Future of PH Gmünd: New structural plan in focus until 2031!

Future of PH Gmünd: New structural plan in focus until 2031!

On July 9, 2025, the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart held the first meeting of its steering group to develop the new structural and development plan (SEP) for the years 2027 to 2031. Like the University of Education in Schwäbisch Gmünd reported, this plan provides the strategic framework for the university's continued development in various critical areas.

The SEP defines central goals, measures and structures in the areas of teaching, research, internationalization, digitalization and equality. It also takes organizational aspects such as personnel development, infrastructure and governance into account. A particularly noteworthy point is the planned systematic monitoring, which is to be introduced at the beginning of the process to monitor success.

Organization of the steering group

The steering group, which is responsible for overall coordination, consists of tandems: one member from the Senate and the Rectorate for each development area. The group's main tasks include making decisions on chapter templates, setting goals and measures, and being responsible for the final editing of the plan.

The intensive work on the SEP will take place in various working groups (WGs), which are made up of 10 to 12 members from all status groups. These working groups will meet three to four times from October to January to develop five development goals, each with three corresponding measures. Cross-sectional topics such as equality, digitalization and artificial intelligence are systematically included in this process.

Development areas and milestones

Each development area is led by specific tandems. The six main areas are:

• Personal-, Organisationsentwicklung und Infrastruktur: Edgar Buhl und Claudia Scheurenbrand
• Studium und Lehre: Jana Krüger, Petra Lührmann und Michael Haas
• Forschung und Förderung des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses: Marita Kampshoff und Marlen Niederberger
• Transfer und Weiterbildung: Marita Kampshoff und Birte Dohnke
• Internationalisierung: Kim-Patrick Sabla-Dimitrov und Daniel Rellstab
• Gleiche-Chancen-Plan: Kim-Patrick Sabla-Dimitrov und Margarete Menz

An important milestone will be the PH Future Conference on July 30, 2025, where the university's mission statement will be developed. The development of the chapter templates and the organization of the working group's work are planned for August and September 2025. The official launch of the new development plan will take place on October 15, 2025 with a kick-off event open to the university.

Innovative approaches and integration into committee work

With regard to innovative forms of work, there will be an intranet survey in which participants can complete the sentence “We create education through…”. The results of this survey are incorporated into the development of the mission statement. AI-supported monitoring is also used, which includes Microsoft Copilot. This monitoring will help check consistency, support goal pursuit and facilitate documentation.

A central goal of the new structure and development plan is to strengthen the link with the work of the committees. SEP goals should be integrated into draft resolutions and status reports in order to ensure a close connection between planning and implementation, as is also the case within the framework of the structural and development plan HFT Stuttgart is presented.