a nationwide pioneer with the opening of the Doctoral Center for Engineering Sciences,” Willems emphasized. The new Hessian Higher Education Pact, signed last year, makes it possible to build up an academic mid-level staff for application-oriented research.
The president emphasized that teaching will remain a core task of the university in the future. Ensuring high-quality academic training is the top priority. The Higher Education Pact offers the opportunity to hire additional professors in the coming years. This will significantly improve the student-to-faculty ratio, Willems said.
What will the future of the university look like after the pandemic? And what about the future of the working world? These are the central questions that THM will have to address in the coming years. "We will seek answers to these questions together with the university members and achieve broad consensus on fundamental decisions," promised Willems. A university presidium led by him will always stand for a culture of respect and appreciation.