Shaping the Future of Higher Education

For more than ten years now, the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences has been organising conferences with a focus on excellence and innovation in teaching. The first Academic Development Conference regards itself as an international networking forum for the promotion of teaching and learning in the tertiary sector. Approximately 100 experts – most of them from the German-speaking countries – exchanged their views on innovative methods and strategic teaching development here on 27 February 2025. The ADC was opened by Elmar Pichl, Head of the Section for Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

_{Group photo (from left to right): Lisa David (Head of LEARN, St. Pölten UAS), Elmar Pichl (Section Head for Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research), Eva Werner (President of AQ Austria), Johann Haag (CEO of the St. Pölten UAS), Alois Frotschnig (Chairperson of St. Pölten UAS Board)© Philine Pils}

“The objective of the Academic Development Conference is to create an international community that essentially deals with teaching and learning at a strategic level. This requires exchange with different academic cultures”, explains Lisa David, initiator of this new conference format and Head of the Service and Competence Center for Teaching/Learning Development and Educational Offers (LEARN) at the St. Pölten UAS.

This format is geared specifically to experts committed to high quality in teaching. These include, e.g., teaching/learning experts, learning designers who systematically plan and develop teaching contents, curriculum developers, and staff members of vice rectorates for teaching.

Higher Education in Progress

The Academic Development Conference offered room for sharing ideas and for inspiration concerning transformative changes in tertiary education. It also promoted international collaboration.

“In addition to offering specialist lectures, we succeeded in developing joint solutions for diverse strategic decisions by means of exchange-promoting formats such as the Community of Practice. For example, we discussed the opportunities and challenges of teaching awards from multiple perspectives. The question of how teaching competence can be determined in appointment processes led to concrete strategies for action”, says Josef Weißenböck, Section Head for Higher Education Didactics at the St. Pölten UAS, the person responsible for planning and organising the conference.

Diverse Formats

With Miriam Barnat from FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences (Germany), the St. Pölten UAS was able to win a renowned expert in the field of teaching for the event’s keynote speech. The professor of quality development in higher education didactics and innovative teaching/learning methods spoke about a theory for higher education institutions in the German-speaking area that find themselves at the interface of tradition and transformation.

In the subsequent presentations, lighting talks, and workshops, the participants had the opportunity to choose between four different tracks:

• Structural conditions of teaching/learning development
• Curriculum development and innovation
• Digital transformation in teaching/learning contexts
• International perspectives & collaboration

In order to facilitate international participation, the morning programmes were held in either hybrid or online form. To this end, the English-language track “International Perspectives & Collaboration“ was introduced with an online keynote by Beate Treml (OeAD). It opened up diverse paths for the internationalisation of curricula.

The other tracks and on-site exchange formats took place at the Campus St. Pölten throughout the day.