Governing Bodies & Co.
Administrative bodies at Witten/Herdecke University
Self-administration university
The administrative bodies and committees are an expression of Witten/Herdecke University’s self-administration. They shape the university’s content and objectives and reflect the ongoing discourse. They are composed of members from all groups within the university: professors, students, academic staff and administrative staff. As a rule, the various groups of university members elect representatives to the administrative bodies, who then represent their respective interests there.
Executive Board
Caught between a humanistic mission, academic rigour and an entrepreneurial ethos, it is the Executive Board’s task, together with the university community, to channel all its energy towards a common goal: to create a space in which researchers, lecturers, students, staff and others can realise their potential to the fullest and contribute to shaping a sustainable and just society.
President
Chancellor
Vice Presidents
Senate
The Senate is the highest academic decision-making body at Witten/Herdecke University. It plays a key role in shaping the university’s strategic direction in teaching, degree programmes and research. The Senate’s responsibilities are set out in the Higher Education Act of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the University Statutes and Regulations of Witten/Herdecke University. The Senate comprises members from all academic units and staff categories at the university.
The Senate
- plays a part in the appointment of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board,
- comments on the university development plan, the financial plan and the medium-term corporate framework plan submitted by the Executive Board,
- co-decides on the University Statutes and Regulations,
- adopts framework regulations and other regulations, as well as amendments thereto,
- discusses reports from the Executive Board,
- decides on the appointment of professors and
- confer academic honours.
Members of the Senate
Chair of the Senate
- Prof. Dr Sabine Bohnet-Joschko, Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
Members of the Senate
- Prof. Dr Hagen Bachmann, Faculty of Health
- Prof. Dr Nils Christian Bormann, Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
- Prof. Dr Renate Buschmann, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale
- Moritz Ehrenreich, Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
- Maximilian Gill, Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
- Prof. Dr Marzellus Hofmann, Faculty of Health
- Prof. Dr Dr Andree Piwowarczyk, Faculty of Health
- UMD Prof. Ingo Reihl, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale
- Prof. Dr Dirk Sauerland, Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
- Johannes Seeberger, University-wide Faculty Representation
- Julia Stronski, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale
- Prof. Dr Claus Volkenandt, WittenLab. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale
- Amelie Wedding, Faculty of Health
- Dirk Wirth, Head of Quality Management
- Prof. Dr Stefan Zimmer and Prof. Dr Margareta Halek, Faculty of Health
Advisory members
- Prof. Dr Martin Butzlaff, President
- Prof. Dr Jan Ehlers, vice president
- Dr Dirk Jakobs, vice president
- Jan Peter Nonnenkamp, Chancellor
- Prof. Dr Petra Thürmann, vice president
Works Council Member
- Prof. Dr Gebhard Reiss
Associates of Witten/Herdecke University and their authorised representatives
The associates of UW/H (Private University of Witten/Herdecke gGmbH) are charitable foundations and organisations affiliated with the university. The three largest associates are the Software AG Foundation, the Stiftung Private Universität Witten/Herdecke and IWU gGmbH – the Business Initiative for Witten/Herdecke University.
- Software AG Foundation
Sebastian Bauer (Project Manager) - Stiftung Private Universität Witten/Herdecke
Dr Katrin Wulf (Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees)
Malte Werner (Managing Director) - IWU gGmbH – Business Initiative for the Witten/Herdecke University
Dr Hanno Bästlein (Managing Director)
Dr Daniel Schütt (Managing Director) - Witten/Herdecke StudierendenGesellschaft e.V.
Nils Luerweg (Member of the Executive Board)
Noëlle Hilpert (Member of the Executive Board) - Herdecke Community Hospital gGmbH
Christian Klodwig (Managing Director)
Prof. Dr Alfred Längler (Medical Director)
Supervisory Board
On 1 December 2009, Witten/Herdecke University established a Supervisory Board comprising renowned leaders and experts from the worlds of business, academia, education and healthcare. Elected by the university’s associates, the Supervisory Board acts as a neutral administrative body to oversee and monitor the activities of the Executive Board.
Members of the Supervisory Board
- Dr Janosch Dahmen ( Chair of the Supervisory Board)
Member of the German Bundestag for the Alliance 90/The Greens party, Medical Director and Senior Consultant in the Medical Management of the Berlin Ambulance Service for the Berlin Fire Brigade, and a graduate of the University of Bochum (UW/H) - Dr Sandra Wolf (Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board)
Managing Partner at Riese & Müller GmbH - Radoslav Albrecht
Entrepreneur, founder and managing director of Bitbond GmbH and graduate of UW/H - Dr Katrin Käufer
Programme Director of Impact Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Managing Director/Co-founder of the Presencing Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA, and graduate of UW/H - Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Heinz-Peter Mansel
Director of the Institute for International and Foreign Private Law at the University of Cologne - Prof. Dr Beate Schücking
President of the German Student Services Organisation (DSW), Professor (emeritus) of Health and Disease Studies and Psychosomatics at the University of Osnabrück, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leipzig - Katharina Weghmann
Partner at EY Forensic & Integrity Services, Head of Integrity
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees of Witten/Herdecke University comprises leading figures from the worlds of business and culture, politics and academia, as well as from the fields of teaching and professional practice. They are all united by their enthusiasm for supporting the university in the long term and for playing an active part in its work. As members, they support the university both financially and in kind. They act as partners to the Executive Board, providing advice on matters of funding and strategic direction; as sources of ideas, they help bring about innovation within the university; and as mentors, they pave the way for new projects. They also see themselves as ambassadors for the university to the outside world. Every two years, the Board of Trustees organises a highly endowed funding competition and supports research projects and student initiatives at UW/H with up to 20,000 euros.
Executive Board of the Board of Trustees of Witten/Herdecke University: Andrea Psarski and Jan G. Sprakel (Photo: UW/H)
Curators
- Andrea Psarski (Chair of the Board of Trustees)
Sparkasse Witten - Jan G. Sprakel (Chair of the Board of Trustees)
KAMAT Pumpen GmbH & Co. KG, Witten - Tobias Bachmüller
Katjes Fassin GmbH & Co. KG, Emmerich - Dr Hanno M. Bästlein
BestLine Private Foundation, Vienna, Austria - Prof. Dr Birgit Hailer
Katholisches Klinikum Essen GmbH, Essen - Sonja Leidemann
Werner Richard – Dr Carl Dörken Foundation, Herdecke - Dirk Leistner
Mayor of the City of Witten - Jens Reidel
RIGI Family Office AG, Rotkreuz, Switzerland - Prof. Dr Christa Rohde-Dachser
International Psychoanalytic University (IPU), Berlin - Prof. Dr Dr Karl-Ulrich Rudolph
IREM gGmbH (in formation), Witten - Dr Katja Strauss-Köster
Former Mayor of Herdecke, Member of the German Bundestag - Prof. Dr Burkhard Ubrig
Augusta-Kranken-Anstalt gGmbH, Bochum - Dr Britta Wurm
Britta and Peter Wurm Foundation, Remscheid - Dr.-Ing. Peter Wurm,
, Britta and Peter Wurm Foundation, Remscheid
Honorary trustees
- Peter Pohlmann
LiVest, Bergkamen - Christa Thoben
Former Minister, Bochum
Wittener Universitätsgesellschaft e. V. (WUG)
The Wittener Universitätsgesellschaft e. V. was founded in 1998 with the aim of forging closer ties between the town of Witten, the Ennepe-Ruhr district, the central Ruhr region and the university. Since its inception, the WUG has supported the university’s and its students’ social engagement, as well as research and teaching, in a variety of ways. The WUG is organised as a registered association.
Executive Board
- Ulrich Heinemann
Chair - Jasmin Vogel (Kulturforum Witten)
Deputy Chair - Sebastian Benkhofer ( Witten/Herdecke University)
Second Deputy Chair - Klaus Völkel (City of Witten – Department for Employment, Health Management, Technology Transfer and University Development)
Managing Director - Uwe Schulze-Vorwick (Board Member of Volksbank Bochum Witten eG)
Treasurer - Martina Knop (Witten/Herdecke University)
Secretary
Extended Executive Committee
- Ortwin Aufermann
- Prof. Dr Martin Butzlaff (President of Witten/Herdecke University)
- Christian Geier (solicitor and notary, Kleingarn and Geier law firm, Witten)
- Britta Koch (Witten/Herdecke University)
- Christian Kroell
- Dirk Leistner (Mayor of the City of Witten)
- Klaus Lohmann (former Mayor of Witten)
- Dr Edeltraud Priddat (Honorary Board Member)
- Radomir Zecevic (Managing Director of TIME TRAX GmbH, Witten)
Stiftung Private Universität Witten/Herdecke
The aim of the Stiftung Private Universität Witten/Herdecke is to ensure the academic independence and financial stability of Witten/Herdecke University. The donated funds are invested in accordance with a sustainable investment strategy. As the university’s second-largest shareholder, the foundation safeguards the university’s private self-administration.
Executive Board
- Malte Werner
- Lara Werdehausen
- Kai Inboden
Faculty student councils and student representative bodies
The faculty student councils and student representative bodies at UW/H bring students’ interests, suggestions and concerns to the university’s self-administration bodies. They shape, promote and coordinate issues relating to university and academic policy, as well as students’ social, cultural and community engagement.
Students organise themselves into the following student representative bodies, which are divided by field of study:
- Faculty Student Council for Medicine and Nursing
- Faculty Student Council for Psychology
- Faculty Student Council for Dentistry
- Student Representative Body of the Faculty of Management, Economics and Society
The faculty student councils for Psychology and for medicine and Nursing Science represent the interests of students in the Faculty of Health within the faculty student council.
Other administrative bodies
In addition to the bodies and administrative bodies listed above, the UW/H has:
- Faculty Councils, each of which is the highest body responsible for resolutions within its respective faculty
- Faculty Offices, which serve as the central administrative and coordinating bodies for the departments
- Examination boards, which ensure compliance with the examination regulations and oversee the proper conduct of examinations
- Doctoral and Habilitation Committees, which carry out the tasks defined in the rules of procedure and doctoral degree regulations of the faculties, as well as in the Habilitation Regulations of the UW/H
- Research commissions, which promote and coordinate the research activities of the chairs and other research institutions
- the Ethics Committee, an independent association which assesses research projects involving living organisms from ethical, legal and social perspectives