University of Leipzig elects new Rector

For the first time, a woman will head the University of Leipzig

At the University of Leipzig, the Rector's Office is being re-staffed today. For the first time in the more than 600-year history of the University of Leipzig, a woman will take over the post. Because the election will take place between the 56-year-old Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. phil. Sabine E. Kunst, President of the University of Potsdam and 54-year-old Prof. Dr. med. med. Beate A. Schücking from the University of Osnabrück.

Applicants introduce themselves
One of the two applicants will be the successor of Prof. Dr. med. Franz Hauser. Prof. Häuser was 65 years old in August and retires this year. Already on Saturday, the applicants had presented publicly for the first time. As part of today's rector's election, one of the two will be named head of the University of Leipzig for five years. The inauguration is expected to take place on 2 December, the so-called „This academicus“ (academic holiday).

Former Rector leaves big footprints
The footsteps left by Professor Franz Häuser, which are to be filled by the applicants, provide a certain amount of awe. With growing success, he had established the University of Leipzig in recent years as an outstanding educational institution. At the same time, Prof. Hauser was often in dispute with the university policy of the Saxon state government - even when it came to the plans for a balanced offer in the higher education sector. „This mosaic“, what would result from the balanced offer, „is a provincial country perspective“, explained Prof. Häuser and pushed back a little provocatively: „If we as a university are looking for international partners, then we can not score points with a balanced Saxon format. It does not itch and interest anyone.“ In addition, Prof. Hauser was always critical of the austerity policies of the state government. Even if no savings are currently planned in the universities, the expert fears from 2013 a massive job cuts, especially the „smaller areas“, in which the University of Leipzig can look back on a good history would be negative.

Both applicants are highly qualified
So big tasks are waiting for one of the applicants. Where the CV of both ladies makes them appear as suitable for the position. Born in 1956, studied human medicine Prof. Dr. med. med. Beate A. Schücking Beate A. Schücking is a psychotherapist as well as a trained general practitioner. She worked for several years as a research associate at the Universities of Paris and Marburg in the field of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation / hematology and later worked at universities in Munich and Osnabrück.

From 2005 to 2009 she was vice-president for research and promotion of young scientists at the University of Osnabrück and is currently Dean of the Department of Health Sciences in Osnabrück. The applicant, born in 1954, Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr. phil. Sabine E. Kunst, studied biology / chemistry and political science / philosophy and received her doctorate in 1982 and 1990. In addition, she completed her habilitation in 1990 at the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying at the University of Hanover. She carried out several scientific activities in Hanover, Darmstadt and the Federal Environment Agency as well as in South Africa and Bolivia , took a teaching position in Hamburg in 1991 and has been President of the University of Potsdam since 2007. Both applicants therefore bring extensive experience from a wide range of disciplines and regardless of the outcome of the Rector's election, it can already be said that the first woman at the head of Leipzig University will in any case be highly qualified for the job. (fp, 16.11.2010)