Reichert Consulting for Higher Education offers more than 25 years of international expertise in higher education development, conducting policy and trend studies for university and research sector organisations, as well as coaching strategy development and organisational change at universities across Europe and beyond.
To help European and national higher education organisations and universities address their own development aims, Reichert Consulting fills a frequently observed gap in higher education expertise: the need to address central questions of strategy and organisational development in view of the wider international context of higher education policy and innovative practices at other universities.
Commissioned by the City of Nürnberg (Wirtschaftsförderung der Stadt Nürnberg), Reichert presents her proposal for an Innovation Strategy at the City Council of Nürnberg.
Innovation Strategy Münster and Münsterland: Moderating the multi-stakeholder strategy process, Reichert supported the regional stakeholder group comprising the University of Münster, the Münster University of Applied Sciences, the FFB Fraunhofer Battery Production Research Institute, the city and regional authorities of Münster, as well as the local chamber of commerce, in formulating strategic priorities for a science-driven innovation region in the midst of its European region (EUREGIO). The close strategic interaction and joint ventures of the local stakeholders will help position the innovation region internationally as a hub for the twin transition of digital and sustainable transformation. The universities and research institutes are acting as transformation motors and key agents in moderate these complex multi-stakeholder transformation processes.
The leadership group developed a common vision and strategic priorities and measures for furthering the internationally competitive strengths and potential of its science-driven innovation environment.
The key findings and recommendations of Reichert Consulting’s Evaluation Study of Tenure Track Professorships and New Hiring Procedures in Austria: Neue Wege zur Professur in Österreich. Chancen der institutionellen Steuerung und individuellen Laufbahnentwicklung mit den neuen Berufungs- und Auswahlverfahren nach §99 Abs.4 und Abs.5 Universitätsgesetz. Evaluationsstudie im Auftrag des BMBWF) were presented and discussed at a Conference with University Leadership of Austria’s 22 universities. Commissioned by the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Research, Reichert evaluated the new professorial hiring procedures and career tracks that have been introduced in Austria in 2016, with the aim of improving access to and international competitiveness of professorial positions. The legislative innovation proved to be an asset for strategic steering by the universities, improving access to international talent at an earlier career stage and the proportion of female professors. While the portfolio of professorial positions is now widely seen to offer a flexible set of different professorships, some further attention to staff development and onboarding are among the recommendations for improvements.
Reichert supports one of the successful European University Alliances, Young University for Europe (YUFE), in enhancing the governance of the alliance, developing its strategy on governance, incl. stakeholder analysis, strategy workshop and report with strategy recommendations. With a joint mission of institutional transformation, European University Alliances are facing important governance challenges of alignment and synchronous decision-making and change management in diverse legal and cultural frameworks. Reichert Consulting helped one of the successful European University Alliance of the first round of the EU’s grant competition (under Erasmus+) to address such challenges and develop consensus on a future governance structure.
Effectiveness of Strategic Priority Area as Steering Instrument: Reichert chaired International Panel of their Evaluation at NTNU, Norway
For more than a decade NTNU has been successfully supporting a carefully selected set of particularly strong and internationally visible research and technology areas as institutional strategic priorities, with the aim of supporting interdisciplinary research and education as well as international visibility of these strong overarching research areas. With an in-depth analysis and external view, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology wanted to assess the effectiveness of its Strategic Priority Areas as a strategic steering instrument. As chair of the international evaluation panel, Reichert helped design the evaluation process, questionnaires and was responsible for the final report of the panel which comprised outstanding international experts from the different research areas. The external panel’s report served as stimulus for the adaptation of the SPA instrument for future strategic development cycles.
Chair of Institutional Review of Vilnius University, Lithuania
Reichert chaired the International Panel which was responsible for the institutional review report as part of the reaccreditation process that is legally required by the national external institutional review procedures and implemented by the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education – SKVC. As part of Lithuanian quality assurance, all universities are regularly reaccredited.
Member of the Steering Committee of the European Commission’s Project Knowledge Ecosystems in the new European Research Area: This study addresses the need for a strengthened European Research Area (ERA) through an enhancement of the Knowledge Ecosystems or ERA Knowledge Hubs across Europe and their interconnections. By collecting strategic intelligence and piloting potential measures, the study contributes to the implementation of the ERA Communication specifically in relation to four of its strategic priorities: ’Nourishing talents for excellence’, ‘European Research Career Framework’, ‘Strengthening the public science system through synergies with the European Education Area’, and ‘Strengthening innovation ecosystems for knowledge circulation and valorisation’. The study investigates the organisation and spread of ecosystems at EU, national, regional and local levels, the role of universities and research organisations, the circulation of knowledge by individual researchers and innovation talents, and the potential legal and financial measures to support research careers and cooperation. It consists of a set of in-depth analysis on the above mentioned themes that can be downloaded here.
Innovation Board of StartMiUp – Example of good practice of inter-institutional start-up network. As member of the Innovation Board of StartMiUp – the joint inter-institutional Startup network of the Universities of Marburg and Gießen and the Technical Universtiy of Applied Science of Mittelhessen – was able to witness how an excellent third party-funded cluster project (ministry supporting new start-up structures through “EXIST”) is becoming a sustainable thriving network start-up service network supporting entrepreneurial mind set and offering excellent support for start-ups from ideation to venture capital competitions.
Excellence strategies and innovative universities
Enabling institutions to embrace teaching and learning innovation
Universities as key orchestrators of innovation networks
Enhancing strategic capacity and dynamic participation