Mission Statement Digitisation

Digitisation is a fundamental transformation driver of the present day and is understood at the university as both a challenge and an impetus. It is geared towards sustainable development and is anchored as a core topic in all areas. The four cross-cutting fields identified in the guiding principle(s) of digitisation enable the inclusion of all important levels of the university: they illustrate the understanding of digitisation represented here, which comprises new technical aspects and human-centred design as well as changing social, organisational and cultural practices. At the core of the guiding principle(s) are impetus & sociality, competence & education, communication & infrastructure, resilience & security.

Impulse & sociality

In the context of the current social transformation, the university has the task of concretising digitisation and anchoring it at all levels. The aim is to identify and take into account new developments and changing conditions, to design digital work, research and study processes in an application-oriented manner and to help shape them beyond the university. The university sees the associated competences as central building blocks for forward-looking skills in the areas of teaching, research and transfer. All members of the university should be prepared for shaping an increasingly digitised living and working environment, depending on their respective subject or area. For research, this means rethinking and further developing research objects, methods and the handling of research data. Social relevance is reflected in the transfer and exchange of findings with the academic, business and civic public. By way of example, this means utilising and supporting the opportunities offered by current AI procedures to support research and teaching, open source and forms of digital publicity and sovereignty.

Competence & education

The digital competences of all status groups are supported in order to deal responsibly with the transformations resulting from digitisation in education, research and the professional world and to question them critically. Digitisation should take into account aspects of equal opportunities. In the knowledge that algorithms can always harbour risks of unequal treatment, all technologies and procedures are examined for discrimination risks prior to their introduction and modified appropriately if potential for discrimination is identified.

Digitality is considered and strived for as an integral part of the curricula of all departments, continuing university education and human resources development at the university. For teaching, the design of digitally supported teaching/learning scenarios that promote learning is crucial. For day-to-day research and administration, this means incorporating the responsible handling and dissemination of data.

To this end, the pass training and further education programmes for learning digital competences for all those working at the university will be further developed and expanded using innovative methods.

Communication & infrastructure

Digitisation should enable and deepen interactive, international, hybrid and barrier-free communication among all university members and beyond in the teaching and research context. In this process, the focus is on the necessary infrastructure and its accessibility as well as on all necessary digital tools, platforms and a confident use of them. These are to be supported by a sustainable, tiered range of services offered by central and decentralised service centres and employees.

For the entire university IT infrastructure, attention is paid to the careful use of resources and energy both in the procurement and in the application and disposal process. In the process, opportunities for improvement and potential savings are implemented and university members are sensitised to and involved in the implementation through communication measures.

From a technical perspective, the IT infrastructure forms the foundation for digitisation and its implementation. Service quality, including aspects of availability and performance, is maintained at a high level for all IT services for users. The IT organisation is being further developed as part of digitisation and supports agile forms of organisation.

Resilience & security

Human and technical resilience as well as security are central to the digital transformation at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. All IT security and data protection frameworks are to be defined university-wide and expanded for the secure application of digital technologies. With technical resilience, IT services are designed to be fail-safe even in stressful situations, e.g. through the use of redundant structures at all technical levels as part of classic IT architecture management and the consistent pursuit of standardisation strategies. Human resilience comprises the training of skills to deal appropriately with digital innovations. For university members, this means being sensitised to their own digital actions through structures and offers at the university and being able to reflect on and assess the consequences and benefits of digital changes themselves.