Challenging but achievable goals

On December 18, 2017, the performance agreement between the University Executive Board and the constituent units (faculties, research institutes, central administrative units) of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) for the years 2017 through 2020 was signed during a festive ceremony.

In it, the University Executive Board and the constituent units of HSZG commit to fulfilling the objectives and specific agreements resulting from

• the goals enshrined in the Saxon Higher Education Development Plan 2025 of November 22, 2016,
• the grant agreement for the years 2017 through 2024 between the state government and Saxony’s universities dated December 19, 2016, as well as
• the Target Agreement for the years 2017 through 2020 between the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts (SMWK) and the HSZG, dated December 19, 2016,

through a joint effort.

With the second Higher Education Development Plan, the Saxon State Government guarantees the universities of the Free State planning certainty through the end of 2024. The Higher Education Development Plan (HEP 2025), developed in dialogue with the institutions, is further grounded in the principles of institutional autonomy, location-specific differentiation, equal opportunity, and the maintenance of quality standards in teaching and research across Saxony’s higher education landscape. This is achieved by ensuring a state-wide coordinated range of academic programs and by creating the necessary framework conditions, which include, in particular, the provision of the required resources—in accordance with the resolutions of the budget-setting legislature — which were set forth in the 2017–2024 grant agreement between the state government and the universities.

Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences expressly commits to this. To implement the state’s higher education development plan, the SMWK and the HSZG concluded, as part of a comprehensive Controlling system, a target agreement for the years 2017–2020, which had previously been negotiated on an equal footing. For the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG), this target agreement is reflected in the now-finalized target agreement between the University Executive Board and the constituent units.

This target agreement between the University Executive Board and the constituent units specifically addresses those individual aspects that serve to achieve the higher education policy goals set forth in the aforementioned target agreement between the SMWK and the HSZG.

The individual goals are divided into four target areas:

1. Cross-cutting objectives (profile development, internal university development plan, staff development, gender equality, International Affairs)
2. Academic Programs and Teaching (number of enrolled students, STEM enrollment rate, compliance with the standard period of study, improvement of teaching quality, ensuring a statewide range of courses, compliance with the Higher Education Pact)
3. Research (research output, third-party funding from industry, collaborative doctoral programs)
4. Third Mission – Societal Role and Social Responsibility (regional impact, willingness to transfer knowledge, strengthening innovation capacity, startup activity).

The University Executive Board and the constituent units of the HSZG agree that ambitious yet fundamentally attainable goals have been agreed upon, the achievement of which will strengthen the role, mission, and significance of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences as a key component of Saxony’s higher education landscape.

“I am very pleased that, following an intensive discussion process, we have succeeded in formulating and jointly signing a single agreement—valid for all—rather than individual target agreements. It embodies both the principle of achievement and the principle of solidarity,” said Rector Prof. Friedrich Albrecht in his statement.