Board of Governors

Members

• Jürgen Kaube
  Publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• Prof Dr Hans-Jürgen Kirsch
  Director at the Institute of Accounting and Auditing in the School of Business and Economics at the University of Münster
• Prof Dr Alexander Kurz
  Advisory Committee of the Munich-based Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in charge of Human Resources, Legal Affairs and IP Management
• Präses Dr hc Annette Kurschus
  Praeses of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia
• Prof Dr Janbernd Oebbecke (deputy chairperson)
  Prof Emeritus of Public Law and Administrative Sciences at the University of Münster
• Prof Dr Heidrun Thaiss
  Executive director of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA)
• Dr Elke Topp (chairperson)
  Director at the Court of Audit of Rhineland-Palatinate, member of the board
• Prof Dr Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf
  Professor of Modern German Literary History in the German Studies Department of the University of Münster

General Information

Boards of governors were established at universities through the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as a new statutory body when the Higher Education Autonomy Act (HFG) went into effect on 1 January 2007. This body was granted key responsibilities and competencies (e.g. electing the Rectorate, approving business and development plans) which are integral for structuring and managing each respective university.

The members of the Board of Governors are appointed to a term of five years in accordance with § 21 sect. 3 HG.

Profile of the Board of Governors

Within the scope of its state-mandated tasks in accordance with § 21, the Board of Governors sees its chief responsibility as providing critical and constructive advice to the Rectorate and other University bodies to a certain degree of abstraction. The Board of Governors wishes to exchange ideas and cooperate with other committees of the University, in particular, the Academic Senate. Furthermore, the Board of Governors endeavours to actively engage in regular dialogue with representatives of the student body.

Working method

The Board of Governors convenes at least four times a year in accordance with its rules of procedure. The members of the Rectorate and the Equal Opportunities Officer are invited to participate at these meetings. The meetings are confidential and not open to the public as stipulated by law.

The meetings of the Board of Governors are generally held in the faculties and institutes of the University. On these occasions, the faculties and institutes are invited to describe their present situation and development plans to the Board of Governors, thereby providing the board with the opportunity to become better acquainted with their working methods, objectives and problems.

At every meeting the chairperson reports on current developments which have relevance to Board of Governors' activities. This is followed by statements by the members of the Rectorate on current issues from their respective areas of responsibility. The members of the Board of Governors use these reports as the basis for their deliberations and recommendations.

The issues most commonly discussed at the Board of Governors meetings include:

• budget and finance plans
• quality development and assurance, information on third-party funding, appointments and dismissals
• higher education development plan
• strategic positioning of the University of Münster in national and international competition
• quality of teaching
• teacher training
• internationalisation
• research
• the Excellence Strategy

The Board of Governors has asked two of its members to address financial and accounting matters and assist the Rectorate with the end-of-the-year financial report. In this function it serves as an informal working group ("Finance Delegation"). On occasion, it also meets with the Head of Administration and his staff prior to a Board of Governors meeting in order to provide the board with as comprehensive and relevant infomation as possible.