The University of Passau is a young university, located on a verdant campus on the banks of the river Inn. It enjoys an excellent reputation in research and teaching, a fact that is shown not least in its recent successes in the Times Higher Education Rankings, which put it among the best 20% of universities worldwide. Some 12,000 students, including 1,500 international students, are currently enrolled in the University’s 39 undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes. The University is comprised of four faculties – Law, Economics, Business and Information Systems, Arts and Humanities (with the Department of Catholic Theology), and Computer Science and Mathematics.
 | Humanities and social sciences |
 | Law |
 | Economics |
 | Computer Science and Mathematics |
 | 4 faculties |
 | 13,000 students |
 | 124 professors (chairs, professorships, junior professorships) |
 | 683 researchers / 462 research supporting staff |
ProfiLehrePlus is a consortium project of all Bavarian universities, which receives funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education. Under the auspices of Passau's LEHRE+ higher education didactics unit, part of the Centre for Careers and Competencies (ZKK), the University of Passau seeks to establish training programmes for university teachers under this project. The ProfiLehrePlus concept, outlined in the consortium proposal, provides for the creation of a stronger profile of higher education didactics at the University. To this end, the programme will be further developed and divided into the following subject and specialisation areas:
- Certificate of legal didactics ('Zertifikat Juristische Didaktik Universität Passau') and
- Digital media didactics in the context of the University's digitalisation efforts ('Themenzertifikat E-Learning').
The University of Passau intends to enrich the Bavarian higher education didactics programme by further refining these areas by providing advanced, thematic and subject-specific courses. In addition to the above, LEHRE+ offers the 'Zertifikat Hochschullehre der bayerischen Universitäten' with 120 training units and, since winter semester 2015–16, 'Zertifikat Vertiefungsstufe' with 200 training units.
The specific course offerings are the result of extensive co-operation with the University's central units and experts, specifically the Centre for Information Technology and Media Services (ZIM) and the teaching professorships for the didactics of law, as well as the expertise of the ProfiLehrePlus co-ordinators.
The aim of the project is to heighten the visibility of higher education didactics at the University by increasing the number of training courses available to teaching staff and by engaging in profile-building. The University seeks, furthermore, to further boost its attractiveness as a place of subject- and focus-related university didactics for internal and external lecturers.
Passau's LEHRE+ higher education didactics centre works together closely with its consortium partners and the central coordinating office at Universität Bayern e.V. within the ProfiLehrePlus project. It is actively involved in the further development of teaching quality standards for the whole of Bavaria.
Work packages:
- Further development of the modular foundation programme
- Long-term continuation of co-operation with partners both within (with regard to the subject/focus-related certificate programmes) and outside the University (with regard to the further development of Bavaria-wide quality standards and co-ordination in profile building)
- Continuous evaluation of requirements
- Development of measures to motivate all teaching staff to seek further qualifications in the field of higher education didactics
- Expansion of Didactic Advisory and Executive Coaching offers for Professors
- Specialised further training for the co-ordinators at the University of Passau
- Publication activity