Academic Staff Development, which was set up in 2008 within the framework of the Excellence Initiative, coordinates the university’s academic staff development strategy, its efforts to promote junior researchers and its educational development strategy. We offer academic staff development services for researchers and teachers at all career levels. We follow an individual as well as structural approach: Coaching and training is available to individuals, while we provide strategic consultation and advice on university structures and processes to the university’s institutions and leadership. Our work is a core component of the university-wide staff development concept. In 2018, the Academic Staff Development unit was nominated as best practice within the EURAXESS pilot programme of career development centers.
One of the reasons our staff development is so successful, is because of our in-house coaching service, which is provided by trained academic coaches. With the extensive opportunities that we offer individuals from the first day of their doctorate all the way to their professorship, Academic Staff Development is central to the University of Konstanz’s concept for the advancement of junior researchers and the implementation of its leadership culture. We provide a broad range of support to the university’s teaching staff in the area of educational development, covering, for example, media-assisted learning and the digitisation of teaching. As a result, lecturers can further develop and implement innovate teaching formats and thus contribute to the university’s vibrant teaching and learning culture. We provide conceptual support to the university in matters pertaining to the advancement of junior researchers. Our welcome and orientation programmes, which also extend to international students and researchers, contribute widely to the culture of appreciation that is unique to the University of Konstanz.
Mission
Academic Staff Development was established specifically to support junior researchers with reaching their potential and thus to help the university meet its responsibilities towards them. Since its inception in 2008, Academic Staff Development has expanded its services continuously. Since the merger of academic staff development and university didactics in 2010, we have been able to implement a unified strategy for the development of key research, teaching and management competencies. Besides individual support services, this strategy also encompasses advice on the structural development of university institutions and management. We have been able to provide support to university professors, and especially to newly appointed professors, since 2012. It is our goal and aspiration to be a first port of call for all the university’s researchers when it comes to supporting junior researchers, career planning and organising everyday university life. Whatever your question or issue, our competent staff will be more than happy to provide you with the information, expertise and continuing education opportunities you require.
Target groups
Our personalised services and events are open to all researchers and lecturers at the University of Konstanz. All prospective doctoral researchers, doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers, heads of junior research groups, junior professors and professors are eligible to participate. Whichever group you currently belong to, you can be certain to benefit from target-group-specific services and offers. Our individually tailored services have been conceived specifically for newly appointed professors, researchers on their way to a professorship, internationally mobile junior researchers as well as all those considering alternative career paths.
Support with university structures and processes is available to university institutions and individuals in leadership roles.
Our expert team
Our interdisciplinary team combines research experience with expertise in staff development, the advancement of junior researchers, university didactics and educational development, as well as considerable gender-equity and diversity management competencies. Our in-house coaching services are conducted by certified academic coaches, each with significant coaching experience. We place particular value on providing quick, flexible and result-oriented support. We strive to be competent advisers and sparring partners who treat any questions or issues you raise with us in the strictest confidence. In order to be able to support researchers and teachers individually and efficiently, we work closely with the university’s other central services.
Federal and state-wide involvement
It is thanks to Academic Staff Development that the federal network for university staff development, UniNetzPE, was established, which we lead jointly with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. We actively participate in the federal network for tutor education and are members of the state networks for staff development and graduate research facilities as well as the Hochschuldidaktikzentrum Baden-Württemberg (HDZ). We regularly publish and hold lectures across the German-speaking countries and thereby contribute to the exchange of information and expertise in the areas of academic staff development and university didactics.