Model IUB: The university as a modern company

On 17 November 2005 IUB invited thirty medium-sized corporations of the region to take a look behind the scenes of its business administration. The focus of the workshop was on modern data handling and efficient administration processes.

[ Nov 17, 2005]  Many German state-run universities struggle with offering efficient, customer-oriented administration due to years of fragmented self-administrational organization. In addition they now face a new challenge in data handling caused by the transformation of their study programs according to the Bologna resolution and the installation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

At IUB students have been studying according to the Anglo-American system right from the start. Also, after four years in academic operation, with a balance sheet total of 214 million Euros, about 330 employees, and more than 900 students from 85 different nations, IUB is on the verge of becoming a large-scale enterprise. From the out-set IUB’s administration has been designed to achieve the best efficiency and service possible.

To attain this goal IUB’s model mainly rests on a well-structured exchange of information between all people involved, which necessitated the introduction of new technical and software solutions to handle the university’s complexity.

How can a university function as a privately owned, non-profit enterprise? How can governance be optimised? How can administrative budgets be minimized so that more resources become available for research and teaching? These are the core questions that will be addressed during the workshop by representatives of IUB’s business administration and the Bremen firm xax managing data & information GmbH, which established IUB’s administration data software.