On Wednesday, the University Senate of the University of Oldenburg set the final course for the new leadership of the university from 2020. Following the proposal of President Prof Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper and the approval of the University Council, the University Senate confirmed special education teacher Prof Dr Annett Thiele as the new Vice President for Early Career Academics and Gender Equality. Subject to the approval of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science, the new Presidential Board is now complete.
The two-year term of office of Thiele and the two other part-time members of the Executive Board, Prof. Dr Verena Pietzner and Prof. Dr Martin Fränzle, is expected to begin on 1 January 2020. The University Senate intends that the current term of office of the full-time Vice President for Administration and Finance, Jörg Stahlmann, will be followed by a second, eight-year term of office from the end of 2020.
University President Piper stated that he was looking forward to continuing the university's successful path in the new year with new vigour and a new team. He thanked the outgoing Vice Presidents Prof Dr Sabine Kyora and Prof Dr Esther Ruigendijk as well as Vice President Prof Dr Meinhard Simon for their competent and dedicated work over the past few years.
With regard to young academics, Thiele emphasised in her speech to the University Senate that she wanted to focus more on the "transfer of minds" - young academics with doctorates - into society in the future. Graduate Schools and structured doctoral programmes already provide doctoral candidates with a good situation at the university. She therefore wants to focus more on the phase after the doctorate and develop a concept for postdoctoral researchers. She is interested in customised subject-specific and cross-school measures that, for example, counteract the dropout of women in this academic qualification phase.
Thiele also emphasised that she considers Gender equality to be a central task of the Presidential Board. For her, implementing the equality plan means, for example, providing gender competences for the heads of appointment and appointment committees or compiling recommendations for the active recruitment of women. At the same time, she emphasised that Gender equality is only one aspect of diversity. "In order to do justice to the heterogeneity of students and employees, a diversity strategy must be developed," said Thiele. The aim is to enable equal opportunities and educational equity for all. The various interest groups should be involved in the development of a concept.
About the person:
Prof Dr Annett Thiele is a university lecturer in pedagogy and didactics for physical and motor development impairments as well as chronic and progressive illnesses. After training as a paediatric nurse and studying disability education in Bremen, Thiele completed her doctorate in 2007 on the acquisition of written language by children with severe movement and communication disorders. The scientist researched and taught as a visiting professor at Berlin's Humboldt University and at the University of Leipzig, where she was involved in a diversity concept as a senate representative for students with disabilities. In 2017, she accepted the call to Oldenburg. By focussing on the participation of children with severe physical impairments on the one hand and health impairments on the other, Thiele combines two fields of research that are usually separate in special education. One focus is on children with neurological paralysis or a cancer diagnosis. Thiele has been Vice Dean for Research at School I - School of Educational and Social Sciences since April. Thiele turned down a call to the University of Würzburg in favour of Oldenburg.
The other Vice Presidents are:
Prof Dr Verena Pietzner has been a university lecturer in the didactics of chemistry at the University of Oldenburg since 2014 and heads the teaching and learning laboratory "CHEMOL - Chemistry in Oldenburg". Her research interests include creativity and the use of computers in chemistry lessons, interdisciplinary chemistry lessons and chemistry-related career guidance. Pietzner has been Dean of Studies at School V - School of Mathematics and Science since 2017 and is responsible for Studies, Teaching and Internationalisation on the Presidential Board.
Prof Dr Martin Fränzle has been a university lecturer for "Hybrid Systems" at the University of Oldenburg since 2004. His work focuses on mathematical modelling and the testing and construction of safe and reliable cyber-physical systems, i.e. the fusion of physical objects with information technology to create "smart" infrastructures such as autonomous vehicles, production facilities or supply networks. Fränzle has been Vice President for Research, Transfer and Digitalisation since 2020.
Jörg Stahlmann began his career at the University of Oldenburg in 1994 in the Finance Department, which he headed from 2007. He completed a degree in business administration on the side. In mid-2013, Stahlmann took over the position of Vice President for Administration and Finance - initially on an interim basis.