The plans of the new President of Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences

Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Vomberg succeeded Brigitte Grass as President of Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and Deputy Chairwoman of Wissensregion Düsseldorf on June 1, 2019.
In an interview with Dr. Christina Rauh, she talks about how she perceives the Düsseldorf region, what goals she would like to pursue in the coming years – and what she gives young people in the Wissensregion Düsseldorf. Christina Rauh: You are coming to the Wissensregion Düsseldorf as Head of Social Affairs for the Aachen city region.
What attracts you to the state capital, especially with regard to the local knowledge landscape? Edeltraud Vomberg: Our Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences is so diverse that I am really excited about the ideas that are being developed and spun out here.
With the new campus, we have excellent options here to interlink science and practice and to do this in an interdisciplinary way between the departments, but also in close cooperation with stakeholders in the city and region.
Even if I still have to find my way around the city, I can already see that it offers numerous institutions in the educational landscape, some of which cooperate with each other.
The proximity to the various scientific institutions, the proximity to state institutions and the location in the middle of various other universities of applied sciences in the Rhineland also give us many opportunities for further development.

Vomberg’s goals: transdisciplinarity, digitalization and lifelong learning

C. Rauh: What plans do you have for Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences – where do you want HSD to go in the coming years under your leadership? E. Vomberg: There are various goals that I would like to pursue.
The first goal is both internal and external.
I would like to promote internal cooperation – especially across departments – in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary areas in order to make problems and challenges of modern society more solvable.
The second goal is to realize the interdisciplinary Center for Digitalization and Digitality together with many HSD stakeholders who have already set out on this path.
We are well on the way to achieving this, but we still need a great deal of support with the realization, especially the financing, including for another new building on campus.
If everything goes well, we will soon (winter semester 20/21, summer semester 21 or winter semester 21/22) be able to gradually offer various courses that provide completely new profiles for professional skills in the digital world.
And my third goal is to strengthen dual and continuing education courses, as I see a high demand for lifelong learning, which we can certainly help to meet.
However, this also requires resources that are currently still tied up in the high number of students on undergraduate courses.
This will certainly be a long-term development.
I also have other ideas, but I’d prefer to first clarify within the university whether and who wants to go along with them.
I want to involve the departments and administration and their staff in the developments, because they have to like the ideas and implement them together with me.
It wouldn’t work otherwise.

“You can learn the most from things and people that are different.”

C. Rauh: The formats of Wissensregion Düsseldorf, such as the Innovation Semester, are always cooperative at their core – across disciplines as well as across universities and industries.
What added value do you see in such collaborations, for the institutions such as your university, but also for the participating students and professionals in Düsseldorf?
What can you learn from each other? E. Vomberg: Primarily, I see this as an opportunity to gain experience that goes beyond their own horizons.
The young people are introduced to new areas of knowledge, can try out new formats and meet people they would not otherwise encounter.
They can enter other institutional contexts and experience themselves in new roles.
I would like to see young people in vocational training also take advantage of this opportunity, not so that they can go on to study, but so that they can experience working together in teams made up of people from very different educational and institutional backgrounds.
What they can learn from each other is above all to have respect for each other and to get to know each other’s ways of thinking.
I believe that we need this more than ever in our current social situation: the ability to change perspectives, to respect and recognize those who are different, who work and learn differently and who live differently. C. Rauh: If you could give young people in the Wissensregion Düsseldorf a message to take away with them, what would it be? E. Vomberg: Take every opportunity to gain new and challenging experiences.
These will make you stronger, both for the many professional challenges that are yet to come and for those in your private life.
You can learn the most from things and people that are different.