The University Council plays a significant role in helping to manage the University and develop it further. Under the University’s Constitution, it is made up of thirteen members, at least six of whom must be women. Four members must come from within and nine from outside the University of Bonn.
The members of the University Council advise the Rectorate and supervise its management activities. The University Council’s duties also include helping to elect and deselect members of the Rectorate. It receives regular reports from the Rectorate about any changes in the University’s budgetary situation and signs off the budget. The body also makes recommendations regarding the University Development Plan.
Continuity was very much the watchword when the bodies involved came to elect the new University Council, with ten existing members retaining their places. By way of a resolution by the University Senate, however, three new seats were added. These have been filled by: Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge, Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Bonn; Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, former Minister of Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia; and Dr. Georg Schütte, Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation. They were elected back in December 2022.
The new University Council thus comprises:
External members:
Prof. Dorothee Dzwonnek, Honorary Professor at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer and former Secretary General of the German Research Foundation
Prof. Dr. Dieter Engels, Honorary Professor at the German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer and former President of the Federal Court of Auditors
Dr. Claudia Lücking-Michel, Managing Director of AGIAMONDO e.V., former parliament member of the German Bundestag
Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, former Minister of Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia
Ilona Schmiel, Director of Tonhalle Society Zurich
Dr. Georg Schütte, Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation
Prof. Dr. Helmut Schwarz, former President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Dr. Katrin Vernau, Director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb)
Prof. Dr. E. Jürgen Zöllner, Board Chairman of the Charité Foundation, former State Minister
Internal members:
Prof. Dr. Marion Gymnich, Department of English, American, and Celtic Studies, Co-Speaker for the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies Cluster of Excellence
Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge, Department of Geography, Chair of the Earth Sciences section
Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz, Institute for Innate Immunity, Co-Speaker for the ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence
Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller, Hausdorff Center for Mathematics, Speaker for the Collaborative Research Center “The Mathematics of Emergent Effects”