3 questions for Virginia Richter about Fit for Future
After two years, the Fit for Future program has been consolidated in autumn 2024. Action areas that have either completed their projects or made significant progress, will be handed over to the line organization. Virginia Richter answered three questions about what has been achieved in the program over the past two years and what the future holds.
Fit for Future was launched over two years ago as a program to change the university so that it will still be attractive and able to deliver top performance in 10 to 20 years' time. Where do we stand today?
Fit for Future has ensured that we have looked at the university as a whole across organizational boundaries. We have achieved a better mutual understanding through intensive discussions between faculties and central administration on various strategically relevant issues. It is essential that we continue to foster this exchange. Today, we already have a slightly different form of dialog and cooperation. This is particularly evident in what is probably the most difficult area of action, “Rethinking university structures”. We are now at a stage where we are all convinced, or at least can understand, that a change in the University's organizational structures will benefit everyone involved. We will now implement this major project together over the next few years. Important work and projects have also been launched or completed in the other action areas. This was and is always associated with a lot of work, which is why I would like to thank all those who have been and continue to be involved for their support. These changes are important because, as an institution, a university should not rest in itself, but should constantly and deliberately develop through the thoughts and actions of its members and offer a contemporary working and learning environment.
As you mentioned, individual projects have already been completed. The university management has therefore decided to keep only five of the twelve action areas in the program from 2025. What does this mean for F4F?
The annual review of the action areas has shown that there are projects among them that have already entered operating mode or are close to doing so. These topics therefore no longer require special attention as part of a program. In addition, various parties have repeatedly expressed the wish “not to overload the cartload”. When the program was conceived, many areas of the university felt the need to develop the university. The topics were then jointly formulated and defined as action areas in the F4F program. F4F thus became a comprehensive change program that affected everyone. However, many university employees are already confronted with a large number of projects and in some cases with changes outside of F4F. As a result, there was a feeling in some places that too much was simply being tackled at once. We have therefore decided to remove certain projects or action areas that have already been implemented or are very well covered in normal operations from F4F. For the time being, we are concentrating on larger projects that revolve around strategy - structure - culture.
What are the most important results so far?
Certain successes have been achieved in all action areas. For example, the project and creative space “Ideas Lab”, which has been established to promote entrepreneurship among students, is very pleasing. In the “Rethinking university structures” action area, we are now working on implementation in two of the faculties, and I am very excited to see what solutions we will find to improve working at the university, particularly in teaching and research.