Minister of Science Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen personally presented Rector Hoch with his certificate of appointment. ”Together with his team, Professor Michael Hoch has achieved a great deal for the University of Bonn in his first term as rector,” she said. “He sets high goals for himself and actively contributes to realizing them—a good example of this is the great success of the University of Bonn in the Excellence Strategy. I am convinced that he will show just as much drive and good instincts in his second term, for which I wish him much success.”
In the fall of 2020, Rector Hoch was elected by the Electoral Assembly of the University of Bonn for a second term of four years. The election had been preceded by an abridged procedure without a call for applications after the Senate and the University Council had invited the incumbent to run again. Rector Hoch successfully led the University of Bonn through the Excellence Strategy competition of the federal and state governments, from which the University emerged as the most successful applicant with six clusters of excellence and with the coveted excellence status. In 2019, Hoch was named ”Higher Education Manager of the Year” by CHE and weekly newspaper Die Zeit. In 2020, he was elected “Rector of the Year” by the members of the German Association of Higher Education Institutions.
On May 1, Rector Hoch will start his second term of office with his new team. The topics of equal opportunity and diversity, sustainability and digitalization will be given even higher priority in the overall strategy for University development. ”Our strategic goal for the coming years is to make the University of Bonn, with its excellent performance in research and teaching and its great potential in diversity, even more of a pacesetter in the major global transformation processes,” Rector Hoch said. “We as the new Rectorate will work together with all University members as well as our regional and global partners to further enhance our very good position in international competition. I am very much looking forward to that.”
Rector Hoch is assisted by Provost Holger Gottschalk, four female vice rectors and two male vice rectors. This is the first time that the Rectorate has been made up of equal numbers of women and men. Prof. Dr. Maren Bennewitz is responsible for digitalization and information management, Prof. Dr. Irmgard Förster for equal opportunity and diversity, Prof. Dr. Birgit Münch for international affairs, Prof. Dr. Klaus Sandmann for studies, teaching and university development, Prof. Dr. Annette Scheersoi for sustainability and Prof. Dr. Andreas Zimmer for research and early-career researchers.
The Chairman of the University Council, Prof. Dr. Dieter Engels, said with regard to the upcoming start of the new term of office: "The Rectorate around Michael Hoch is starting its new term of office with much ambition and momentum. The significant increase in the proportion of women at all hierarchical levels, for example, strengthens our position in the international competition for the best minds, which is key to the overarching strategic goal of permanently placing the University of Bonn among the top universities at home and abroad."