Strategic Goals of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

1. Future-oriented study

Studying at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam enables graduates to meet the demands of the world of work, to help shape it and to change it in the interests of a society that lives sustainably and with equal opportunities for participation. This requires a secure expertise in one's own discipline. In addition, a course of study at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam qualifies students to work together across the boundaries of subjects, cultures, languages and working methods. This is achieved through application-oriented teaching and digital offerings that challenge student activity on both sides of disciplinary boundaries and make practical experience tangible. Interdisciplinarity is a unique selling point of studying at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. With new incentive structures, the university will specifically support innovative teaching formats and the development of sustainable good practice models.

2. Think globally – act regionally

Students of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam experience cosmopolitanism and internationality. Those who cannot go abroad themselves for at least one semester will experience the diversity of cultures through teaching content and projects as well as through the different cultural backgrounds at the university. The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam will establish partnerships that promote a regulated exchange of students in coordinated programs and also enable international encounters and exchanges for employees through staff exchange formats.

3. Interdisciplinary research

The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is expanding its research portfolio through interdisciplinary alliances within and between the three profile lines "Digital Transformation – Urban Futures", "Forming Society" and "Design ∙ Build ∙ Preserve" as well as through projects in individual research. The research and transfer priorities are to be supported by additional research professors in the future. The university will strengthen its young scientists and promote them more systematically. In order to raise the profile of the university, the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam will strengthen its institutional networking and increase its volume of third-party funding.

4. Using knowledge

At the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, knowledge will be linked even more strongly in the future and made accessible to different groups in society. Transfer, foundation and further education will be understood as cross-sectional tasks and will continue to help to make research results and special knowledge usable locally as well as supra-regionally. The university attaches particular importance to facilitating lifelong learning in all the fields it represents and to putting the interdisciplinary findings of its three profile lines into practice. The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam will focus on its relationships with its partners and alumni as well as with the local economy and society.

5. Working well

Interaction at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam should be characterized by trust, respect and appreciation. This applies equally to students and employees. Diversity and heterogeneity is a strength of the university that will continue to grow. At University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, we expect the best from each other - friendliness, tolerance, openness to new things and a willingness to perform. To achieve this, the university relies on internal communication, diversity of perspectives and equal opportunities. It will celebrate its successes and make its progress visible to the outside world.

6. Provide service

The administration, the staff units and the central institutions of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam see themselves as service units with a structured range of services. The university aims to ensure that the majority of all processes follow predefined paths and that handouts, templates and building blocks are available for this purpose. Individual solutions will still have to be found in the future, but these should not take up more than 20 % of the time.

7. Sustainable management

The campus of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is an analog and digital working and living space. Its spatial, technical and infrastructural equipment will be further developed with the goal of accessibility. Digital formats and software solutions will enrich administration, teaching, research and academic continuing education more than before. The university will use work equipment and resources carefully and purposefully. Sustainability – in the ecological, economic and socio-cultural sense – is its guiding principle.