Make your university even better! With “Change it!”, a new portal is now online on the Hof University of Applied Sciences website, where students can now submit concrete suggestions for improvement on specific topics every semester and thus participate directly in the change management of their university. The best suggestions of the respective semester will then be processed in cooperation with the project management course in the Faculty of Engineering and awarded a prize by the university management. In the winter semester 2021/22, the initial focus will be on the major topic of “Digitization of processes in student administration”.
Hof University of Applied Sciences has been asking its students for help in further developing the institution since 2012. Already in the initiative “Move!” 230 concrete suggestions were collected over the years, of which quite a few also found practical implementation: “The deposit ring system at the trash cans or the installation of the drinking water station go back to these suggestions, among others. A total of 40% of the submissions were actually implemented – that’s a great rate,” reports Martina Schmid, who is responsible for the improvement management projects at Hof University of Applied Sciences – together with the Vice President, Prof. Dr. Dietmar Wolff.
Thematic control for greater effectiveness
One problem arose, however: “The proposals naturally diverged widely in terms of subject matter. In addition, there was a certain change in the proposals a few years ago: Fewer and fewer individual measures were proposed, but more and more elaborate projects – this naturally made processing much more difficult. We have therefore now decided to direct the great student commitment specifically to certain future topics,” Martina Schmid continues. In the future, there will be one specific topic per semester for which concrete suggestions for improvement are to be submitted.
“Digitization between university and students” first topic
For the current winter semester, this topic has also already been determined: “The very first topic is dedicated to digitalization.” And explaining
We know that many processes in the exchange between university and students are not yet finally digitized and we would like to ask our students where they see the greatest potential here to make the administration of their studies more paperless, sustainable and uncomplicated.”
Martina Schmid, Change 4.0 & Projects
Collaboration with teaching
With the approach, therefore, the name is now also changing in improvement management: from now on, “Move!” will become “Change it – Stud”. The status traffic light (red, yellow, green) that has been used up to now, with which submitters can track the processing status of their suggestion at any time, will also be retained in the new program. In addition, the implementation of good proposals, as already practiced since the winter semester 2015/2016, will take place in cooperation with the course “Project Management” of Prof. Dr. Manuela Wimmer, Prof. Dr. Dietmar Wolff and now Prof. Torsten Stapelkamp
We want to continue the successful way and thus make the lecture Project Management a real practical experience for the students.”
Prof. Dr. Manuela Wimmer
Photo: private (l.) and Hof University of Applied Sciences (r.);
“Within the framework of this collaboration, more sophisticated project concepts in particular are to be developed and made ready for implementation at the university. “I am looking forward to many new approaches to make our processes in student administration, such as notifications via PRIMUSS, even better,” says Prof. Dr. Dietmar Wolff, looking optimistically to the future.
Award for the best ideas remains
Of course, however, some tried-and-tested things will remain: “It is still the case that suggestions can be made anonymously, even to the public, if they so wish. In concrete terms, this means that the name will then reliably only be known to me as the person responsible for the project, as I naturally need the opportunity for queries.” It will also be retained that the best suggestions will be honored by the university management and awarded with a voucher. The old proposals from the “Move!” system will also not be lost in any way. They will be archived and can be accessed internally at any time.
Submit proposals now
But now change management and the university administration are looking forward to receiving many productive suggestions on the topic of digitization
Use “Change it!-Stud” and send us your ideas for meaningful improvements in the digitization of processes between the university and students – we’re excited!”
Prof. Dr. Dietmar Wolff
Go to the website of Change it!-Stud!
