Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age: Continued funding for successful networking

6. Juli 2021

BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) funding for the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD) - Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age - will be extended until the end of 2025. The productive, cross-university exchange between university members of various status groups will thus continue in established as well as further developed and new formats.

The services offered by the Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age support universities in meeting the challenges of digitalisation. The focus is on students, teachers, support staff and university management. In the HFD network, which has been growing since 2014, they exchange ideas, share examples of good practice and work together on solutions for university teaching in the digital age.

Further funding will continue and develop existing formats such as online discussion series, summer schools, network meetings and the HFDnet portal for digital networking. New offerings will also be introduced in the third HFD funding phase. Local meetings of interested parties in university regions are planned in order to broaden existing knowledge, as well as to collect and process subject-specific experiences in the digitalisation of teaching in the different subject cultures. In doing so, the HFD benefits from the expertise available in the network and uses the knowledge gained from the new formats to prepare its future work in subject consulting. The new local groups aim at creating a train-the-trainer effect to disseminate and apply knowledge developed in the framework of the HFD at universities.

"We are very pleased that we will continue to support universities in the area of digitalisation within the framework of the Higher Education Forum," says Martin Rademacher, Head of Project for the Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age at the German Rectors' Conference. "Digitalisation is a significant cross-cutting issue in all of the HRK's key subject areas."  

In the Think and Do Tank, the HFD is dedicating itself to equal opportunities, accessibility and data sovereignty at the start of the new funding phase. The intensive work in these areas enables university members and cross-university actors to make universities more accessible, inclusive and respectful of data protection.

The Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age (HFD) orchestrates the discourse on higher education in the digital age. As a key initiator, it informs, advises and networks players from universities, politics, business and society.

The three consortium partners, the Stifterverband, the CHE Centre for Higher Education and the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), will receive around €15 million in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research over the next four years to expand successful, cross-university community cooperation.

Information: www.hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/en

Contact

Martin Rademacher
Head of Project
Forum for Higher Education in the Digital Age (German Rectors' Conference)
Tel. +49 (0) 228 887-175
rademacher@hrk.de   

Susanne Schilden
Press Officer, Head of Communications
German Rectors' Conference
Tel. +49 (0) 228 887-152
schilden@hrk.de