Prof. Ursula Staudinger, Rector of TUD Dresden University of Technology since 2020, is one of six nominees for the title University Manager of the Year 2024. The jury explicitly praises Staudinger for “powerfully driving the cultural modernization of TU Dresden like hardly any other incumbent rector in recent years,” and developing her university in “an outstanding balancing act between excellent fundamental research and innovation.” This sense of balance also characterizes her positioning of TUD between internationality and regionality, particularly in her support for the regional transformation of Lusatia, as well as her managerial style, which combines participation with strong leadership.

Visionary leadership and structural innovation

Her colleagues on the University Executive Board describe Staudinger as strategic and goal-oriented, committed and assertive. She herself places particular emphasis on the value of teamwork and the distribution of responsibility in a modern university management. Staudinger considers the management of a University of Excellence in the 21^st century to be “a highly complex management task”. Staudinger was born in Nuremberg and had been working at Columbia University in the US for several years before coming to TUD. Right at the beginning of her term of office, she strategically realigned the TUD University Executive Board and expanded it by introducing innovative areas of responsibility. One such area of responsibility is University Culture, the first of its kind in Germany. It specifically fosters TUD's institutional values and places a strong emphasis on internationalization and diversity as key priorities.

Cultural change and societal commitment

Ursula Staudinger sees her university as a place where research and society meet. Her colleagues from the university leadership team describe her as a visionary who “plays a decisive role in shaping changes and steering TUD in the right direction.” This attitude is also reflected in her societal commitment. Since taking office, she official registered and led the annual human chain through Dresden’s city center in her role as Rector of TUD. The human chain is formed every year to commemorate the victims of the bombing of Dresden in February 1945 and the millions of victims of National Socialism. With her clear democratic stance, Staudinger demonstrates how crucial she considers TUD's role as a stakeholder in society.

Science communication as dialogue with civil society

This aspect is also reflected in science communication. For Ursula Staudinger, it is one of the core tasks of a University of Excellence. She emphasizes that science “must be made visible in order to promote dialogue with civil society and to illustrate the added value of research for our society.” Science communication at TUD is primarily anchored with the Chief Communication Officer, a new position established in 2021. The CCO is responsible for communication strategies and for all central communication, in particular for innovative media tools such as videos and social media. The Vice-Rectorate University Culture establishes TUD as a player in public discourse and promotes dialogue with NGOs and citizens. The Vice-Rector Academic Affairs collaborates closely with the school liaison office to facilitate personal contact between pupils and researchers and to create opportunities for active participation in science starting in elementary school. The Rector also supports science communication initiatives from the Faculties and Clusters of Excellence, such as the award-winning Escape Room on Quantum Materials.

Internationally networked Aging Science expert with entrepreneurial spirit

Staudinger's academic career has taken her to numerous national and international institutions. She was Vice President and Founding Dean of the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development at Jacobs University in Bremen for ten years, and founded the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University in New York in 2013. There, she taught and conducted research as Director and President of the International Longevity Center USA. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the plasticity of the aging process and the potentials of aging in a society in which people live significantly longer. As an aging expert involved in the debate on demographic change, Staudinger emphasizes the relevance and development of wisdom, productivity and insight over the entire lifespan.

Cooperation projects and network structures

Her peers praise her ability to communicate complex scientific findings and TUD's strategic goals in a way that is both easy to understand and solution-oriented. They describe Staudinger as “decisive and assertive” – two attributes that she has demonstrated in her numerous structural reforms. The implementation of new cooperation projects are a testament to her strategic foresight. She is strongly committed to the topics of compliance and leadership culture. She also launched the TUD | Lusatia Campus, a project that uses TUD's innovative strength to support structural change in the Lusatia brown coal region, transforming it into a high-tech location. The strategic appointment of chief officers and the development of network structures in science communication contribute to TUD's lasting modernization. In doing so, she is networking the university at both the national and international level through collaborations with leading institutions and strategic alliances.

According to the selection jury, Ursula M. Staudinger has significantly shaped TUD through her strategic innovative strength, her goal-oriented leadership style, and her commitment to societal responsibility. She has a clear vision for the university's future and shows how excellence and societal dialogue intertwine.

Background: Selection process for the “University Manager of the Year 2024”

The nominees for the “University Manager of the Year 2024” award were put forward in several stages. A data-based pre-selection identified universities that show particularly strong positive development dynamics. In the second stage of the selection process, all of the university leaders identified in the pre-selection were asked about their understanding of leadership and other aspects such as science communication. To add another perspective, their colleagues on the leadership team and the respective chairpersons of the university councils were asked about the leadership performance of their university leaders and about their interaction within the team.

All of the results were used as a basis for the jury's decision on the nomination of the six finalists. The “University Manager of the Year” award has been presented since 2008, and since 2013 it has been jointly awarded by the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT and the CHE Centre for Higher Education.

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