University of Tübingen: University of Tübingen elects new leadership in April
The Senate and University Council of the University of Tübingen are expected to elect a new rector in April 2022. The election is necessary because the previous incumbent, Professor Bernd Engler, will retire on September 30, 2022. As the chairman of the university council, Bernhard Sibold, explained on Thursday in Tübingen, the decision on the election date will be made in meetings of the senate and university council on March 31. According to the current status of planning, the election could take place on April 7th or 27th.
“For the University of Tübingen, the forthcoming change in management is a deep turning point,” said Sibold. “When Professor Engler retires, he will have been at the helm of the University of Tübingen for 16 years.” During this time, his outstanding commitment and his strategic foresight have put the university in the group of the world’s 100 best universities and in the nationwide an exclusive group of universities of excellence. This underlines the importance of the office for the further development of the entire university.
Sibold pointed out that the modalities according to which the election of a new rector is prepared and carried out are regulated in detail in the State Higher Education Act. The relevant bodies for the election are the Senate and the University Council. The election is prepared by a joint selection committee chaired by the chair of the University Council, to which the Senate and University Council each delegate six members. The task of the selection committee is to design the application process, conduct interviews with the applicants, create a list of candidates and coordinate this with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science.
“Right from the start, the selection committee agreed that we wanted to find the best possible person for this important position,” said Sibold, who is also the chairman of the selection committee. The position was therefore advertised in German and international media. In addition, the university hired an international recruitment agency specializing in recruiting excellent executives in order to specifically identify and approach potential candidates for the office of rector. A total of eight applications were then received by the end of the application period, one of them from abroad. Of these eight people, five were invited to interviews that took place before the selection committee on February 15 and 16 in Tübingen. The commission then decided to propose three candidates for the election committees, the Senate and the University Council. “I am confident that we will be able to reach agreement on the election proposal with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science by the beginning of March,” said Sibold. As soon as this is available, the university will invite you to an information event open to the university, where the applicants will introduce themselves and answer questions.
Essential steps in the finding process:
June 29/July 15, 2021: Election of a selection committee by the Senate and University Council
July 19, 2021: Constitutive meeting of the selection committee
From November 4th, 2021: Publication of the job advertisement (Die ZEIT, Staatsanzeiger BW, German University Newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Indeed.com, Nature-Jobs.com)
December 5th, 2021: End of the application period. A total of eight applications, one of them from abroad
February 15/16, 2022: Interviews with five applicants, preparation of a nomination
March 30, 2022: University public presentation of the candidates
March 31, 2022: Presentation of the candidates to the Senate and University Council, determination of the election date
07/27 April 2022: Election of a new Rector
October 1, 2022: A new Rector takes office