In 2018 our university presented its University Development Plan, describing our strategic goals up to the year 2025 in research, teaching, transfer, and administration as well as in the fields of internationalisation, equality and diversity, and digitisation. This strategy revolves around a motto – The Leipzig Way – and aims at interdisciplinarity and the formation of alliances. It highlights what makes our university unique, sets out the most important instruments and parameters for planning our future development, and is a source of orientation and motivation for members of the University.
When it comes to top-class research and medical expertise, we aspire to be one of the leading institutions of higher learning in Germany. With interdisciplinary collaborative structures and a continually evolving research profile, our academic focus is on complex, forward-looking and socially relevant issues of our time.
In order to attract the best students to our university, we rely on the principle of research-led teaching and cultivate our performance-oriented, internationally connected range of courses in line with the framework established by the Bologna Process. We also actively promote the international mobility of our students.
Besides the generation of knowledge, we also define the transfer of that knowledge as a performance marker that shapes the profile of our university and creates competitive advantages. In dialogue with society, we are striving to bring about a diverse pool of knowledge, motivating our university’s members to participate in transfer activities. We are committed to expanding our internationalisation strategy in research, teaching, transfer and administration, and are making a name for ourselves as an institution with excellent international connections.
As a reputable, equal opportunities and family-friendly employer in a prospering city, our university is a magnet for young international academics, attracting bright minds from all over the world.
We see our university as an outward-looking, social place and at the same time as a learning, agile organisation that is able to continue to develop innovative solutions because of its formative experiences of change and upheaval.
Our university’s solution-oriented control and administration processes as well as its robust infrastructures form the necessary basis for outstanding results in research, teaching and transfer.
The Leipzig Way
An integrated programme for research excellence
Our profile is focused on three strategic research fields:
- Changed Order in a Globalised World
- Intelligent Methods and Materials
- Sustainable Principles for Life and Health
Three overarching themes have emerged from the strategic research fields: biodiversity, modern diseases and globalisations. These are bundled in nationally and internationally visible research centres (iCentres) and integrate the humanities and social sciences, the life sciences, medicine and the natural sciences in roughly equal parts.
In opening up new and interdisciplinary fields of research, in the Leipzig Science Network we cooperate closely with the many non-university research institutions which are based in Leipzig as a centre of science, but also with neighbouring institutions of higher education in the Halle-Jena-Leipzig Central German University Alliance.
Our strategic research fields offer significant potential for the development of competitive and excellence-oriented research clusters. By 2025, we will have succeeded in further developing our most important research fields in such a way that they extend beyond the connections or collaborative status of individual Collaborative Research Centres.
Objectives in research until 2025:
The Leipzig Way also describes the dynamic further development of the University’s research profile.
This includes the following stages:
- Stimulating, identifying and promoting new research fields (emerging fields)
- The targeted combination of these fields as a nucleus for the acquisition of collaborative projects
- Further development into interdisciplinary research networks with overarching research questions
- The development of internationally visible and interdisciplinary centres.
The Leipzig Way is geared towards the long term and provides for the establishment of several research centres. It is not limited to funding in the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. We want to develop several iCenters that address key societal challenges, such as the dramatic loss of biodiversity or the effects of globalisation processes and projects.
To ensure successful interaction between integrated research centres and all university-wide research areas, we are further developing the LeipzigLab, which was established in 2020, as an innovative institution for the synthesis of topics and people.
Young scientists, whether as individual researchers or as part of collaborative research teams, constitute an important catalyst for the Leipzig Way. In order to enhance our research profile and competitiveness, we have established the following successive packages of measures and programmes:
- Doctoral preparation programme (Pre-Doc Award)
- Doctoral qualification programme (Graduate Schools)
- Leipzig Excellence Fund for Young Researchers (LE4YOU)
- Leipzig Researcher Development Programme (LRDP)
- Leipzig Tenure-Track Programmme (LTTP).
Teaching and study
Quality, stability, internationality and innovation
For teaching, university development is structured along a broad range of subjects, from natural and life sciences and medicine to numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences to law and computer science. Our university’s profile as a comprehensive research university is characterised by the interaction of individual subject groups, including a wide variety of so-called “small subjects”.
Following the principle of the unity of research and teaching (teaching through research), teaching will also contribute to further concentrating Leipzig University’s strategic research fields. In turn, successful research collaboration and platforms that arise as part of the Leipzig Way will continue to provide new input for interdisciplinary courses of study.
With degree programmes whose quality has been assured, study success is to be improved further and the drop-out rate reduced. The University will further enhance the profile of its degree programmes and conduct their accreditation.
Our university has made a name for itself as a Saxon centre for subjects involving public services of general interest and, in particular, as the centre for teacher training in Central Germany. In addition, the University will continue to promote the internationalisation of teaching and study and use digitalisation for new and innovative teaching formats.
Objectives in teaching until 2025:
With the successful completion of our system accreditation, we have made a clear commitment to quality assurance and development in teaching and study. Our university offers degree courses of a high academic and didactic standard that are recognised and in demand internationally. Accrediting degree programmes is a continual requirement. Preparations are underway for re-accreditation. All degree programmes are subject to the quality management system (QMS).
As outlined in the Future Contract, we will ensure that study and teaching are of high quality while creating or maintaining good conditions for studying across the broad range of our courses of study. To this end, we will develop continuing professional development programmes for academic teaching. We will enhance the continuing education of all lecturers in the field of university teaching under consideration of the heterogeneous target groups. We promote and implement innovative forms of teaching on a project-by-project basis.
We strive for an appropriate proportion of permanent and fixed-term employment contracts for mid-level faculty members that ensures that the high quality of teaching and supervisory tasks can be maintained. The proportion of academic staff (including academic staff members and lecturers (with a specific function, LfbA)) who have permanent contracts can be increased with the funds from the Future Contract that are being used, among other things, to maintain teaching capacity, improve the supervisory situation and infrastructure required for teaching, and boost the quality of teaching. This is another step towards achieving the goal of having more permanent positions and easing the planning of academic careers.
Our university will develop its QMS strategy further and connect lectures and students, faculties and central organisational units. On this basis, by 2025 all bachelor’s and master’s programmes will undergo our QMS and be subject to external evaluation. By 2025, our university will only enrol students on courses it has already accredited.
Modern graduates must be prepared for a globalised labour market and multicultural and multilingual environments. Leipzig is developing various instruments to help them develop these skills while they study: from integrated study programmes with international partners, to mobility windows and curricular components that enable international experience via digital or hybrid formats “at home”.
We are developing courses of study with an international focus in the areas where teaching interfaces with research and transfer, such as:
- Research master’s
- Practice-oriented degree programmes with the active participation of companies
- Transnational study opportunities abroad with international partner universities
- Marketable continuing education formats.
Our university offers high-quality and sustainable teacher training in conjunction with the Bildungscampus Sachsen, not just for the undergraduate phase of teacher training, but also for qualified teachers and career changers. We aim to develop and implement the Teacher Training 2025 strategy, which also covers stabilisation structures as well as quality and quantity in teacher training. The new specialisations for teachers at vocational schools will further strengthen training for public services of general interest and systematically expand the range of subjects offered at the University.
The digital revolution is changing teaching and learning culture, requiring us to readjust the various teaching and learning formats. It is also important to review the balance between face-to-face learning and private study with electronic resources. In this way, innovation and new formats can enrich both the form and content of the courses we offer, without weakening the personal development of students, which depends on regular university attendance in person. Digital teaching will continue to be developed so that the University is ready for the future, especially with a view to the international and transnational range of courses. Digitalisation strategies are to be devised for each faculty in cooperation with the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Another potential area for digitalisation lies in expanding the technical infrastructure for hybrid teaching. At the same time, when designing hybrid and digital teaching, we will not ignore the fact that digitalisation affects not only technical aspects; the processes can only be put into place if the administrative, legal and staffing conditions are met, and didactic aspects must also be considered.
Transfer
Expand transfer with regional integration and supraregional visibility
For transfer, all academic areas make use of innovative services to contribute to the diverse and lively exchange of knowledge between the University and society. By national standards, our university is already highly successful when it comes to promoting start-ups. As a leading partner in the Leipzig SMILE start-up initiative, for years we have consistently ranked highly in surveys such as the Gründungsradar, carried out by the Stifterverband.
By ensuring that knowledge and technologies impact business, culture, and politics, our university fulfils its social responsibility in the region. An important driver of development in the area of knowledge and technology transfer will be the institutional cooperation with the Center for the Transformation of Chemistry (CTC), a major research centre in the Central German mining district. With the Research and Transfer Centre for Bioactive Matter (b-ACTmatter), we have established a platform involving multiple faculties that is funded as part of the federal programme for strengthening transformation dynamics and represents a new start in the mining districts and at the former coal power plant locations (STARK).
Objectives in transfer until 2025:
A vibrant culture of transfer is the foundation for successful transfer. We work to raise awareness of transfer and motivate members of all status groups to participate in transfer activities. Every faculty and every institution is to develop its own specialised transfer objectives and activities within the scope of the University’s overarching goals. This will strengthen our overall profile development while making outstanding, socially relevant academic achievements visible and effective. Tailored training programmes will be offered to encourage and enable University members to engage in successful transfer activities. Incentives, awards and honours will motivate them to continue and expand their work.
We are pursuing this goal in all areas related to transfer, that is, in knowledge application, knowledge dissemination, consulting, and research communication. More cooperative activities are to be initiated with civil society, culture, politics and business. We will continue to expand our transfer infrastructure while systematically identifying and using opportunities for cooperation. Further intensifying and professionalising research communication will remain of particular importance. In this way, we will promote the interests of academia and improve understanding of research findings. We will also shape social dialogue and strengthen the function of research as a source of guidance.
With regard to its “third mission” activities, our university plans to expand its profile. As a further performance category alongside research and teaching, we want to promote the strategic and institutional anchoring of the idea of transfer in all of the University’s institutions and processes. We aim to make a name for ourselves beyond Central Germany as a university with excellent transfer activities, thereby actively taking on our regional responsibility in dialogue with stakeholders from all areas and levels of society. We see ourselves as the most important catalyst for social and technical innovations in the Central German innovation ecosystem and aim to play a key role in moderating the exchange of knowledge between academia, politics, administration and civil society.
Management, staff and infrastructure
Our university strives for the greatest possible autonomy in order to optimally utilise its resources. It took a decisive step towards this autonomy when it was allowed to self-manage starting in 2022. Financial, staff and property resources are effectively and efficiently utilised by means of strategic and operative controlling instruments. Our administration supports both the University management and the academic institutions in fulfilling new requirements for all performance markers.
Objectives in management, staff and infrastructure until 2025:
Bundling and continuing to expand controlling processes will contribute markedly to an improvement in our university’s capacity to manage and act. The next milestone will be to optimise and consolidate the central and decentral financial management processes. Our administration supports the Leipzig Way with a clear service orientation along with data provision and management. It thereby supports the development towards top-notch performance and excellence in all fields.
We are pushing forward with staff development for our academic and non-academic staff members. Outstanding professors are to be recruited and retained. Thanks to the Leipzig Tenure-Track Programme (LTTP), we are able to attract excellent national and international researchers in the early stages of their careers, laying the groundwork for their long-term commitment to the University. Our comprehensive understanding of talent development means that we also focus on developing students’ competences. In the area of staff development, we will optimise offers, looking specifically at the needs of non-academic staff members. Occupational Health Management (OHM) creates healthy working conditions and tailored prevention programmes as needed, enabling excellent performance in research, teaching, transfer and administration and contributing to retaining staff.
Internationalisation
Focus on students and staff
A welcoming culture and internationality have always been part of our university’s identity. We have set ourselves the goal of accelerating internationalisation and exploiting it to the full to enhance our profile. To attract the best doctoral researchers, researchers and students to Leipzig, we aim to offer optimal conditions and the best possible support. Internationalisation is a core component of achieving this objective. As an overarching task, every area of the University – from the University management to the faculties and administration – must be a part of this drive for internationalisation. To this end, we aim to expand international research alliances, recruit outstanding early career researchers from abroad, enhance the international mobility of students and further open the University to international students. The University administrative structures, which are becoming increasingly internationalised, support the overall objective of internationalising research and teaching. We bring these activities together in an overarching internationalisation strategy.
Equality
Equal opportunity, diversity and family
Our university is committed to and accountable for advancing diversity, and in future it will bundle its strategic approaches to promote equality, diversity, anti-discrimination, inclusion and a balance between work and family in a university-wide equal opportunity strategy. This central framework is coordinated with the decentral equal opportunity policies in the faculties and Central Institutions, ensuring that needs-based measures lead to reciprocal effects in implementing equality and diversity requirements at all levels. When diversity is understood as a principle of equal opportunity, then differences among University members become opportunities to tap for higher performance and more innovation and should therefore be encouraged in research, teaching, study, knowledge management and administration. In this, an intersectional approach is applied that extends from supporting women to increasing social diversity and from enhancing accessibility to expanding the services for a family-friendly university. We thus fulfil our responsibility to ensure that students and staff interact respectfully while showing appreciation for one another.
This approach does justice to diversity by considering all dimensions and focuses on reducing intersectional discrimination. Anchoring these activities in all structures combines resources and ensures that the relevant stakeholders engage in purposeful communication. The aim is to create an approach to anti-discrimination that is applied throughout the University and is institutionally supported by the establishment of structures that promote diversity and shape the conditions for research, study and work such that they are attractive and competitive. Unequal opportunities exist, and we raise awareness of this fact across the University, in academia, in local society and among the general public.
Digital transformation
Embedding digitalisation in the entire University
The digital transformation is highly important for all performance markers. This is why we have defined digitalisation as a core task, one which will require specifying and consolidating central as well as decentral processes. The digitalisation strategy sets down medium- and long-term goals and areas for which scheduling and resource planning are to be specified with the help of packages of measures. This overall strategy arose from the continuation and consolidation of the three partial strategies for the digitalisation of research, teaching and administration.
Sustainability
Integration into the University’s work
Preserving the natural foundations of life and using resources responsibly are fundamental tasks of our time. The challenges posed by climate policy are great and their urgency is widely recognised. Universities play a unique role, contributing to environmental research, providing education on sustainable development and raising environmental awareness. Our university trains the decision-makers of tomorrow and equips them with innovative ways of thinking and acting. Sustainability is already embedded in our university’s strategic research fields and in the centralised and decentralised decision-making processes. This is particularly visible in the collaborative initiatives Breathing Nature and New Global Dynamics. Our aim is to develop and implement a university-wide sustainability strategy. Our university’s Sustainability Commission plays a central role in this. We combine the expertise of a wide range of University members on this topic and develop our university’s sustainability strategy on the basis of their great expertise, their commitment and their valuable preliminary work. The common goal of the various stakeholders is the networking of activities which are in place across the University. Sustainability is seen as a cross-cutting issue, encompassing all performance markers and areas, research, transfer, study and teaching as well as campus and operations. In line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, the University is in the process of developing a comprehensive sustainability strategy.
The student-run Green Office (GO) serves as a central point of contact and coordination for environmental sustainability issues. It supports University groups and the sustainability officers of the student representative committees (FSR), organises regular sustainability dialogues and develops education and awareness-raising activities for members of the University.