Apart from our activities in study guidance, lending out old exams/transcripts and organizing many events (Introduction Week, Summer Festival, LaTeX course…), we participate in a lot of committees and boards at the department and the university. This work mostly happens in the background, which is why we want to present a choice of some committees to you here.

If you ever have a question which can best be answered by a member of a certain committee, you can find a complete overview of the committee members at the Department of Physics here. Alternatively, the Student Council can also make contact; for that, just visit us or write us an email.

The student members in the committees

In the following overview, all student members of the committees at the Department of Physics are listed. Those members which are also active in the Physics Student Council are linked with their corresponding personal pages.

 

Committee	Student members
Department Council (FBR)	Johanna Jakob, Pia Tolksdorf, Hauke Hawighorst Deputy: Philipp Bremer, Lambert Thüner, Hannah Zimmer
Studienbeirat	Hauke Hawighorst, Alexander Tiekötter, Moritz Wehmeier, Jasemin Borggreve, Simone Wessel, Lambert Thüner, Pia Tolksdorf, Lennart Frühling Deputy: Hannah Zimmer, Benedikt Bieringer, Philipp Bremer, Constantin Eckers, Alexander Neuwirth, Tim Stellhorn, Michael te Vrugt, Christoph Wesseler
Prüfungskommission für den Bachelor/Master Physik und Geophysik	Hauke Hawighorst, Simone Wessel Deputy: Christoph Wesseler
Promotionsausschuss	Lambert Thüner
Kommission für Forschung und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs (KFWN)	Hauke Hawighorst, Christoph Wesseler
Bibliothekskommission	Benedikt Bieringer
Gleichstellungskommission	Janice Bode, Moritz Wehmeier Deputy: Eva Hausch, Lambert Thüner
IVV4-Expertenrunde	Benedikt Bieringer

Moreover, some members of the Student Council are members in committees of the university (i. e. of the rectorate and Senate). You can view this at the individual member pages of the Student Council.

Committees at the Department of Physics

The highest decision-making committee at the department is the Department Council (Fachbereichsrat, or FBR for short). In this committee, the department’s budget, all exam regulations, applications for quality improvement funds and many more things concerning the department are decided. However, a large part of the proceedings and the formulation of proposals is not prepared here, but in committees which are appointed by the Department Council, such as:

• The Advisory Committee for Studies deals with topics directly related to studying; among those is the development and improvement of the study programs. If there are any fundamental problems with a program, the members can be contacted directly and asked to introduce the concerns and reports into the Advisory Committee for Studies to be discussed. Proposals for projects which are planned to be funded through quality improvement funds are also collected and assessed here.

  The Advisory Committee for Studies takes over the tasks of the former KLSA and extended KLSA.

• The Committee for Research and Young Academics (KFWN) decides on PhD graduation stipends.

  Awarding of the Infineon Master Award and Infineon Graduation Prize is decided by the Infineon Choice Committee.

• The members of the Library Committee determine which journals the department orders or subscribes to. To this end, members of all institutes are members of the committee.
• The Exam Comittee deals with concrete requests by students and complaints.
• In the IVV4 Experts Group, the members of the IVV4 (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) exchange information about IT developments in the involved working groups.

Committees at the University of Münster

The Senate of the University of Münster is responsible for fundamental matters or affairs concerning the university as a whole. Among those are the areas of research, art, teaching and studies. In particular, this includes enacting regulations which apply not only to individual departments, responsibility for the WWU’s constitution and making decisions about departments’ appointment proposals. Moreover, the Senate has to confirm the rectorate’s election by the University Council. It possesses the right to make proposals for the appointment of the chancellor. In order to prepare decisions in the Senate and to advise the rectorate, there are various permanent and ad-hoc committees:

• The Committee for Teaching and Student Affairs (KLS) deals with (similar to the Advisory Committee for Studies on the departmental level) topics which directly concern studies. Among these are also the framework regulations (i. e. the central guidelines in study programs for teachers).
• The Quality Improvement Committee (QVK) is responsible for the central allocation of quality improvement funds (QVM). The QVM are public funds in NRW for the improvement of teaching and study conditions. They were introduced as a replacement for tuition fees.
• The IT Committee discusses topics related to the IT infrastructure at the university (analogously to the IVV4 Experts Group) and recommends regulations and resolution templates to the IT Steering Committee.
• The Examination Board according to § 11 subsect. 1 of the Study Fees and University Levies Act was a complaint point and responsible for supporting the “Brennpunkt Lehre”. This portal can still be reached, although the committee has been disbanded in the course of abolishing tuition fees. Here, problems with your studies (e. g. related to mandatory attendance in teacher’s programs which have essentially been abolished now) or misuse of the semester fee can be reported. This is also possible anonymously, which of course excludes the opportunity for feedback.

The rectorate decided to instate the following rectorate committees as a replacement for the Senate committees which were disbanded in 2010. Two of the 13 members in each committee are students.

• Rectorate Committee for Junior Researchers (RKWN): Development and conception of structured offers and supervision for PhD students, graduate schools and the postdoc phase (qualification for and by junior professorships; young researcher groups; habilitation positions etc.).
• Rectorate Committee for Research Matters (RKF): Intra-university research funding on all levels (including students); e. g. criteria for the distribution of overhead funds, Kriterien für die Verteilung der Overheadmittel, own share for third-party-funded research projects.
• Rectorate Committee for Internationalization (RKI): Internationalization of teaching (internationalization at home, mobility incoming/outgoing, …); recruitment of international students and recruitment of international students and researchers; development of a concept for the evolution of the WWU’s international profile on the foundation of existing partnership contracts.
• Rectorate Committee for Strategic Planning (RSP): Observation and supervision of the strategic planning in the departments, especially assignment and re-assignment of positions and performance measurement; complaint management; comprehensive measures of quality assurance such as observation and analysis of external evaluations (rankings) as long as these do not intersect with the Coordinating Committee for Evaluation’s area of responsibility.
• Finance Committee (of the Senate)

Further, there are some university committees and user groups which have taken over very specific tasks, such as:

• The cHL User Group is an association of representatives from the departments, the ZIV and the university library (ULB) such as two students who are elected by the Senate. Among its tasks are the coordination of e-learning offers, advising the relevant university committees and assisting users of e-learning systems. The departmental representatives are usually the direct contact persons in the departments as well.
• The University Committee for Art and Culture (KuK) was disbanded at the end of 2012 and has now been transformed into a rectorate staff position.