Declaration on the state government's key issues paper on further university development up to 2025.
Declaration on the state government's key issues paper on further university development up to 2025.
The key issues paper implements almost all of the core elements of the coalition agreement on the development of higher education in Saxony. This is to be greatly appreciated and welcomed, especially because it contains a clear commitment to and strengthening of the university location Zittau/Görlitz (hereinafter referred to as HSZG).
Capacities will not be reduced and the university will remain untouched in terms of its size, its broad range of subjects - which is of great importance for regional development - and its chosen profile. The HSZG will have long-term planning security. This is also important because it is in a continuous development process and must also further develop its areas of expertise in teaching and its research focus. Even more clearly than before, it must align the social requirements, challenges and expectations of a university of applied sciences with the aspect of a regional driving force that provides academic training close to companies and organizations and makes important contributions to regional knowledge and technology transfer. To cite just one current example, this has been excellently achieved through the cooperation with the Fraunhofer IWU and the associated establishment of the new focus on plastics technologies, which also complements the competence field of energy and environment perfectly.
The statement that chemistry will be phased out as a basic subject in the next five years should also be seen in this context. What is meant by this is the kind of development that can be found at universities: the entire breadth of the subject. However, this by no means indicates the disappearance of chemistry at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. The expertise will be retained, but the focus will be directed more towards what constitutes a university of applied sciences (see above) and our specialist areas, such as plastics.
We very much welcome the fact that the HSZG is to establish the subject of nursing sciences. This is an excellent addition to existing areas such as management in healthcare or social gerontology and will also be an important building block in strengthening the new interdisciplinary research area of health and ageing technology (GAT). The intention is to establish a research institute this year to deal with this future topic.
signed. Prof. Dr. phil. Friedrich Albrecht
Rector