This page contains automatically translated content.

01/11/2023 | Pressemitteilung

René Matzdorf re-elected as Vice President

Prof. Dr. René Matzdorf has been confirmed by the Extended Senate of the University of Kassel as Vice President for Studies and Teaching. Over the next three years, he will work in particular to further improve the quality of studies and to link digital and analog teaching elements in a meaningful way.

Group picture — The Executive Board with (from left) Vice President Prof. Dr. Michael Wachendorf, President Prof. Dr. Ute Clement, Vice President Prof. Dr. René Matzdorf, Chancellor Dr. Oliver Fromm, Vice President Prof. Dr. Sonja Buckel.

Matzdorf thanked the Extended Senate for its confidence and announced: "After the recent past was strongly characterized by crisis management, we want to use the next few years to take substantial steps towards modernization. University teaching will and must change. Now is the time to rethink what we teach and how we teach."

For example, he said, the Corona years clearly demonstrated the potential of digital teaching, while at the same time revealing where presence and exchange are irreplaceable. "What is needed is clever linking. Digital learning opportunities, for example, can help with factual knowledge and missing fundamentals, freeing up time for face-to-face exchanges between teachers and learners. Digitization also offers many opportunities to tailor content and methods more closely to the needs of each and every individual in increasingly heterogeneous student cohorts."

He sees another field of activity in the introduction of new courses of study. This applies not only, but especially, to those courses of study with a sustainability focus that will be established in the coming years with the new Scientific Center for Sustainable Transformations, the Kassel Institute for Sustainability. Improvements within existing study programs are also on the agenda, in cooperation with the departments.

The university's president, Prof. Dr. Ute Clement, who had nominated Matzdorf for re-election, is looking forward to further cooperation. "It's good that Mr. Matzdorf is contributing with his experience and vision, and that we continue to work in a proven team."

Prof. Dr. René Matzdorf (55) was born in Kassel and studied physics at the local university; he also received his doctorate and habilitation here in 1997. In 2000, he took up a professorship at the University of Würzburg. Since 2003, he has headed the Department of Surface Physics at the University of Kassel. Since 2017, he has been Vice President and is primarily responsible for the areas of study and teaching in the Presidential Board.