Award for excellent university teaching: TUD researcher Nora Huxmann honored with 2025 Saxony Teaching Award

Nora Huxmann, Junior Professor at the Institute of Landscape Architecture of TUD Dresden University of Technology, was today presented with the 2025 Saxony Teaching Award. The award recognizes her approach of encouraging independent and self-directed learning, with a consistent focus on the students. The award is conferred by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism.

This year, the “Individualization of Teaching” was the focal point of the award, which honors teaching that especially considers the different starting points and needs of students, helping to make learning more efficient and ultimately to successfully complete their studies.

Innovative approaches to urban development in Hoyerswerda

Huxmann received the award for her series of lectures on urban development in Hoyerswerda, which she conducted with landscape architecture students at TUD. The lecture series involved an on-site project in Hoyerswerda, a -Summer School, and a Fall School. The class aimed to generate innovative and sustainable approaches to urban development in Hoyerswerda and to identify opportunities arising from structural change in the region. Part of this involved redesigning former school grounds at the planetarium in Hoyerswerda's Neustadt district. The students examined a residential complex from the socialist era and its transformation through demolition measures, demographic trends, climate-appropriate plant selection, and rainwater management.

From close supervision to self-organized project development

They worked on real-world issues across different phases, switching from close supervision to self-organized project development. The students chose their topics in small groups and were responsible for determining the course of the project themselves. In weekly sessions or weeks of intensive study, students not only determined the content and agenda, but also reflected on their learning progress in feedback rounds. The results from the Fall School are currently on display at the Zuse-Computer-Museum in Hoyerswerda.

© SMWK

The jury was impressed by the event's educational approach, which spanned theory, research, and practical application in a real-world setting, incorporating reflective learning grounded in specialist subject knowledge.  By combining opportunities for students to make decisions, learn with their peers, and receive personalized mentoring, the jury stated that professor Huxmann created an adaptive, self-directed learning environment, promoting subject-specific and methodological skills in an ideal fashion.

Junior Professor Nora Huxmann describes her approach to teaching as follows: "It's important to me that teaching and learning take place on an equal footing. I have tremendous respect for what students can contribute, and I have learned something new in every class I have taught so far.”

Professor Niels Modler, Vice-Rector Academic Affairs Across the Life Course, TUD: “We are delighted that our colleague Ms. Huxmann has received this award. It shows that innovative teaching can be the starting point for projects that bring about positive change in society. At TU Dresden, we strive to provide our lecturers with the best possible foundations and support for this.”

Saxony’s Minister of Science Sebastian Gemkow congratulated the award winners on October 24, 2025 in an event at Chemnitz University of Technology. "Excellent teaching thrives on creativity, passion, and the belief that learning is always a personal encounter. It creates spaces where each individual can develop to their full potential. Our award winners have lived up to this standard in the most outstanding ways. They respond to students' strengths and needs with great sensitivity, have developed concepts that open up new approaches to learning, and leverage the potential of digital tools to create flexible, transparent, and individualized learning processes. In this way, they show what contemporary university teaching could look like.”

About Junior Professor Nora Huxmann

Nora Huxmann has been Junior Professor in Planting Design in landscape architecture at TU Dresden since 2023. In addition to the use of location-appropriate plants, her research focuses on livable, climate-change-resilient cities as well as the unique impact of green spaces on health. She explores these issues in both urban and rural environments, within the context of structural change, and increasing urbanization. For her New City Concepts project in Hoyerswerda, Huxmann was already awarded the Teaching Prize by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of TU Dresden.

About the Saxony Teaching Award

Since 2014, the Saxony Teaching Award has been conferred biennially by the Saxony State Ministry of Science, Culture, and Tourism Each of the categories – universities, universities of applied sciences, music and art colleges, the Duale Hochschule Sachsen in Saxony, and teacher training – is endowed with a prize of EUR 5,000.

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