On 18-19 September 2017, the Centre for Higher Education Futures (CHEF) visited the Hamburg Center for University Teaching and Learning (Hamburger Zentrum für Universitäres Lehren und Lernen, or HUL), which is part of the University of Hamburg.

HUL is a research and development centre that carries out research into the development of higher education policy and practice, especially within Germany but also internationally. The centre runs the newly established Master of Higher Education, and has students from all over Germany. 

The result of the meeting was that several overlaps in research interests were identified, in particular concerning the use of digital technologies in higher education learning and teaching, and the dialogue between the university and external stakeholders through the Master of Higher Education degree programme.

Thanks to the Master’s programme, HUL has attracted a host of participants from a variety of academic and professional contexts, coming together from all over Germany to research and discuss the policy-making processes of the German higher education sector and implications for learning and teaching practices within higher education programmes.

CHEF has agreed to have a number of follow-up meetings with HUL on Skype to identify more specific opportunities for research collaboration; and a follow-up visit in Aarhus in the spring of 2018 has also been agreed.

Participants

CHEF was represented by Deputy Director of CHEF Søren Bengtsen, associate professor Christian Dalsgaard, who is a core member of CHEF and associate professor Tina Bering Keiding and assistant professor Hanne Balsby Tingholm, who are both associate members of CHEF.

HUL was represented by Director and Professor Gabi Reinmann, Dr. Eileen Lübcke, Dr. Tobias Schmohl, Dr. Sebastian Fiedler, and doctoral student Anna Heudorfer.