More student common rooms! – An interview with Vice President Prof. Regine Keller

In the words of Prof. Regine Keller: “We need more common rooms for the students!”. As TUM Vice President for Student Affairs and Teaching and a qualified architect, she knows what she is talking about. She has been the Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Public Space since 2005. What are her goals in the field of Student Affairs and Teaching? What importance does she attach to students’ opinions? TUMstudinews interviewed Professor Regine Keller.

TUMstudinews: As Vice President for Student Affairs and Teaching, you have been on the University Board since October 2011. What conclusions do you draw at the end of the first 100 days in office?

Regine Keller: Favorable ones! Of particular importance is the receptiveness to current developments. Although we create continuity for the students in core matters, there are lots of points on a day-to-day basis that call for an ad hoc response. It is only by acting straight away that we can show we are capable of responding with “seismographic precision” to new situations. At the same time, however, it is also important not to lose sight of our main role of creating optimum conditions for the students.

TUMstudinews: Have you settled in yet?

Regine Keller: Yes, I’ve arrived! The Excellence Initiative, the weeks in November devoted to the reviewing process, proved to be a great help. I could not have wished for a better start. I’m overwhelmed at the terrific spirit that everyone showed. The term TUMfamily is not just an empty word – I was really aware of the sense of common purpose in the teaching and research activities during that phase!

TUMstudinews: The Student Service Center (SSZ) is also part of your remit now. It represents the most important point of contact for the students and needs to be appropriately equipped. Do you see that as one of your goals while you are in office?

Regine Keller: The SSZ accompanies the students from the moment they matriculate till they receive their certificates – from the first to the very last day of their time at TUM, in other words. My thoughts are very occupied with this “life cycle” at the moment. Is the SSZ adequately equipped for this purpose? That is of particular importance in view of the enormous increase in the number of students due to the double cohorts of school-leavers and the abolition of compulsory military service. Besides that, we also have to be prepared for an increasingly more diversified student landscape. Over the course of the past few years, for example, there has been a noticeable trend away from the linear succession of education, careers experience and starting a family towards a pattern of life where different phases overlap or alternate with one another. This naturally leads to a greater need for flexible study programs. TUM has to cater for the needs of the individual students which, of course, calls for extra competence and capacities.

TUMstudinews: A mission statement for good teaching and learning practice has recently been developed at TUM, which contains the “house rules”, so to speak. What, in your opinion, are the distinguishing features of good teaching practice?

Regine Keller: It is imperative to link research and tuition together in such a way as to form a cohesive whole. And it is also about clarifying the roles between lecturers and undergraduates – they are partners who should remain on the same level. There has to be give and take. The rules apply to both sides. This includes being prepared to assess their mutual work. This is a difficult aspect, of course, because any criticism of oneself always causes ambivalent feelings. So we have to continue our dialogue as to why the evaluations are not only important for central quality management but also, and in particular, from the point of view of augmenting teaching skills.

TUMstudinews: Excellence Initiative, science awards, industrial projects: the professors are up to their eyebrows in research work. With all this work, how can we ensure that they don’t get fed up with teaching?

Regine Keller: ProLehre – our in-house advanced didactic training program for university teaching staff - is a very important component here at TUM. The idea behind the wide range of topics is not only to qualify the lecturers but to stop them losing interest in teaching. How can I continually vary the contents of my lessons and keep the students involved? Appreciating good tuition is another central aspect. It is that which inspires and motivates them while helping the lecturers to identify with their role.

TUMstudinews: How can good teaching practice be rewarded?

Regine Keller: The goal is to foster and convey a teaching and learning culture. We have recently set up two prizes which were awarded in 2011 for the first time: the Ernst Otto Fischer Prize and the Teachers’ Sabbatical Leave Award (Freisemester für Lehre). Both awards give the teacher the opportunity to devise new concepts and implement them without delay. Tuition must be appealing and play a role in the ranking of a scientific career. It has to be possible to achieve gratifications through good teaching practice. Another point that concerns me is whether there are sufficient incentives for good teaching practice for the scientific workforce. In this respect, there is still a lot to be done.

TUMstudinews: The federal and state governments want to use the “Quality Pact for Teaching” ("Qualitätspakt Lehre") sponsoring scheme to improve the conditions for students of higher education. Last year’s “TUM: Teaching Agenda” project proved to be a great success and raised 16 million Euros in funds. How will students benefit from this money in the future?

Regine Keller: The TUM: Teaching Agenda covers a wide range of schemes that are designed to improve the standards of tuition and the conditions for studying on various levels. The measures are implemented directly at the different phases - in other words, they range from target-group specific advisory services through to the central examination management. There are plenty of schemes at TUM that are already firmly established where the funds will be used to expand existing facilities, such as the Ideas and Feedback Management or our Mentoring Program for freshers and prospective students organized by more advanced students. In addition, there are numerous new measures that we can now realize with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research: from equipping a Master’s students’ guidance bureau to the introduction of flexible curriculum models.

TUMstudinews: How do you incorporate students’ views into your decisions?

Regine Keller: I am in close contact with the students – via email and regular, informal get-togethers. The students address me directly, so there is a continual dialogue and exchange of views. It is crucial for me to listen to the students opinions, and I attach a great deal of importance to their feedback. I am obliged to back up my decisions and those taken by the board. We hold lots of discussions - and we obviously get into arguments sometimes, as well. In situations like that, it means that we are unable to reach a common consensus, of course, and everyone sticks to his/her own opinion. But it is vital that we keep up the discourse.

TUMstudinews: Students themselves know best where the problems lie. What hot topics do you see at the moment?

Regine Keller: Needless to say, one burning issue concerns accommodation for students in Munich. We want to join forces with the students and other participants and launch a new initiative and push the municipal councils to act. What is seriously lacking in Munich is socially compatible housing. It is a structural problem: there are not enough affordable plots of land. Student accommodation is not a priority.

Another important subject is the lack of common rooms for students on TUM’s various campuses. The students need room for learning. It is not only lecture halls that are missing but also common rooms where they can meet up and revise together or swap ideas. Contrary to common belief that communities nowadays are created in cyberspace via the Internet, students want to get to know each other in person. For this purpose, we need to create venues – workshops, so to speak – where fresh ideas can evolve. The Vorhoelzer Forum at the Faculty of Architecture on the main campus is a good example. Its existence goes back partly to a student initiative and it is extremely popular.

TUMstudinews: How much time do you invest in your office as Vice President for Student Affairs and Teaching?

Regine Keller: At the moment, this responsibility takes up four full working days of my time. I cannot say yet whether that is a representative figure. I have just one day per week left for my academic work in the Department. I have not asked to be exempted from these duties. It means, unfortunately, that I am no longer able to look after my students so well. But I am very glad that I was able to appoint another assistant in the Department. I still hold my lectures, however. That is of particular importance to me. I wish to keep on teaching myself so as not to get out of touch.

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