Structural development

Digitalisation and globalisation have accelerated our world considerably. We have all felt the repercussions, being expected to cope with a number of new areas of responsibility under increased time pressure. It is part of a university’s essence not only to produce research findings, but also to come up with new ideas, concepts and projects – in such a large and diverse organisation where highly qualified and motivated people do great work every day, knowledge is always in motion.

This is the reason why it is sometimes necessary to re-examine existing structures and adapt them to meet modern requirements. This process was carried out at the faculties of FAU as part of the Faculty evaluation process started in 2013/2104 at the Faculty of Medicine and completed in mid 2018 with the evaluation of the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology.

In the case of University Administration, which is often referred to as the ‘sixth faculty’, the Executive Board chose to carry out an internal structural development process instead of the more traditional evaluation involving external reviewers, as several discussions with employees in administration showed that they tend to be the ones who are most aware of what needs to be improved.

The aim of structural development is to

• help us to establish clear lines of responsibility and prevent duplicate work,
• incorporate new tasks which have either been neglected or have until now been assigned to areas where they do not belong but have become established there over time
• help us to make the service for our faculties even more effective, so that researchers, teaching staff and students can devote more of their time to what they are here to do, namely conduct research, teach and study.

The Executive Board has discussed in depth the subject of where existing structures already cover the challenges we will face in the future or where structures must be adapted to allow us to achieve targets . The result of these discussions was an organisational chart depicting this structural development. Heads of departments have already discussed the planned changes in their area of responsibility with their teams. In addition, the General Staff Council and the FAU Staff Council have submitted initial statements after being closely involved in the process. The University Governing Board also presented the planned changes to the Executive Board in the meeting held on 21 November. The chart can now be published internally.Click to enlarge. As you can see, several of the previous structures have remained unchanged. However, a number of changes have been made to help University Administration continue to provide an improved service in future. Some examples:

• Department S has now become the President’s Staff. This unit is responsible for all matters relating to strategic development at FAU such as internationalisation, strategic projects, appointments, development planning or research and outreach services. Several areas previously located in the Department of Research Services and Research Development (F) have now been moved here.
• The Department of Research Services and Research Development (F) will cease to exist in its previous form. Several research services are highly strategic and have therefore been transferred to the President’s Staff, such as Research Support (previously F3), Research Career Development and Graduate Centre (previously F4), and Knowledge and Technology Transfer and Continuing Education (previously F2).
• Three departments that carry out the main administration tasks, namely Department L – Academic Affairs and Student Services, Human Resources (P) and Finance (H), remain mostly unchanged except for the fact that these departments have gained some new responsibilities and lost others. The Central Office for International Affairs (previously L2), for example, has been transferred to the President’s Staff. An Office for Human Resources Development has been set up in Department P and the Family Service has also been transferred to this department. Third-party funding and legal affairs (previously Office F1) has now been integrated into Finance (H). Two new offices have been created for central procurement and internal invoicing.
• All areas relating to facility management have been consolidated in Department G: in addition to Offices G1, G2, and G3, whose responsibilities in Technical Facility Management remain unchanged, the area of construction administration has been integrated into Infrastructural Facility Management (previously Construction) and Commercial Facility Management (previously H3 – Office of Property Administration).
• The responsibilities of Department M have also been reassigned. Whilst Communications and Press have moved closer to the President’s Staff, areas such as event management or alumni management have closer links to the Outreach Services at the President’s Staff, where they will now be located.
• The Executive Board’s Staff responsible for Collections and Museums oversee the collections at FAU. In particular, they are responsible for updating concepts for and curating collections at FAU as well as managing and coordinating the digitalisation of artefacts in the collections and museums. The central curatorial team and the team temporarily responsible for the Schulmuseum and the History of School Education Collection belong to the EB’s staff.
• In a move to improve organisation, the Office of the Executive Board is now responsible for coordinating all committees. At the same time, having a joint secretary’s office for the President, Chancellor and Vice Presidents is a more efficient solution, improving coordination and making the Executive Board more accessible.
• The Office of Equality and Diversity prepares strategic issues for the Executive Board relating to gender and diversity and provides support to the Women’s representatives in fulfilling their legally defined tasks. This office will continue to work closely with the Family Service located in Human Resources.
• A new unit called Central Services has been set up as a central port of call for overarching tasks in University Administration.

As it is extremely difficult to create a self-explanatory organisational chart for such a complex organisation as University Administration, some questions are sure to arise, and we are currently drafting a new schedule of responsibilities. Please do not hesitate to contact your manager if you have any questions. You can also send your questions directly to the Chancellor or the Chancellor’s office, preferably via e-mail.

We will keep you informed on this website.

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A copy of the new schedule of responsibilities for University Administration valid as of 1 March 2020 will be available above as a PDF to download before the websites about the schedule of responsibilities are amended on 2 March 2020.

Even if the Executive Board at FAU would like to implement improvements as quickly as possible, such structural development processes do require some time. You will find the timeline below, which shows the progress we have already made. Any changes to the timeline will be published immediately on this website.